An Okotoks teen has parlayed a meteoric rise as a newcomer to wheelchair rugby into a berth at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
Zak Madell, a Grade 12 student at Holy Trinity Academy, was named to the 12-person Canadian wheelchair rugby team for the 2012 Games, despite less than a year-and-a-half of experience practicing the sport.
“Two years ago I never thought I’d even be playing wheelchair rugby and here I am playing the sport at the highest level internationally,” Madell said.
“It’s been quite a journey so far.”
The journey took a detour for Madell at a young age.
A septic staph infection put Madell in the hospital at the age of 10 and led to the amputation of his fingers and legs, followed by six months of recovery.
Rather than dwell on his fate, Madell’s resolve to participate in athletics was only strengthened.
“When I was younger I used to play a lot of sports,” he said. “I played soccer for a while, baseball, quite a bit of basketball and then lacrosse before I got my infection when I was 10. Once I got out I tried to get back into sports as quickly as I could.”
However, finding the right sport was initially quite a challenge.
“I started out with sledge hockey, but because I wasn’t able to grab the sticks, I had to
duct-tape them and it just didn’t really work out very well,” Madell said.
“I was a wheelchair basketball player and before I would have people trying to recruit me just to come out and try wheelchair rugby. One day I went out, tried the sport and fell in love with it.”
Madell, who played for the Junior National team in wheelchair basketball, said he loves the physical nature of wheelchair rugby.
“When I was younger I played lacrosse and always enjoyed that because it’s a rough sport,” Madell said. “Getting back into that is kind of fun.”
His ascension into the upper echelon of wheelchair rugby can be attributed in part to his extensive athletic background.
“Having the wheelchair skills from basketball that was carried over,” he said. “As well as passing the ball and being able to work under pressure.”
Wheelchair rugby is a multi-gender sport played on a regulation size basketball court with four players per side.
“It’s not actually like regular rugby, it’s kind of a cross between basketball and hockey,” Madell explained. “You’re allowed passing the ball forward, you don’t use a regular rugby ball, it’s more like a volleyball.”
The sport involves athletes with varying degrees of disability.
“You can have up to eight points on the floor at a time,” Madell said of the system to grade ability. “The most disabled player being a .5 and then people with the most function like myself are a 3.5.”
Wheelchair rugby was brought to the forefront by Murderball, the Oscar nominated documentary film in 2006 detailing the rivalry between Canada and the U.S. in the sport.
It was a test sport at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and achieved full medal status at the 2000 Games in Sydney. In London, Canada will be looking to improve on its silver medal at the 2004 Games and its third place finish in 2008 in Beijing.
At just 18-years of age, Madell is the youngest member of the Canadian team and its only representative from Alberta.
“It was kind of cool when I first showed up because I was a kid at the time and everybody took me under their wings and watched out for me and now they’re starting to accept me as one of them,” he said of the dynamic on Team Canada.
“There hasn’t been an Alberta player on the national team for several years so we’re getting Alberta back involved in the program and helping to train some provincial players and bring some of that knowledge back from the national team.”
Madell played club rugby with the Calgary Inferno from September to February and participated in five tournaments over the course of the winter. Fortunately for the Okotokian he’s got the conditioning to handle the workload.
“I go into Calgary twice a week to work with a personal trainer and lift weights,” he said. “For cardio I’ll go out to the (Holy Trinity Academy) track three or four times a week. “
His schedule is about to get exponentially busier in the weeks leading up to the Games, with the first qualification matches beginning on Sept. 5 in London.
He’ll be in Vancouver this week for The Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament.
“It’s basically all the teams that are going to be at Paralympics and all the same games that we’ll be playing in the same pool just to kind of see where we’re sitting.”
Shortly thereafter, Madell will set course for London, Ontario to train with the national team, followed by training camp in Montreal in July before the team makes the cross-Atlantic trip to England in mid-August.
Madell has earned plaudits for his work off the court as well. In 2010, he served as a junior counselor at the national multiple amputation seminar for the War Amps Child Amputee Program. He said he hopes to continue to prove to multiple amputees they can achieve anything they strive to do.
“I am hoping that by going to the Paralympics I will be setting an example for the younger kids and they will see the opportunities that are available to them,” he said.
