Canada's national wheelchair rugby team adds a second female player

From The Province in B.C., Canada:

It sometimes used to seem a little weird to Erika Schmutz (pictured), being the only woman on Canada's national wheelchair rugby team and all.

Travelling around the world with a bunch of guys, taking part in their daily conversations, being part of their daily routines ... they were an understanding group, but still, at times it got lonely. Schmutz often wished that there was another woman on the team.

Now she has her wish.

Schmutz, 37, and Miranda Biletski, a 21-year-old rookie, are part of the team that will wear the Canadian colours at the 12-nation 2010 world wheelchair rugby championships Tuesday through next Sunday at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

After the 2008 Paralympics, wheelchair rugby -- which sometimes goes by the name "murderball" because of its rough and tough nature -- became a fully co-ed event.

Teams can have as many female players as they want on their 12-player roster. There are four women in this event, but Canada is the only country that will have two on their team.

"It's certainly an anomaly," said Schmutz, a 37-year-old from Windsor, Ont., who started playing wheelchair rugby in 2000 during rehabilitation after she broke both her arms and shattered her C7 vertebrae when her car hit a moose. She's been on the national team for four years.

"I notice a difference now and it is nice to finally have a roommate of my own. We're away from home a lot and sometimes some of the stuff you want to talk about, it's just easier to talk to another woman than it is talking to the guys -- as understanding as they can be."

Schmutz played on Canada's bronze medal team at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. She's the veteran.

Regina's Biletski, a former competitive swimmer who hit her head on the bottom of the pool and broke her neck when she was 16, is the rookie.

She's filled with potential and has been fast-tracked on to this team. For her, it's good to have an experienced mentor like Schmutz.

"I'm definitely the baby of the group," said Biletski, who tried out for the junior national water polo team two weeks before her accident.

"I've been tossed into it over the last year. It's awesome to have that type of person to go to when I have all those questions or on those days when I hate boys," she laughs. "It's like having 10 big brothers and an extra mom when I'm on the road. It's a second family, that's for sure. I love it."

The Canadian team, ranked third in the world after the bronze at Beijing, is one of the medal favourites in Richmond. Since 1996 they've been off the world championship or Paralympic podium only once, a fourth-place finish at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney.

In Richmond they're expected to duke it out with the U.S., Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Great Britain, their opponent Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in the tournament's opening game.

Eleven of the Canadians have either Paralympic or world championship experience.

That's an advantage. And so is their unique ability to have two women on the floor.

In wheelchair rugby, teams use four players at one time. Players are classified depending on their level of function. Players with a 0.5-point ranking have the lowest level of function; a player with a 2.5 has the most. A team can't total more than 8.0 points on the floor at any time.

But women get a half-point advantage, meaning Schmutz, who is a 1.0, gets to play as a 0.5. When Schmutz and Biletski are on the floor, head coach Kevin Orr can send out men who have a higher level of function.

"If the female athletes can play at the same level as the men then you really can gain an advantage by having females on the team. That's what we feel we have," said Orr, who coached Canada's arch-rival, the U.S. from 2001 to 2004 and took over as the Canadian head coach last year.

Orr said Schmutz and Biletski are more coachable than some of the men. "They tend not to have the 'me, me, me,' " he said.

"The experience I've had here is that they're more willing to be team players and play their role as far as what they're supposed to do on the court. Men sometimes can get into the mind set of what they get out of it, as opposed to the team. It's a team sport."

Orr likes his team's chances. He thinks he has a deep roster. "Our strength is that we can go nine or 10 deep and in pool play games we can use the whole bench."

After two games a day Tuesday through Friday, semifinals go Saturday at 2 p.m. The bronze medal game is Sunday at 1 p.m. and the gold-medal final at 3 p.m.