Wheelchair rugby team fights taboo
Whether he’s racing up the court or aiming to deliver a booming hit, Daniel Pitaluga doesn’t hold back.
“I take a lot of pride in excelling in a sport,” he said.
The 30-year-old was athletic and competitive before his spinal-cord injury, and thanks to adaptive sports, he still is. Pitaluga is a member of the Ohio Buckeye Blitz rugby team, a
hard-charging group of men and women who delight in the sound of aluminum-grilled wheelchairs smashing into one another other.
“Let’s call it extreme, strategic bumper cars,” Pitaluga said, grinning.
Buckeye Blitz players put on a show Saturday, participating in a pay-to-play wheelchair rugby tournament co-hosted by the Student Occupational Therapy Association at Ohio State University. Students, therapists and others got to try out the sport and go up against Blitz players during the annual fundraising event at Columbus’ Franklin Park Adventure Center.
“It helps with equipment, maintenance and travel, but we also do it for community awareness,” said Jeremy Finton, a Blitz player and co-director of the Paralympic Sports Club of Columbus. “We want to promote this on a grass-roots level.”
The more people who know about adaptive sports and therapeutic recreation, the better chances are that the information makes its way to those looking to stay active despite paralysis or other mobility-limiting conditions, advocates say.
“It’s the health-andwellness component,” said Finton, 39, who suffered a broken neck in 2001. “When I was in the hospital, nobody told me about this. It took so much time. Years passed, I went through muscle atrophy, all that.”
Finton works for Columbus Recreation and Parks’ Therapeutic Recreation program and enjoys many sports, including road racing. Rugby seems to possess a “taboo” aspect that makes it extra fun.
“People think because you’re disabled, you wouldn’t want to do something like this,” he said. “But you do. You enjoy the speed of it, the force of it. It’s a contact sport.”
Matt Boberek, 25, an occupational-therapy graduate student who played in (and lost) a game against Blitz players on Saturday, said plenty of people with spinal-cord injuries were “daredevils and risk-takers” before they were hurt.
“That part of your personality doesn’t go away,” he said.
Blitz players have helped Boborek and other occupationaltherapy students to prepare for their careers.
“They’re so open, and they want us to understand,” said graduate student Stephanie Janecek, 24. “It’s a great relationship.”
The Buckeye Blitz is part of the U.S. Quad Rugby Association, which supports more than 40 teams and 500 athletes across the country. The 30-year-old association’s motto is to “Smash Stereotypes, One Hit at a Time.”
“We can teach people so much,” said Kevin Stahr, an occupational therapist at OSU’S Wexner Medical Center and the Blitz team’s coach.
Pitaluga said he’s grateful to have learned about adaptive athletics soon after his car accident, while he was still a patient.
“It’s easy to fall into a depressive state,” he said. “Sports is a way to channel that.”
During games, Pitaluga dodges and weaves in his wheelchair, catching and throwing the ball despite not being able to move his fingers.
“Typically once a game, I fall over,” he said. “At full speed.”
rprice@dispatch.com @Ritaprice