The Boise Bombers took to the air to travel to Irving, Texas for their final tournament of the season.  Traveling together was a blast even if they packed us in the airplane like a bunch of sardines.  Hauling seven quads, seven rugby chairs, wheel bags, extra gear, and our every day chairs put Delta to the test.  We had the ground crew running two jump seats back and forth just to get us loaded on the airplane.  But even after having to do it all again with the layover in Salt Lake there were no problems.

The first game of the tournament on Friday didn't go so great against the number one seed Houston Texans.  We started off pretty good scoring 5 points to their 6 then we changed our lineup and lost 7 straight points.  We are still learning how to match up and when to sub.  The final score was a deflating loss of 55-20.

Our second game was our best match up of the tournament against the Chicago Bears.  The first half was almost a point for point game with the exception of a few turnovers with the score 13-14 in favor of Da Bears.   They increased their lead by 4 at the half and by 9 at the end of the 3rd quarter. We managed to battle back in the end to close the gap to 52-47 but we gave up too many turnovers early to get the win.  We really need to schedule our next tournament with this team.

Saturday's first game was against the San Antonio Steel who lost their dominating high point player from the day before.  This gave us some hope for a competitive game.  And it was just that with two lead changes throughout the game.  We had a 1 point lead coming out of the first quarter 11-10 and by half time they had it tied back up 22-22.  SA had a 5 point run in the 3rd that nearly grounded the Bombers and they were on top 35-33 at the end of the quarter.  The Steel had an equipment problem in the 4th quarter and had ran out of time outs, leaving themselves short handed on the court for about 2 minutes we had the power play on and got right back in the game after being down by 5 points. With 2 minutes remaining in the game SA was back in full force with the game going point for point while we held a one point lead.  With 10 seconds remaining in the game SA was in scoring position and we got a 4 players in the key violation leaving us with only 3 players on the court.  As the ball was being in-bounded by SA, Steve Baxter knocked a SA player through the goal line creating the biggest turnover of our short rugby career.  We get the ball back with 8 seconds on the clock and Spencer Larimore in-bounds the ball to Josiah Sullivan and he held the ball until SA fouled him with 0.8 seconds on the clock.  We got the ball back for another in-bound to our hero 0.5 Josiah Sullivan for the win 46-45 Boise Bombers!  It was quite an exciting game.

The second game on Saturday was against the team that Spencer Larimore started back in 2009 in Texas, the North Texas Cowboys.  The tournament was named after one of their star players, Matt Reynolds, who passed away just a few weeks before the tournament.  There was a very nice memorial service held in the gym right before the game.  After the tears were wiped away it was back to rugby, the game that Matt truly loved.  Emotions were high and you could see it on each and every Cowboy's face.  They got the best of us with a huge bench and all kinds of lineups that out scored us 64-39.

The final game of the tournament on Sunday morning was against the Edmonton Steelwheels with a ringer from San Diego and we lost 29-60.  With the ringer they scored 8 unanswered points at the start. Without him we were point for point.  Hopefully we get to play them again next year minus the "Ringer".

We ended up 4th over all because of the scoring differences so not too bad for our first airborne tournament!  We all learned a lot at this tournament as we have all season and next season we are going to come out with some heavy hitting bombs!  We also got the chance to meet our major sponsor Randy Smith and his wife Cathy as well as the customer support rep. Robbin from C&R Medical.  They took the whole team out for dinner on Friday night and we had a lot of fun meeting them and the USA coach James Gumbert.  We want to thank all of our sponsors for their help as well as our support staff and family that helped us on this crazy long trip.  Go Bombers!

Click here to check out the highlight video and click here to check out more photos from Mike Peters.

The Bombers got their first two victories on the road at the 2013 Portland Pounders Invitational.  In the first game of the tournament against British Columbia - B we won 39-37.  A huge improvement against the same team that beat us in September 45 - 27...  We started using the T defense right from the start and it worked well.  We were ahead by 5 at the half and then made some substitutions to get everyone some court time.  BC then gained a bit of momentum and got back in the game.  We made some adjustments and regained control till the last 2 minutes where we lost a few key turnovers and they brought the game within 1 point.  We took a bench time out and settled down and finished the game up 2 points!  It was nice to get our first win in the books.

The Second game was against Portland B, a team we have played against several time since we have started but have never beat.  We came out strong right away and never looked back.  We won the game 39-28.

We had a drag out battle in the third game against Phoenix B which had a mix of some of Portland B players too.  We had a rough start being in the hole 7-2 but we battled right back to the top up by three in the third to literally throw it away with bad passes in the final two minutes of the game to lose by 3.  It was a great game, probably the hardest fought of the tournament for our team.

Sunday's final game against Seattle's A team looked pretty good in the books even though we lost by 11.  But the first quarter was a nightmare against the big 3.0 Paul Waston, he had his team up 9-2 by the end of the quarter.  They subbed in their bench and we gained ground pretty quick.  At half they threw back in their starters and got the big lead right back.  But again the 11 point loss looked way better than when we played them in September and lost 59-33.

This tournament was really fun, we worked well as a team for the first time in a real game.  We had a guest player with us #18 Tim Vixay, a 1.0 with some great experience.  He helped us with some game strategy and really increased our communication on the court and from the bench.  I think this tournament was a key turning point for our team.  Everyone was permanently classified to play except Tracy and Willie who could not make the trip.  Our next trip is going to be in Texas February 8,9,and 10 to play against my old team! 

By Spencer Larimore

Click here to see more photos of the event!

The Boise Bombers wheelchair rugby team scrimmaged three able body rugby teams in wheelchair rugby at the Fort Boise Community Center to benefit Toys for Tots.  Each team and spectator was asked to bring an unwrapped toy to the event and boy did they!  We ended up with 2 bicycles, a radio flyer, and bags and bags of other toys.  We want to thank the Snake River Rugby team, the Boise Nemesis Women's Rugby team, and the BSU Men's Rugby team for coming out and bringing so many fans.  Each team gave it their all on and off the court, its was alot of fun watching some of the big guys get in the little rugby chairs.  There were some big hits and I think the able body players gained some new respect for the disabled players...  They should we put a whipping on them!  Overall the event was a huge success thanks to Carrie Crash, Nicolas Kawaguchi, and Spencer Larimore for organizing the teams and the event.  We want to always thank Emily Kovark from the Boise Parks and Recreation Adventure Program for helping set up the venue without her none of this would happen.  Also we want to thank Nic and Big J from 100.3 the X Rocks for all of the promotions over the weekend! One of the best parts of this event was that it brought so many cool people together, the Treasure Valley's rugby community is awesome and we all made some great new friends! Looking forward to next year and making this an annual event.  Click Here for some awesome photos of the event!

The Boise Bombers scrimmaged the Vallivue Falcons Lacrosse team Saturday night for a food drive benefiting the City Light Women's Shelter.  Tons of fans both for the Bombers and Falcons showed up to pack the gym and cheer on their teams.  The Bombers smashed their way to a win while the lacrosse players got a small taste of life on wheels.  It was a really fun event and the crowd got into the game more and more after every crashing hit.   We had an abundance of donated food items from frozen turkeys, tons of canned and boxed goods, to a case of chili.  As a non-profit organization we have asked for help and donations to make it all happen, this was a great opportunity for us to give back to the community.   We are going to have another scrimmage/benefit on December 15th for Toys for Tots so if you missed this one come out to the next!  We always want to thank our sponsors, fans, and volunteers for all they do for us.  Thank you! Click here to see more photos of the event.  Click here to watch the Channel 7 News story!

Our second tournament of the year was a tough one in Las Vegas.  We played against these five tough teams, Nor-Cal Quake, Sierra Storm, Arizona Wildcats, Sin City Sculls, and the Ottawa Stingers.  Click here to check out the results.  We had a blast on Fremont Street after the games were done!  Check out a few pics from the strip.  Again, we want to thank our volunteers and sponsors Access Vans, C&R Medical, and Freewheel for making these trips possible.  Thank you!

The Boise Bombers traveled to Tacoma, Washington the last weekend of September to play in their first USQRA sanctioned wheelchair rugby tournament.  Although we didn't come away with any wins the team improved a lot over the course of the weekend.  The Bombers played in 5 games playing Portland B twice losing in the first game 26 - 53 and 40 - 47 in the second for a good close battle.  We actually held a 2 point lead going into the 2nd quarter!  Not bad at all for our first tournament.  Several players were classified temporarily Willie Bosserman 0.5, Josiah Sullivan 0.5, Tracy Lewis 2.0, and Steve Baxter 3.0.  Jeff Christensen, George Austin, Jacob White, and Spencer Larimore all had been through the classification process before.  We do hope that we can get some of the old classifications brought down at a later tournament when we get to see a full panel of classifiers.  Click on these links to see some great photos from the tournament, check out the tournament results, and watch some video highlights below.

The Boise Bombers kicked off the 2012 quad rugby season with a trip to the Copperview Recreation center in Midvale, Utah to scrimmage against the Utah Scorpions.  The Bombers brought eight players down for the event and everyone had a great time.  The Scorpion players commented several times on how much we have improved in the past five months since our last visit.  They have a very experienced squad and we all have learned a lot from them.  In two weeks we will see how well we fare against them in a sanctioned tournament in Tacoma, Washington.  We have a lot of work ahead of us as we prepare for our first real tournament.  Click on the group photo to see more photos LeAnn Sullivan shot at the event.  Thanks LeAnn!  We all want to thank the Scorpions, the staff at the Copperview rec center, and all the family and friends that helped ref and fix our equipment!

The Boise Bombers hosted our first scrimmage games with the Portland Pounders July 14th and July 15th at the Fort Boise Community Center.  The Portland team brought 4 players with classifications of .5 1.0 1.5 and a female 2.5 so we matched them up with Travis Green, Edgar Simental, and Kevin Falk which are some good unqualified recreation players.  Saturday night we played Bombers vs Pounders the first game and got beat pretty bad.  The second game we mixed all of the players together.  The third game was a low pointer only game.  Sunday we played several games against Portland and finally came away with a win on the last game.  Over the weekend we got a chance to see how well we all could work together as a team and how many different lineups we could use.  It was a lot of fun and we gained a little bit more experience together.  The crowd was amazing, we had a packed gym on Saturday night.  I don't think there was room for any more people in that gym and the heat was a bit much for some of the players. But in all it was a great event.  The Boise Bombers want to thank everyone that came out to support the team and those that helped make it all happen.  Click on the game image to see more photos.

The Boise Bombers first road trip was a success even without our full lineup.  George was sick at the last minute and couldn't go.  That left us with only a 2.0 2.0 0.5 0.5 lineup.  That's only 5 points out of 8 on the floor so we mixed up players with the Utah team and scrimmaged for 3 and a half hours.  Sunday morning we had an even match up of 5 points on 5 points just Boise vs. Utah and we got beat pretty bad.  Everyone on the team improved and learned a lot from this experience and we got an idea of where we need to be strength wise by October when the season begins.  We would like to thank the Utah Scorpions for having us attend their practice.  Everyone of their players gave excellent tips and advice to all of us.  We would also like to thank all of the family members that traveled down and helped with the shot clock, reffing, score keeping, video shooting, transferring and all around support.  It takes a small army to make this kind of thing happen.  Check out a little video I whipped up, its a bunch of short clips from the weekend shot by Bob.   Click on any image to see a larger one.

by Spencer Larimore

Its been a long time coming but now its finally become a reality.  The Boise Bombers Quad Rugby team is hitting the road this Friday, March 30th and 31st to Midvale Utah to play a few scrimmage games against the Utah Scorpions.  We have our gear packed in Bob Bosserman's van and 6 players are doubling up in our accessible vans to head out in the morning.  George Austin, Spencer Larimore, Tracy Lewis, Josiah Sullivan, Willie Bosserman, and Jacob White will be on the roster!  Stuart Larimore will also be going as a referee and equipment manager.  If you live in the Salt Lake Are come watch us play at the Copperview Recreation Center 8446 S. Harrison St. , Midvale, Utah. Friday March 30 from 5pm-8:30pm and Saturday 8am-10:30am. Wish us luck!  We will put up a battle and hopefully not get stung!  Photos and video will be posted next week.