Wednesday, May 14, 2014
The Kings Mountain Herald | www.kmherald.net
Page 3A
Jenkins’ quad squad takes 5th in national tournament
g DAVE BLANTON
dave kmherald@gmail.com
Kings Mountain’s David
Jenkins took to the court
with his Charlotte-based
quad rugby team recently to
pull down fifth place in a na-
tional tournament in
Louisville, Ky.
The Carolina Crash
edged out Houston’s TIRR
Texans 47-45 in the first
game, lost to the Tucson
Roadrunners 51-40 and then
defeated an Indianapolis
team 54-42.
That set up a three-way
tie for their division in the
March tournament, which
played host to 16 teams
from around the country.
The tie was broken by the
points differential from pre-
vious games, and Jenkins’
team came up short, keeping
it from advancing to title ac-
tion.
Still, the Carolina Crash,
which is sponsored by
Relay for Life
moved to June 21
a
Julie Pearson, who chaired 2014’s Relay for Life in Kings
Fe L ren ake
Mountain, Friday night minutes after she and other members
of the Relay committee decided to reschedule to a June date
due to rainy weather that threatened to bog down the open-
ing hours of the event.
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail. com
Sour weather crushed
Friday’s Relay for Life in
Kings Mountain just as
teams and survivors were set
to kick off the annual cancer
research fundraising event.
Organizers rescheduled it
for Saturday, June 21, from
10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Scattered but heavy rain-
storms had visited the area
Friday afternoon, and as the
time approached for the 6
p.m. Survivors Walk, rainy
conditions seems to be set-
ting in.
“Several campsites were
actually demolished after
one of the storms came thru
with heavy wind and rain in
the afternoon while teams
were setting up,” said Colby
Brown, whose Endless
Dtreams Entertainment was
to provide DJ and emcee
services for the night’s
events.
About 20 local teams had
anticipated a final night of
fundraising — through food
and clothes sales, raffles and
other prizes. The annual
walking track event features
live music, games, vendors
and usually draws thousands
of visitors.
“Severe weather is head-
ing our way,” said Julie
Pearson, a Relay for Life
employee who was the
chairperson for Kings
Mountain’s event. “The
postponement was the rec-
ommendation from the local
offices of American Cancer
Society. In addition to the
rain, we’ve heard a lot of re-
ports of lightning, too.”
Pearson said it’s not the
first time foul weather has
hit the annual walk.
“We’ve been out here in
tornado-like conditions and
we didn’t stop,” she said,
showing a small scar on her
left arm where she had
melanoma removed in May
2013. Relay for Life com-
mittee members and other
organizers met at 5:30 p.m.
and decided it best to try
their luck with another date.
They also decided to turn
the clock back for the event
making, making it mostly a
daylight affair. Relay for
Life has typically started
around dinnertime and run
through night and into dawn
the next day.
“I can see that people are
disappointed, but looking at
the radar behind us it was a
Photo by DAVE BLANTON
good cally” said Kings
Mountain Fire Chief Frank
Burns, a cancer survivor and
committee member who has
served as chairman for
Kings Mountain’s relay a
number of times in past
years. “I like that it’s all day
when we have it June 21."
As daylight lingered
under storm clouds and rain
peppered the field and walk-
ing track, most teams rushed
to pack up and stay dry.
A few teams: remained,
seemingly in no hurry to get
out of the way of the im-
pending wet weather.
“We’ll keep selling food
for a little while ... since we
have so much,” said Timmy
Baucom, the 17-year-old
cancer survivor who is the
namesake of Team Timmy.
He and family members
dished out nachos topped
with chili and cheese to vis-
itors as the crowd quickly
thinned. Baucom was diag-
nosed with a kind of pedi-
atric lymphoma in 2011. He
said he’s free of cancer now
and this was the first time
he’d been on a fundraising
team for Relay for Life. For
the Baucoms, the frustration
was apparent. They had
been looking forward to the
all-night get-together for
weeks. Worse still, the fam-
ily has a vacation planned
that conflicts with the June
21 makeup day.
“This will be the first
time Kings Mountain has
used the daytime schedule
but hoping it will allow for
more people to attend,”
Brown said. “There is still
time for families, busi-
nesses, churches or friends
See RELAY, 9A
Adaptive Sports and Adven-
tures Program, a part of Car-
olinas Rehabilitation, went
on to topple Jacksonville’s
Brooks Bandits and beat a
Seattle team 69-56, notching
the most points scored in a
game for the entire tourna-
ment. That gave the Crash a
fifth place finish and Seattle
sixth in the quad rugby tour-
nament, which is played by
athletes with varying de-
grees of impairment, on a
basketball court. Players
power across the floor, pass-
ing and dribbling a volley-
ball while trying to cross the
opponent’s goal line with at
least two wheels. Four play-
ers from each team are on
the court at the same time in
the game, which consist of
four 8-minute quarters.
Most players have sus-
tained cervical level spinal
injuries and have some type
of quadriplegia. Players are
given a classification num-
ber ranging from 0.5 to 3.5.
The 0.5 player has the great-
est impairment, while the
3.5 players as the least im-
pairment. Jenkins’ classifi-
cation is a 2, he said.
The game can be rough
and there are plenty of spills,
said Jenkins, who, along
with three other quadriple-
gics founded Carolina Crash
in 1997. Jenkins sustained a
serious spinal cord injury in
a 1994 accident that left
with him severe paralysis.
The team has been building
up numbers and talent ever
since, holding weekly prac-
tices year-round. This year
marked the first time the
team has qualified for the
national tournament, typi-
cally held in Alabama or
Kentucky. Jenkins is looking
ahead to the shape he sees
the team taking.
“We will be adding 2
players to our roster this
year that were out due to in-
jury ... both are experienced
and should see plenty of
playing time,” he said,
adding that he is “disap-
pointed” with fifth place. “I
will be 39 this season (Sep-
tember) and these shoulders
won’t hold up forever. The
time to win is now.”
This wasn’t Jenkins’ first
7615 BE IEERe AY
NY
REC RAE
Carolina Crash teammate Robbie Parks takes a spill as Jenkins and a member of the Tucson
Roadrunners looks on in quad rugby action in Louisville, Ky.
time in the quad rugby spot-
. light. He was a member of
the U.S. quad rugby team
from 2001-2006, during
which time he travelled to
New Zealand and Brazil to
compete in international
tournaments. The U.S. team
returned from New Zealand
with a bronze medal in
2003.
Two years later, two U.S.
teams traveled to South
America and actually wound
up facing each other in the
gold medal game. Jenkins’
team returned home with the
silver. A member of the
gold-medal team is now a
starter on the Crash. A stand-
out athlete in high school,
Jenkins pitched for a Kings
Mountain High team that
collected a 1993 State
Championship, beating
Asheboro 2-1 in a best of
three series.
The year before, the team
missed the title game by just
one loss. “David is very
Photos by ANNIE JENKINS
competitive,” said his sister
Annie Jenkins, who traveled
with David and his mother
Nell to the Kentucky tourna-
ment. “I enjoy watching all
these guys overcome being
in a chair and showing that
anything can be accom-
plished when you put your
mind to it. His father was
very proud of his playing
rugby. It’s an awesome sport
to watch!”
wh
The Carolina Crash traveled to Kentucky to compete in a national tournament, facing 15
other teams from around the country. From left to right are Greg Taylor, Robbie Parks, Matt
Crisp, Brian Muscarella, Chad Foster, David Jenkins, Harley Hendrix, Bobby Stewart, Chance
Sumner and Chris Coley; standing are Mike Duda and Jennifer Moore.
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