NVWG athletes take on trivia event
Veteran athletes had the chance to take in a unique view of the Mill City and learn a little history during Monday’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) motor rally (trivia) event at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.
Among the competitors was Army veteran and Paralyzed Veterans of America Bay Area & Western Chapter member Eugene Gold, who traveled with his wife, Judy, all the way from Waialua, Hawaii, to compete in this year’s Games. The 76-year-old served from 1968 to 1971 and sustained a level C6-C7 incomplete spinal cord injury in a 1974 hit-and-run car accident and is also a double above-the-knee amputee.
“This is the first time I’ve been back in competition since 2019, so it’s like go for everything you can. Go for the gusto,” he says.
However, this was the only time since his first Games in 1986 that Gold has traveled with a team. It was also his first time competing in the motor rally, which wound its way through the museum housed inside the rebuilt and repurposed ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. The museum includes an observation deck with sweeping views of the Mississippi River and St. Anthony Falls.
Gold loved the experience.
“Oh man, it’s almost like where we live. We live in, like, a plantation community, and they have something like this because it was a sugar mill,” Gold says. “So, you know, they have all those prehistoric machines and stuff like that, but it can’t compare to their museum. They’re just fantastic, the way they preserved it for the generations to see it.”
In motor rally, athletes must answer 10 trivia questions about the city and state where the Games take place, and at five of the stops, they draw a playing card. Athletes earn one point for each correct answer and a maximum of 10 points for the best poker hand.
Gold says the most challenging question was one about which president bought the land for the construction of a Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Minneapolis (it was Calvin Coolidge).
“It was back in 1925, so I was trying to picture who was the oldest president,” he says. “They gave us a booklet to study 10 questions, and we go in and they ask us 10 other questions. I thought they would ask the state flower, the state fruit, the state fish.”
Gold also competed in boccia, air rifle, table tennis, 9-ball billiards and motor slalom (obstacle course). He says table tennis and 9-ball billiards are his favorites.
“After six years, coming back, and I still can compete and get the gold medal. I got two so far [table “” not found /]
and one bronze [9-ball billiards],” Gold says.
Turning The Tables
Army veteran and Paralyzed Veterans of America Nevada Chapter member Taylor Boclair Jr., laughed and joked his way through his first round of table tennis Monday inside the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minnesota during the NVWG.
It’s the novice athlete’s way of dealing with the pain caused by multiple sclerosis.
“If I can make the other person laugh, feel good, then it takes my mind in a different place,” Boclair says. “Like I said, both laugh. No matter win or lose, we still both laugh and, you know, give the props where they are.”
The 56-year-old Las Vegas resident, who served from 1988 to 1991, wanted to compete in table tennis because he played when he was a kid. He’s played in a wheelchair for about four years and says his strategy is to be patient.
“Playing in a chair is a whole lot different,” Boclair says. “But I was actually trying to teach a vet how to play before he started playing. I was telling him, ‘Don’t hit the ball that hard. Keep it in the center of the paddle. Just try to keep control of being in the center. They’re the one that’s going to try to get tricky on you. But if you keep hitting it close to the center, they’re going to get tired of that, and they’re going to want to try to do a spin or whatever that’s not going to probably work.”
He also competed in boccia, esports, air rifle, 9-ball billiards, slalom, field events and bowling.
He says it’s important to share camaraderie with people who are going through the same or similar issues and let go of anger and negativity.
“You brotherhood with people going through similar struggles or even worse than what you’re going through, so you’re able to communicate more and laugh more, and you can laugh more because you already went through the pain,” Boclair says. “Just try to laugh and be cool.”
Gray Ducks Beat All-Stars
In the first NVWG All-Star Power Soccer game, the veterans were shut out by the The Gray Ducks’ young guns, 4-0.
The Gray Ducks, made up of nine players from Wisconsin-based Chippewa Valley Hooligans, Minnesota Northern Lights and Minnesota United power soccer teams, showed their speed and agility against the all-star team, which consisted of Daniel Castillo, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) National President Robert L. Thomas Jr., Julian Perez, Amy McKee, William Hendrickson, Patrick Harris, Happy Barton and Kathleen Tillbury.
James Young, 10, who has played for the Minnesota United Loons for a little over two years, says it felt good to win and he played well. He says passing and communication were the keys to their win.
For Young, the game also had a special meaning because his dad, Jake Young, served in the Army and now serves in the Army National Guard. James says “one of them [the veterans] likes to be goalie, like me.”
Coming off a bronze-medal win in the NVWG consolation game on Sunday, Army Special Forces veteran and PVA Texas Chapter member Castillo says the all-star game helps tie the community into the Games.
“And these little kids are so grateful, thanking us for our service,” Castillo says. “It makes you feel good that they value our service, and then you get to meet with them and talk to them and play with them, and then you learn from each other. And then they see, well, they’re not just veterans, they like to play the same sport I do.”
The 63-year-old, who served from 1982 to 1988, and sustained a level C4 spinal cord injury in the line of duty in Central America in 1987, says the veterans played pretty well considering they didn’t get any practice time together.
“Being that these kids play year-round together … we’ve been playing against each other all week, so to come together and hold them at 4-0 was pretty good,” says Castillo, who plays for the STRAPS (San Antonio) Scorpions power soccer team and is also a member of Team USA Boccia. “It’s good because we’re all different ages. They’re all born with their disabilities. All of us sustained our disabilities in one way or another, either on active duty or after service. But we all have that common bond of playing sports. And sports, really, it’s all about the quality of life. You’ve got to stay active.”
Castillo says it felt great to be chosen for the first all-star team, especially after going through some health issues recently.
“I’m glad I’m here,” he says. “My doctors told me, ‘Get up and go and enjoy life.’”
Castillo says the Gray Ducks ultimately took advantage of the all-stars’ inexperience in playing together.
“They were passing the ball back and forth. Their short passes, what they were doing was spreading out our defense, so they were able to push the ball back and forth, and that’s how they were able to score,” he says. “They got us out of position, and once you’re out of position, you’re gonna lose and you’re gonna get scored on.”