What sport contains metal-on-metal collisions, broken wheels and the smell of burnt rubber?

No, it’s not only NASCAR, but also what some might consider one of the grittiest team sports around: quad or wheelchair rugby.

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s very interesting,” Oak Harbor resident John Balbin said.

Balbin, who first played quad rugby five years ago, can’t get enough of the sport.

“I signed up for it—didn’t know what I was getting involved in and I’ve been hooked ever since,” he said.

Balbin initially tried quad rugby a year after a cycling accident along a Whidbey Island road left him paralyzed below the waist. In search of a way to maintain an athletic and active lifestyle, the former marathon runner traveled to the 1999 Veteran Wheelchair Games in Puerto Rico. There, Balbin intended solely on signing up for track and slalom events, but his wife Hatsue had a different suggestion.

“She said ‘try this (quad rugby)’ and I said ‘I don’t know about that,’” Balbin recalled, with a smile.

After deciding to give it a shot, he immediately fell in love with the intensity of the game.

“When I got out there and saw what those guys were doing it was a real inspiration,” he said.

Upon his return home, Balbin looked to get involved locally, eventually signing up with a Seattle-based team. Over the past five years, he has driven to Bellevue three times a week for practice and this last season joined an additional team in British Columbia, which he start driving to twice a week, September through April. Over the course of a year John and Hatsue travel all over the country and take part in at least one tournament per month.

There’s no question when looking in his eyes, Balbin has a true passion for the sport.

“Sometimes you can actually smell the metal burning,” he said, watching a tape of a game between the United States and Canadian national teams. “It’s a very intense game, it’s very fast pace and that’s what I like about it, you get a very good cardio workout.”

Originally started in Canada in the late 1970s, quad rugby uses the idea behind a variety of sports, primarily hockey and basketball. There are four players from each team on what is generally a hardwood basketball court surface. Using a volleyball-like game ball, the object is for an offensive team to move the ball down the court and have one player wheel across the goal line for a score.

It might sound simple enough, but quad rugby wasn’t originally called “murderball” for nothing.

It’s not uncommon for players to experience collisions that cause wheelchairs to tip over or even bend the metal wheels.

“We had one of the players on our Seattle team split his head open a few years back,” Balbin said. “He got knocked over backward and he couldn’t get his arms out in time.”

Aside from being an aggressive sport, quad rugby also requires a heavy amount of strategy. Players must navigate through tight spots and look to make passes frequently, as they can only hold on to the ball for 15 seconds without dribbling.

Positions are set up by a class system, which ranks players from 0.5 to 3.5 on their mobility. Those who have an extreme limited use of their upper extremities are generally assigned defensive positions, while those who have a majority of their upper arm use are placed as ball handlers.

Balbin, who is ranked 1.0, works heavily on helping his teams out on both ends of the court.

“My main role in defense is to set picks and my main job on offense is to pick a path for the ball handler,” he said.

Players can also be awarded penalties for a variety of violations, including grabbing arms, too many defensive players in the key and using an unfair advantage, which all result in one minute in the penalty box.

According to the United States Quad Rugby Association Web site, the game is quickly becoming one of the more popular wheelchair sports in the world. There are currently 45 organized teams in the U.S. and an estimated 20 international teams.

Balbin currently makes the longest drive of any of the Canadian or Seattle athletes, traveling two hours to Bellevue and another two to Canada. He hopes, however, that other area paraplegic athletes might become interested and suggests interested people look at the organization’s official Web site, www.quadrugby, for further contact information.