The article below, which ran in the sports section on April 12 in The Daily Campus, did not provide proper attribution and as a result may have misled some readers. For clarification, the author did not interview Mark Zupan. He used quotes from other interviews Zupan had conducted with various media outlets to write his article. Please note this clarification. For a list of sources, please scroll to the bottom.

Mark Zupan led a healthy, normal high school life. He played varsity soccer and football and liked to party. One night, Zupan, along with his long-time friend Christopher Igoe, had too much to drink. Zupan passed out drunk in Igoe’s truck bed. Later, Igoe returned to his truck, drunk, and drove home unaware that Zupan slept in the back. One violent swerve threw Zupan from the truck, leaving him hanging from a tree branch for nearly 13 hours.

By the time Zupan received medical treatment the doctors deemed that he would never walk again.

Much like Zupan, thousands of others have experienced tragedies drastically changing the courses of their lives. For example, Joe Soares, former U.S. murderball all-star and Team Canada coach, and current Team Britain coach, lost his mobility to childhood polio. How do you “bounce back” from an experience that devastating? Initially, most people who become quadriplegics deal with an enormous amount of physical and emotional pain.

Murderball, or quadriplegic rugby, features intense full contact competition in which one team attempts to work a ball similar to a volleyball down the floor to score a goal. The players command a wheelchair equipped with a front bumper and wings which make the wheelchair more difficult to stop and hold.

In his armored wheelchair Zupan appears to feel less like a quadriplegic and more like a battlefield warrior. As it does for so many, the sport helps him direct his competitiveness and provides him with an arena through which he is able to “let off some steam.”

Zupan describes the coping process as “the most difficult thing.”

“It was hard and it wasn’t the easiest thing that we’ve ever dealt with,” he said. “But once you come to grips with your accident or what you’ve gone through and are able to go and focus on something else, then you get to where we are today.”

Zupan heard about the Canadian sport referred to as “murderball” and it redirected his life in a way he couldn’t have imagined.

In the past, Soares has expressed similar sentiments about his life before discovering murderball.

“Up to that time,” said Sores, “I was just totally struggling to find independence coming in and out of the house freely, without any assistance. All this stuff makes you stronger once you survive it.”

Finding murderball and other wheelchair sports helped Soares understand that he still had options and capabilities. For Soares, sports were his “total outlet.”

Zupan was attracted to the game for many reasons.

“The first allure was always the contact. Where else can you hit somebody as hard as you possibly want to or can in a chair?”

Murderball has achieved enormous international success. Today, over 20 countries have national quadriplegic rugby teams that participate in the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics showcase elite sporting that feature athletes from six different disability groups. Unlike the Special Olympics, the events at the Paralympics are competitive and cutthroat.

“We’re not going for a hug. We’re going for a gold medal,” American murderballer Scott Hogsett said.

Over 3,806 athletes from 136 different countries participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. The Games have gained such popularity that its committee decided to create the Winter Paralympics, which just ended in Torino, Italy.

Both quadriplegic rugby and Mark Zupan have become more popular in the past couple of years due to heavy media attention. In 2005, Think Film and MTV released an Oscar-nominated documentary called “Murderball,” which won the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. The film follows Team Canada and Team U.S.A., all the while illustrating the bitter rivalry that exists between them. It also looks into the harsh realities, strong friendships and fascinating experiences that result from paralysis and involvement with murderball.

Everyone wanted a piece of murderball and Zupan. He made appearances on Jay Leno and Larry King Live and the Austin Chronicle featured him on its cover. Zupan expressed little interest in personally profiting from the capital success. He felt that the recognition was beneficial, but in the sense that it helped spread the word of murderball.

Zupan stresses that quadriplegics do not desire special treatment. The publicity provided him with way to inform Americans of his peoples’ disdain regarding this social issue.

Zupan hoped the film would, “make someone say, ‘Hey, I’m going to treat these guys just like normal people. I’m not going to baby them or think they’re different or they need help.’ If we want help, we’ll ask.”

Now that the publicity has calmed down, Zupan and his co-stars have returned to their “normal” lives. For Zupan, that meant returning to Austin, Texas, where he lives with his girlfriend and works as a civil engineer. Zupan also travels to different rehabilitation centers promoting murderball as an activity that helps the handicapped maintain a competitive spirit and a strong sense of pride.

Zupan remains humble and enjoys living his regular life. He views his paralysis as a positive experience, for he never would have participated in any sort Olympic event otherwise.

In life, you don’t always know what to expect. Mark Zupan had no idea that one night of reckless partying would leave him paralyzed, but he dealt with it.

http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/631/631614p1.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/movies/08murd.html?ex=1278475200&en=b8a625d195e3aa78&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

http://www.themoviechicks.com/mid2005/mctmurderball.html

http://www.ugo.com/channels/sports/features/murderball/interview.asp