The United States Quad Rugby Association’s 1997 National Championships were held April 17 - 20^th in Spokane, Washington. This was the 9th annual National Tournament and was hosted by the local Dukes of St. Luke’s quad rugby team. The weekend brought together 12 of the nations best teams from throughout the United States to compete for national bragging rights.

The road to Spokane was no easy journey for many of the teams that made it there. Each club had to advance through regional and sectional competitions in their area of the country before earning a seed at Nationals. Along the way, many hard battles were fought. In some cases, it was just a matter of one or two points that decided which teams would advance and who would stay home to try another season.

The 12 team tournament included 10 clubs that were National Championship veterans along with two newcomers, X! and the Quake, both from California. The 1996 USQRA National Champions, Sharp Shadow, entered the tournament with an undefeated season of 35-0 and were seeded number one. The #2 seed, Tampa Generals’, only losses of the 96-97 season came at the hands of Sharp and they were gunning for revenge. The Tennessee QuadCrushers were the 3^rd seed and came into Spokane as a crowd favorite. Each of the top three teams had won the National Championship before and had hopes of repeating history.

Seeding for the nine other teams at this years Nationals was as follows: #4-Gulf Coast Hurricanes, #5-Lakeshore Demolition, #6-Casa Colina Buccaneers, #7-New York Strykers, #8-Atlanta Thunder, #9-Boston Pitbulls, #10-California Quake, #11-Daniel Freeman X! and #12-Minnesota Ice, the only other team in the line-up to have won the Championship before (1991). The odds maker predicted some tight games as well as one of the most competitive tournaments in recent history.

Play began Friday morning with each team meeting the other two teams in their pool. These games went pretty much according to seeding with the exception of New York being upset by the newcomer California Quake, 38-43. Another game of interest was the Sharp Shadow vs. Lakeshore Demolition match-up. Sharp was in its first game of the weekend while Lakeshore had already played, and beaten, Minnesota 38-25. From the starting tip-off, Lakeshore played Shadow very tough and quickly attracted the attention of those not playing on the other court. At the half, the score was tied at only 11 points each. When the game resumed, Sharp picked up the pace and slowly dismantled the Demolition. Sharp went on to win 33-22.

Saturday brought on the start of the crossover play that would set the stage for Sunday’s final placing games. Any loss on day two could decide if your team was going to be getting up early or late come Sunday morning. Even for the early bird, having the option of sleeping in come day 3 at Nationals is preferred.

The closest game of the morning session involved the other newcomer to nationals, Daniel Freeman team X!, against the veteran New York Strykers. X! had upset the Colorado Highlanders at sectionals to advance to Nationals and wanted to prove to the rugby world that they were worthy of being there. Both teams traded goals evenly throughout the match, with neither club ever able to lead by more than three points. With the score tied and time running out, New York’s experience in close games would prove to be the difference. With just a couple of tic’s left on the clock, New York scored the winning goal to take the victory over "X!", 34-33.

Saturdays most anticipated game was definitely Tampa vs. Tennessee. The Generals had not lost to the QuadCrushers the entire season although several games were played within a point or two. Tennessee was pumped up and looking for the upset that would put them into their first National Championship game in two years.

Both the Generals and QuadCrushers came out battling hard while playing some of the best rugby of the weekend. As is typical with these two teams, the score was within a point throughout most of the match. In the last period with less than 25 seconds remaining, Tampa controlled the ball and had a 1 point lead. Tennessee was able to hold the Generals in the back-court for a 15 second violation that gave them the ball with just 8 seconds to go.

The inbound went to Wayne Romero who powered his way up the court only to find that Tampa had set up a wall in the key. With the clock at 2 seconds, Wayne had to either go around the wall and risk running out of time or try to go through. He chose to go through and, with no time on the clock, scored the final goal of regulation play tying the score at 28. In overtime, Tennessee took advantage of the momentum that they had gained in regulation and caused a crucial turnover that eventually allowed them to go ahead by a point for the victory. The final score between these two first class clubs was Tennessee 31 Tampa 30.

Sunday brought on the final games of the 1996-97 season. In the consolation game, the Tampa Generals battled the Houston Hurricanes for the 3^rd/4^th place spot. The tip went up and the contest began. Houston concentrated on intensity as their weapon of choice while Tampa relied on confidence. The Hurricanes stayed intense throughout but in the end turnovers helped the Generals pull ahead and win 41-36.

The Championship match put two of the fastest teams in the league against one another for the last game of the season. Indicators pointed to a fast and fierce match-up and it was obvious from the start that the fans were in for a great game. Sharp Shadow has a deep bench and specializes in rotating their players regularly while Tennessee used the momentum of their Saturday victory and their previous championship experience to get them motivated. Shortly into the game, it became clear that control of the ball would be key to winning and both teams knew it.

With both teams utilizing a full court press, players’ chairs were hitting hard with every attempt to advance the ball upcourt. Cliff Chunn was the recipient of a double tag in the second quarter that sent him flying face first to the floor and resulted in a stop of play. A deep gash to the chin of Chunn forced Cliff to the sidelines and raised concerns of both the fans and Tennessee alike. With Cliff out of the game, Shadow began to build a lead that seemed to be putting the game out of reach for Tennessee. At least that’s what everyone thought, except for Tennessee. Going down by as many as 7 points, it looked like the game would be decided well before the end of the 4th period but Tennessee was not done yet.

In the 2^nd half, Tennessee had taped Cliff back together and was well on their way to making up the points that they had lost without him. The score was once again tied up and it seemed that Tennessee might just pull off another big upset. With four minutes left in the game, it was clear that both teams wanted the big trophy and that it was going to be a close finish.

In the final minutes of play, the QuadCrushers caused several turnovers on Shadow scoring attempts only to have Shadow get the ball back before being able to score. Despite Tennessee’s best efforts, they could not get the lead they desperately needed to change the momentum of the game. Sharp Shadow proved they had the skill and won the Championship 41-39.

This victory gave Sharp Shadow their 2nd National title in as many years and provided them with their first perfect season as a club (40-0). The win also provided veteran rugby coach Reggie Richner with his first National Championship.

Congratulations go out to all of the teams and athletes that competed at Nationals. Special thanks go to Teresa Skinner, the Dukes of St. Luke and the city of Spokane for doing a spectacular job hosting the tournament. You all did a wonderful job! Continued thanks go to PVA for their ongoing support to the USQRA and the sport of Quad Rugby.

Reference; Additional Photo's - Final Scores - All Tournament Team

Note: Apologies to the teams not mentioned in this article. It was a matter of writers block that excluded many great games and stories from this article. If you would like to submit a story about your experience at Nationals I will be happy to post them here. Thanks..