San Diego's wheelchair rugby team, the Sharp Edge, won its first two contests in the Division-One national championships in Louisville today. KPBS Reporter Tom Fudge has more.
They call this game Murderball. It's a kind of indoor rugby where all the players are quadriplegics. They play in reinforced wheelchairs that smash into each other and often tip over as players seek to get the ball into the opponent's goal. The Sharp Edge won their first two games today. Andy Cohen, the captain of the San Diego team, says Sharp Edge is expected to do well.
"We're entering as the top seed. So we're hoping to go undefeated throughout the three days of competition and win all five games. And the first two games we dominated pretty easily. So we're off to a good start," he says.
Cohen, a Coronado resident, was one of the players featured in a critically-acclaimed 2005 movie called Murderball. Quadriplegics tend to have limited use of their upper limbs, which allows them to play the game. Cohen played on the U.S. national team which won the Gold Medal at last year's Paralympics in Beijing. Tom Fudge, KPBS news.
