Team Pintail wins NVWG power soccer gold
In the National Veterans Wheelchair Games’ (NVWG) power soccer championship game Sunday night in the Minneapolis Convention Center, Team Pintail flew away with the win, beating Team Bufflehead, 4-1, in the gold-medal game.
Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) National President Robert Thomas Jr., scored all four of Team Pintail’s goals, while PVA Michigan Chapter member Judy Ross scored Team Bufflehead’s lone goal with 5 minutes and 28 seconds left in the second half. All of the NVWG power soccer teams were named for species of ducks.
Team Pintail player and Navy veteran Rachel Rice credits their win to communication throughout the game.
“I think they just worked well with each other, just the camaraderie between them,” she says of her team.
The PVA West Virginia Chapter President, Rice served from 1999 to 2005. She was diagnosed with syringomyelia, or the development of a fluid-filled cyst in the spinal cord, in 2019. This was her second NVWG and first time playing power soccer — ever.
“It looks like amazing fun, and it definitely was,” the 43-year-old Rawlings, Md., resident says. “I think I played pretty well. The guys were great telling me which way to go and where to position, and they made sure everybody got to play.”
Rice says she still needs to learn how to slow down and not break the wheelchair guards on her power wheelchair, but she loves the high adrenaline of the game.
“Just the teammates and everybody wanting everybody else to win,” Rice says.
The Mallards earned the bronze medal.
First Shots
Marine Corps veteran and Paralyzed Veterans of America Northwest Chapter member Cameron Alexander has a lofty goal — to make the Paralympics. And on Sunday, he took his first shots toward that goal during the air rifle competition at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Minneapolis.
After shooting a score of 550 out of a possible 654 points, the 59-year-old Shelton, Wash., resident says he shot terribly. While fighting off cramps in one of his shoulder blades, he tried to loosen up.
“I had some shots that went off, and I’m going to blame it on the pellets, because the pellets aren’t perfect,” the novice athlete says of his first competitive shooting experience. “I’m learning in the Paralympics, they actually weigh them and check them to make sure they’re all round. I had one or two that I thought I shot to the left, and they went way to the right.”
Alexander, who served from 1984 to 1992, sustained a level S10 incomplete spinal cord injury after falling out of a helicopter he was working on in 2021, He also has transverse myelitis, a neurological condition caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, and he says proper breathing is key.
“For the most part, I get into a zone,” Alexander says.
He says he enjoys shooting both air rifle and archery because he’s good at them, and he intends to look for sponsors for the Paralympics and “practice, practice, practice.”
Before his injury, Alexander enjoyed hunting, fishing and backpacking and was a Cub Scout leader, and shooting air rifle is a continuation of those outdoor activities. He wanted to attend the NVWG this year because it sounded exciting.
“I’m meeting a lot of new people, making some friends,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about, the camaraderie, getting out and having fun and who cares if you lose.”
