IM Rob Deller...

2010 Handcycle Recipient

My name is Robert Deller. I was disabled as a teenager after three back surgeries the first couple of years were tough but after two years I quickly found that wheelchair sports could be an outlet for me I began with racing and wheelchair basketball for an Easter Seals program. Wheelchair basketball rapidly became my preferred choice. I began putting all of my energy into playing basketball I picked things up very quickly and started to try and find out if there was something more advanced out there for me. I then discovered the NWBA and worked on creating a team in my area with help of who is now my wife. I guess you could say I wouldn’t have met my wife if it weren’t for wheelchair basketball. We did not like each other too much at first but I guess over time she just couldn’t resist my charm. She has a younger son who has Cerebral Palsy named Everett who was the reason she wanted to get more involved in wheelchair sports herself. We eventually put a team together named the Chairiot Express the team was mildly successful in the NWBA but after a few years’ players in the area became disinterested and the team fell apart. After the team fell apart I then went to play for a team in Philadelphia named the Bayada Penguins.

By this time I had developed into an increasingly improved player I was one of the top 40 wheelchair basketball players in the country I was getting invites to team USA tryouts. While coming close to making it I didn’t. At this time in my life I was probably in the best shape of my life until February of 2004 while playing in a wheelchair basketball tournament in Philadelphia I was trying to save a ball from going out of bound I ran into something sitting too close to the court and messed up my left arm and neck at C6-C7 leaving me with limited use of my left hand. I also developed what is called CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) basically my sympathetic nervous system has gone haywire leaving my left arm hurting all of the time and it also swells. So with these new limitations added to the ones I already have playing basketball for me isn’t a possibility anymore. It was tough at first until about 2006 when I discovered Quad Rugby which has turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me for my athletic career. Playing wheelchair rugby has won me a spot on the 2009 USA Wheelchair Rugby Team ultimately taking us to Argentina where we won the Gold in the America Zone Championships giving us a qualifying spot in the 2010 World Championships in Vancouver Canada 2010.

I have always strived to show people that having a disability does not limit my will to compete and that a disability does not limit my ability to lead a full and active life.