Image of Kerri Morgan
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
On the day Kerri Morgan turned 1 year old, a virus attacked her spinal cord, causing permanent impairment from the chest down. Life in a wheelchair is all Morgan has ever known, but that hasn’t stopped her from working as a White House intern and then getting a master’s degree from Washington University and teaching in the occupational therapy program there. She started playing quadriplegic rugby, the subject of 2005’s Oscar-nominated documentary Murderball, for fun and to get in shape. When Morgan discovered that she was good at it, she turned her training up a notch. She’s now captain of the St. Louis Rugby Rams and is training to become the first woman on the U.S. Quad Rugby National Team.
Is it hard to be a woman in this sport? Well, there are about 500 quad-rugby players in the U.S., and only about 12 females play competitively. I get a lot of support, but I wouldn’t say I’ve had much nurturing. I’ve trained on my own. Quad rugby is coed; not a lot of people know that. And now the rules are changing. You can send 11 people to any wheelchair world games, but if you want to send 12, the 12th has to be female.
Do you know your competition? I’m friends with a lot of the women. This summer we’re going to host a clinic for women only, then put a women’s team together. I was lucky with the Rugby Rams. When I started playing, we didn’t have a lot of players. They were, like, “Go out there; go learn.” I had no choice but to figure it out rather quickly.
With whom do you train? The St. Louis Rugby Rams—we’re the only team in Missouri. It’s not like playing in the Clayton softball league. There are maybe 35 teams in the United States Quad Rugby Association, so if we want to play, we have to travel.
Where do you play games? We’ve had tournaments at [St. Louis Community College–Meramec] and South County Tech. We do have a hard time getting gym space. People get scared that we’re going to ruin the floor; we really don’t. Our tires leave marks like sneakers do; it’s just rubber.
So you want to be the first woman on the U.S. National Team? That’s my ultimate goal. The next Paralympics are in China in 2008. I might make that. I might be in better position for 2012. The people on the national team have been playing 10 to 15 years; I’ve been playing four. The game takes a lot of athletic ability, but it’s also about technique, knowing where to be and outsmarting the other team. You get that with more playing time.
Do you have a pretty good shot at the national team? They’ve made it very clear that they’re not going to take a woman just to take a woman. In my classification, I’ll probably have to sprint a mile in less than 7 minutes, 40 seconds, and I’ll be tested on ball handling, ball throwing and wheelchair maneuverability skills.
Now that it's the offseason, where do you train in St. Louis?
In the summer, I do triathlons for cross-training. You need to be careful that you’re taking care of your shoulders— rugby puts a lot of stress on your rotator cuff—so you’ll find me in Forest Park, riding my handcycle and pushing my rugby chair up and down the hills.
What are your favorite places to relax? I live downtown, and I like the vibe. There’s a cool wine bar on Washington Avenue. And since I work at the [Wash. U.] medical school, we’ll hang out at Llywelyn’s or other places in the Central West End.
What would you like people to know about physical disabilities? I was happy to see in Murderball that there was no pity factor. It’s just about a bunch of athletes. I’ll be going around in everyday life, and people will say things like, “I don’t know how you do it. If I were you, I wouldn’t be able to manage.” You sit there and think, “Wait a minute—am I really that bad off?” You have a disability, but you still have a life and you can still be a competitive athlete. This sport is not about “Ohhh, you have a disability—why don’t you come play?” It’s more like, “Hey, you want to be an athlete and be serious and come train? Come out and play.”
Quad rugby is a combination of football, hockey and basketball, Morgan says, with full contact possible at any time. The object is to cross an endline with the ball and score points. Players are classified according to level of disability, ranging from 3.5, denoting the highest level of trunk and hand control, down to 0.5. Four players can be on the court, but their classification levels can't total more than 8. The sport is rough, ruthless and exciting.
