Eric Newby is playing his 18th year of wheelchair rugby and will be in his third Paralympics for the U.S. starting Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, against Canada in Paris.
Photo courtesy Eric Newby
Significant injuries have come with Eric Newby’s time playing wheelchair rugby, a sport that has consumed exactly half of his 36 years.
The Alton native has pins in a thumb, has broken both elbows, torn a rotator cuff, suffered multiple concussions and is missing a tooth. Then there was time his wheelchair was struck from behind during a game, flipping him forward.
“I took a bad hit I didn’t see coming, flipped straight down, and I looked and saw my kneecap was on the side of my leg,” he said.
Newby was among an early batch of people in the St. Louis area drawn to wheelchair rugby, sometimes referred to as murderball, in 2006. That group of beginners learned the sport by traveling to train with more experienced clubs, and the individual talent developed at a rapid rate.
This week, Newby will be one of three area athletes on a 12-player roster for the U.S. at the Paralympics in Paris. The U.S. team is ranked No. 1 in the world entering its first game at 6:30 a.m. Thursday against Canada.
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Also on the team are Chuck Melton, 46, of Richview, Illinois, the oldest member of the team, and Sarah Adam, a professor at St. Louis University who became the first woman to make the team.
Newby suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident on the night of his high school graduation in 2006 and started playing immediately upon leaving the hospital. Melton started playing two years after Newby, having suffered a spinal cord injury in a diving accident. Adam is newer to the game since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“Chuck and I lived close to each other and became super close, training together,” said Newby, who attended Nashville (Illinois) High and Maryville University. “We had the same goal in mind and pushed each other. We figured out the sport and came up the rankings together. Then Sarah came along and picked it up super-quick, and she and I trained together a lot the last few years.”
All three play for a club team with the St. Charles-based Disabled Athlete Sports Association, and Newby has worked his way into a role as player-coach.
Now, they’re together in the athletes village in Paris, preparing to play for a medal at Champ de Mars Arena in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
“Chuck, Eric and Sarah are great humans and have thrived in the St. Louis area,” U.S. coach Joe Delagrave said this week from Paris. “They have all played for the St. Louis club team, with Chuck and Eric playing together on the club more than 10 years. They all exhibit a strong work ethic and tenacity to make the U.S. one of the best wheelchair rugby countries in the world.”
Newby and Melton will be playing in their third Paralympics, having won the silver medal in 2016 and 2021.
Newby has yet to allow the constant pounding on his body and custom-made wheelchair to slow him. Melton has eluded the impact of age and health issues to remain at an elite level.
Melton had been paralyzed for six years and weighed more than 300 pounds when his wife urged him to “get off the couch.” He went to a wheelchair rugby practice and had to be duct taped into a chair because no belt was big enough.
“Having Newby on the team and living so close was a huge help,” Melton said. “We would constantly meet up on the backroads behind my house and go for a push. Eventually we started talking about our potential future. We both had interest in trying to get to the next level. Getting to share the (Paralympics) stage twice with one of my club teammates has been an amazing experience, and having Sarah on the team is very special.”
Melton was an alternate for the 2012 Paralympics and joined Newby on the U.S. team for 2016, when the Americans lost to Australia in the final. In 2021, they lost to Great Britain.
Between those two Paralympics, Melton developed a calcified hematoma that became septic. He nearly died in surgery, and doctors told his wife to bring their children to the hospital, believing he would not survive a second, necessary surgery.
While recovering with a vacuum assisted closure in 2018, he resumed training. Newby dealt with various injuries. And unknown to most, Adam was moving toward an M.S. diagnosis that would leave her in a wheelchair.
St. Louis University professor Sarah Adam competes for the United States in a wheelchair rugby game.
Courtesy Sarah Adam
She previously worked with the club team as a volunteer while a student at Washington University. She became friends with Newby’s wife and was a bridesmaid in their wedding. She eventually contacted Newby and told him she planned to start playing, revealing her medical update. They began training together.
“Having an athletic mentality and growing up playing sports with my brothers, it never bothered me to compete a little outside of my comfort zone,” Adam said. “I attributed that to how successful I was against guys twice my size. I’m giving a hit but have a 200-pound guy hitting me.”
The U.S. has won three gold medals but not since 2008, around the time Newby and Melton were learning the sport. With no competition in the St. Louis area, they traveled with others to to learn from experienced players in Nashville, Tennessee.
As they improved, travel to cities in the Midwest for competition became common. The St. Louis club eventually developed numerous players who went through the U.S. developmental system.
Newby figures he might be nearing the end of his run. He has children and would be 40 years old when Los Angeles hosts in four years.
“This could be the last one, I don’t know,” he said. “I have to listen to my body. I’ve been playing longer than anybody, and my body feels it.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-27 11:23:00
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