WNY Wreckers

The WNY Wreckers are proud to announce the Return of the Wrecking Ball! After several years’ hiatus due to the Covid pandemic and related difficulty finding hosting space, our wheelchair rugby tournament returns to Rochester!

This year’s tournament will be at the Pinnacle Athletic Campus in Victor, NY on October 12th and 13th. We'll have a total of 8 teams from the Northeast US and Canada. The event will include approximately 60 athletes with disabilities, over 50 volunteers, and potentially 100 or more spectators. The Wreckers have no paid staff and all logistics are organized by players, family, and volunteers.

The WNY Wreckers were founded in 2013 and are a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit organization. We are the only wheelchair rugby team in all of upstate NY. Most of our players are local to Rochester, but we also draw players from Western and Central NY. The sport integrates many different disability types and integrates all ages, races, and genders.

The sport is one of very few adapted sports that focuses on players with quadriplegia. Players have limitations in all four limbs, generally due to spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, MS, MD, and multilateral amputations. For the players, the health and social benefits are tremendous.

As you can imagine, we have many expenses to cover for the tournament and general operations of the team. Expenses for the tournament include referees, venue fees, and food for players and volunteers. We also have year-long costs, such as specialized rugby wheelchairs, gym space for practice, insurance, and the cost of travel to other competitions. We cannot cover these costs on our own and are actively fundraising and writing grants. Our annual tournament serves as the principle fundraising event to make our team possible throughout the rest of the year.