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thedrifter
11-25-07, 08:26 AM
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Buddy Bowl has wounded in mind
Annual flag-football tournament raises funds for disabled veterans.
By ANDREW GALVIN
The Orange County Register

CAMP PENDLETON - Some of the best football action this Thanksgiving weekend wasn't on TV.

About 250 players – male and female, able-bodied and physically challenged – converged on Camp Pendleton Saturday for the 31st annual All-Star Buddy Bowl, a flag-football tournament and fundraiser for children and wounded troops.

Retired Army Capt. Dawn Halfaker, one of five women to have lost a limb in combat in Iraq, was back this year to play in her fourth Buddy Bowl with her team, the Hell's Belles. Halfaker, 28, lost her right arm when she was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while on patrol in a Humvee on June 19, 2004.

Last year, Halfaker helped her team to victory by contributing a one-armed interception. This year, the Hell's Belles found themselves out-womaned by another all-female team, the Free Radicals.

The event kicked off at about 9 a.m. with an opening ceremony. Marine Maj. Nico Marcolongo, who organized the event with his wife, Lisa, said the Buddy Bowl raised about $70,000 this year, mostly from sponsors. The money goes partly to help disabled veterans participate in sports by funding grants for specialized equipment, coaching, travel and race entry fees.

The Buddy Bowl also funds scholarships for the children of Marines who have been killed in recent conflicts.

The first game Saturday was a demonstration of wheelchair football featuring athletes from the San Diego Adaptive Sports Foundation. Aaron Patterson, 16, who lost a leg to cancer at age 2, was the star of the game, hauling in three touchdown passes en route to a 28-7 victory. The four-on-four game was played on a basketball court in Camp Pendleton's gymnasium.

Patterson took advantage of his disability by tucking the football into the empty footplate of his wheelchair after catches. The technique enabled him to hang onto the ball during sometimes-violent collisions with other wheelchairs, while his two-legged opponents coughed up fumbles and dropped passes.

Marla Knox, executive director of the adaptive sports foundation, said Patterson has developed into a top athlete since starting to play wheelchair sports five years ago. Back then, he was 40 pounds heavier and left in tears his first day, fearing he couldn't compete, she said.

"Everybody has to start somewhere," she said. "It takes patience and hard work."

Another wheelchair player, Samuel Nehemiah, 37, was disabled by polio as a child in Nigeria. He now lives in El Cajon and works as a motivational speaker, encouraging teenagers to stay in school.

For the past two years, Knox has been reintroducing disabled veterans to sports through her work with the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. "The stuff that we able-bodied people take for granted are all big questions for them," she said. "You gotta challenge them – it all ties into that."

Outdoors on the football field, the Hell's Belles were being routed, 27-0, by the Free Radicals, a Los Angeles-based team playing in their first Buddy Bowl. Halfaker was aggressive on defense, charging after the quarterback and almost making another interception.

Tameesha Hayes, 35, of Riverside starred for the Free Radicals, grabbing four touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Teammate Kym Williams, 44, of Dana Point said the Buddy Bowl was a good time made better because it was for a good cause.


Contact the writer: 714-796-6045 or agalvin@ocregister.com

Ellie