First, there's the metal-to-metal smacking sound of wheelchairs colliding at top speed. You hear it every few moments during quad (short for quadriplegic) rugby, an international sport for players that have a disability affecting at least three limbs.
Then there's the scoring: fast-paced, as the wheelchair-riding players must cross the halfway mark of a basketball-length court every 12 seconds and execute a goal every 40 seconds.
The rough, rugged and rapid sport was on display Saturday at the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Institute's inaugural Crab Pot Tournament. The West Baltimore institute is part of the University of Maryland Medical System.
The four-team event was hosted by the Baltimore-based Maryland Mayhem, a team sponsored by the institute that fields players who have received treatment there. The Mayhem is playing in its third season in a sport that dates back to 1977 in Winnipeg, Canada.
The Mayhem captured their first win this year and won their fourth game (against seven losses) during the first round of Saturday's tournament. The season began in October and runs through March.
Mayhem members said the game was originally called murderball; its growing popularity prompted a 2005 documentary of the same name. But when the sport caught on in the U.S. in the 1980s, its name was changed to quad rugby (or wheelchair rugby) to denote its aggressive style. It draws few comparisons to rugby, however, and is closer to a blend of basketball and hockey.
There are no leagues; all games are played as tournaments, which each team is required to host. Teams are part of the United States Quad Rugby Association, which was founded in 1988 with six teams and how has 40 teams, officials said.
Saturday's tournament also featured teams from Washington and Philadelphia.
"It's a very easy sport to get hooked on," said Mayhem coach Mike Patria, a former youth hockey coach who took over the quad rugby team at the request of his wife, Lori Patria, director of rehabilitation therapy services at the Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute.
"It takes a good four years for these guys to get to where they're pushing at a higher competitive level," Patria added.
The Mayhem includes Randolph Johnson of Baltimore, 28, who once played amateur basketball and semiprofessional football. He said he was involved in a car accident in March of last year that left him with two fractured cervical vertebrae.
Johnson said he remained in the University of Maryland Shock Trauma for more than a month and then spent four months in rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute.
Johnson said that after the injury he was convinced he would never play competitive sports again. Then he noticed quad rugby during his stint at the institute.
"I attended a rugby practice just to see what it was like," Johnson said. He then who took up the sport in September. "I've been an athlete all my life, so it was very quick for me to pick it up.
"It's not the easiest thing to play, but being a [quadriplegic], it's not too many things you can do anyway. We really don't have the strength to compete in [wheelchair] basketball. For quadriplegics, rugby is a sport that's made for us."
Johnson and other wheelchair rugby players are classified to play based on their conditions; the sport also comprises amputee players as well as those with such neurological conditions as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and polio. Player classifications rank from .5 (greatest impairment) to 3.5 (least impairment).
On Saturday, the Mayhem won their first game, 37-27, which is no small task, considering each score counts as just one point. Mike Patria said that top-quality teams can score in the low 50s.
Players must either dribble or pass the ball every 10 seconds, and there's rarely an unimpeded path to score, with chairs colliding like bumper cars. The game is played in four eight-minute quarters that come with a one-minute break between periods. Halftime lasts five minutes.
"To push these chairs up and down at the pace we have go really takes a toll on your arms and your shoulders," Johnson said. But he said that for him, simply being able to play is an inspiration.
"Being able to compete at a high level in sports and seeing other people in the same situation," Johnson added, "gives you hope, something to wake up for."