Making a killing

Kalispell man shooting for second Olympic gold in "Murderball"

Two decades ago Steve Pate lay in a hospital bed, barely alive. Completely paralyzed, he couldnt breathe or eat on his own; he couldnt even open his eyes.

Moments of lucidity were few and far between because of the morphine needed to alleviate the searing pain in his nerves.

Fast-forward 16 years as Pate sat on a stage in Sydney, Australia, with the eyes of the world upon him. Moments earlier a gold medal had been draped around his neck, and as the national anthem began he could barely contain the flood of emotions ready to overflow.

With his eyes welling up with tears, anyone watching him on the stadium Jumbotron would assume he was simply proud. But it went way beyond pride.

For Pate, it was the memories of the last decade-and-a-half flashing through his mind.

Being able to open and close his eyes, to sit up without fainting, to feel. Learning how to walk again even after doctors told him it would be impossible. The people who helped him through his two years of hell and every day since.

The hours spent in physical therapy and in the weight room. And, finally, being on the best Quad Rugby team in the world, winning Murderballs first Olympic gold medal.

Now, three years after leaving the sport he loves, Pate has returned to the Murderball court, anxious to again represent his country. Last weekend, in Birmingham, Ala., he made the first cut down to 24 for the U.S. team. He hopes to be one of the final 12 set to represent the team in the 2006 World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

And hes happy to be back.

It felt great to get back into it, said the 44-year-old Pate, a Kalispell resident. I sure felt 44 the first day because I was slow and my shoulder really hurt. But the next day I felt better and I tore it up.

The coach (James Gumbert) rolled up to me and told me I played perfectly.

But dont take Pates word for it.

He hadnt been in a wheelchair in a year, year-and-a-half and there was some rust there, but there was a lot of shine underneath it all, said Gumbert, head coach of the U.S. team. He proved why he should wear the red, white and blue.

Hes a complete player, a franchise player.

Not bad for a guy who was once a 145-pound defensive tackle on his high school football team in Galeta, Calif.

Youll never walk again

Hard words to hear when youve been an athlete all your life. After playing football and wrestling in high school, Pate graduated to triathlons and had run one just two weeks prior to beginning a 30-hour shift as a kitchen manager.

Once a bout of food poisoning hit, he was so exhausted and his immune system so weak that it couldnt fight the infection. Then came an affliction that would change his life.

Only one in 100,000 people contract a potentially-fatal disorder called Guillain-Barr. Unfortunately, Pates number came up.

Like multiple sclerosis, victims of Guillain-Barr are actually attacked by their own immune system, which begins to shred the myelin sheath, a key component of the peripheral nervous system. It took doctors three weeks to make the proper diagnosis, then to begin cleaning his blood (in a process called plasmapheresis).

Fortunately, unlike MS, the damage caused by Guillain-Barr isnt permanent. Still, it took two weeks for his eyes to open and another two to be able to close them voluntarily. He would remain in intensive care for four months as he dropped from 250 pounds to 150.

As he was set to begin physical therapy, his doctor told him hed be in a wheelchair the rest of his life. Pate sought to prove him wrong.

I was crushed when he told me, but I went home and started thinking about it, Pate said. But I believed I could do it. What did I have to lose?

The long road back

He actually had plenty to lose. Though Guillain-Barr victims usually recover, there is the possibility of an relapse if the patient doesnt balance work and rest.

Fortunately, Pate was able to come up with a plan that was both rigorous and mindful of the dangers of relapse.

Each day he awoke at 5 a.m. at went to his local Golds Gym, then moved on to a local aquatic center, where he began to walk in water. It may have been hard work, but Pate loved it.

I love to train, I love to work hard, he said. It comes from my years of training for wrestling and triathlons. I agree with (former pro football star) Jerry Rice, sometimes the training can be more fun than the game itself.

But I also knew that I couldnt overdo it.

Feeling returned to Pate in only a few months, but it took two years for Pate to be able to walk without crutches.

When I walked into my physical therapy session, my doctors jaw dropped, he said. It was a long, gradual process, a lot of baby steps. But it felt great. I liked getting stronger.

But he still isnt back to normal.

Hell have to wear leg braces the rest of his life and still has no feeling in his right big toe. He also has balance problems and almost no reflexes, making him prone to constant falls.

I fall all the time, but Ive learned to tuck and roll, he said with a laugh. Im still working on staying up in the winter.

An old game, a new game

Always a competitor, Pate needed a new outlet to fuel his desire for sport. Fortunately, in 1986, he found one in wheelchair football. However, he was at a disadvantage because he was facing paraplegics with full use of their hands and arms. But it only served to make him a stronger athlete.

The guys I was facing were so strong and fast, he said. But chasing them around made me faster. That really helped with rugby.

Two years later, Pate joined up with a new sport that had just come to California.

Quad rugby, originally called Murderball because of its highly-aggressive nature, began in Canada in 1979 though calling it rugby is somewhat misleading.

It does contain some elements of rugby, but is also influenced by hockey, basketball, football and water polo. Played on a basketball court with a volleyball, with four players to a side, teams try to cross the goal line to score points.

Using eight-minute quarters, its equal parts speed and strength, brains and brawn. With constant end-to-end action the average game features scores in the 30s and one other thing hitting, and lots of it.

I love the look on a guys face when I hit him and hes going down, Pate said. But this is way more draining than anything Ive ever done. Its just constant sprinting up and down the court, with guys looking to hit you as hard as they can.

Pate initially played on the Santa Barbara Breakers, a team he helped start and went on to lead for four years. But he almost walked away from the game.

People were always criticizing me because I could walk, and it started to hurt, Pate said. But Ive discovered that a lot of quadriplegics can walk, but most dont. Im not going to try and hide who I am.

With at least some use in all extremities, Pate rates as a 3.5 on a scale of 0.5 to 3.5 in terms of functionality. Rules are built in to safeguard against a team full of high-functioning players like Pate, with a team allowing only eight total points on the floor at any one time. Because of this, his playing time was limited on the 2000 U.S. team.

For Pate, being able to walk is an interesting dilemma in a sport full of players who cant. But he feels he has no choice but to play Quad Rugby.

I couldnt compete in any sport outside of a wheelchair, and I like to compete, he said. Ill never fit in the walking world because I limp pretty bad, and Ill never fit in the Quad world because I can walk. Both are just going to have to take me or leave me.

Going for gold

After trying, and failing, to make the 98 U.S. team, Pate knew he would have to make some changes, namely getting a coach.

I was always fast and I could hit, but I would spend so much time in the penalty box because my technique wasnt solid, he said. So I started to seek out coaches.

Two years later, that coaching paid off as Pate made the U.S. team for the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. Though he didnt play often, he was on the floor when it mattered.

With the American team down three goals to Australia late in the fourth quarter, Pate was put in the game as the U.S. team made a five-goal swing in four minutes in front of a shocked, heavily-partisan crowd. Pate actually forced the game-winning turnover, falling to the court in the process.

It was crazy, Pate said. Here I was, still face-down on the court as my team was celebrating. I was like, Hey guys, pick me up so I can join in.

Unfortunately, Pate was also part of another historic match two years later in Sweden when the Americans lost their first-ever international match to Canada in the World Championships gold medal match. He wasnt on the team two years later in the Athens Games when the U.S. team lost again to Canada, later winning the bronze.

But, after walking away after 2002 to raise a family, those two losses helped bring him back to the game.

I was so depressed after 2002, I gained like 30 pounds, he said. And my wife (Jill) saw that it was eating at me so she said I could get back in.

That he did with a simple phone call to Gumbert right after the Olympics.

I called him and left a message saying, Hey, I like Chinese food, he said, referring to the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He called me back and said, Hey, I like Chinese food, too.

A blessing, not a curse

Many faced with Pates situation would blame God, withdraw and wash their hands of the world. But Pate thinks thats a cop-out.

God has a lot better things to do than worry about some athlete, he said. This is one of the best things that could have happened to me. My life wasnt going too well at the time, so I might be dead.

But now my lifes opened up and so many great things have happened to me. I wouldnt change a thing.

In addition to the gold medal, Pate went to the White House in 2000, won Athlete of the Year from both the U.S. Quad Rugby Association and U.S. Paralympic Committee, and was nominated for a 2002 ESPY for Disabled Athlete of the Year. Though he lost to Erik Weihenmayer, the blind man who climbed Mount Everest, he enjoyed the experience.

I met Bill Walton and Gary Payton and seeing Muhammad Ali from across the room gave me chills because he is the greatest, Pate said.

And David Spade tried to pick up my wife, he added with a laugh.

Whats next?

Pate already knows hes on borrowed time as a 44-year-old in a game full of players young enough to be his sons. Heck, he has two daughters from a previous marriage, Jennifer, 23 and Angela, 20. So he has one goal in mind for the rest of his playing career.

Im going to enjoy every minute of it and give it everything I have, he said. I have no idea how Im still able to sprint with guys 20 years younger than me. I feel blessed to have the gifts I have.

I also want to help get the U.S. back on top.

Once his playing days are over, Pate would like to stay involved in the sport, either as a coach or as a wheelchair builder. He already makes his own custom chairs.

In the meantime, he helps raise his two sons, Jonah, 4, and 2-year-old Christian, with Jill, his wife of five years and an O.B. nurse at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

To see Quad Rugby in action, the critically-acclaimed documentary Murderball is now playing at the OShaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Check todays Inter Lake for show times.