On a recent Sunday afternoon, Adam Scaturro was exhausted from being up most of the night with his sick son. When he wasn’t napping on the couch, Sebastian, 4, snuggled onto his father’s lap and repeatedly reached up to stroke his unshaven face. The love between these two is a palpable thing. The wheelchair they so often share seems only to have strengthened that bond.
Scaturro, 31, is a quadriplegic with limited use of his hands. Once a quarterback and first baseman for Lakewood High School, he ended up in a wheelchair his senior year after a bad flip broke his neck while he was training with the wrestling team.
He accepted his condition early on, he said, “but I wasn’t fully comfortable with who I was until about two years after the accident.”
Wheelchair rugby helped him turn the corner.
Developed in 1977 by a group of Canadian quadriplegics who were looking for an alternative to wheelchair basketball, the intensely competitive sport was originally known as “Murderball,” because the game involves slamming into opponents’ chairs to prevent them from scoring. Played in manual sports chairs, wheelchair rugby became an official Paralympic sport in 1994 and is now played in more than 20 countries.
“When you strap in and start hitting other guys, you defuse the bomb that’s built up inside you,” said Scaturro, who began playing with the Denver Harlequins in 2000. “That’s where I learned to become independent, how to live my life without asking for help, by being around other guys in wheelchairs who are very athletic, like me.”
One of 12 members of Team USA, Scaturro is also head coach for the Lakewood Tigers, a city-sponsored football team for able-bodied youths.
Still, he said, his most important role is that as Sebastian’s father. “It was one of my biggest fears after getting hurt: not knowing if I could have a family.
“Sebastian has exceeded all of my expectations. Having a disability with a child can be extremely difficult sometimes, but I find some of the great qualities that he has come from having a parent with a disability, only because he had to learn patience. He had to learn how to start helping out with the family at an earlier age. I think it’s really benefited us both.”
Sebastian’s parents split up more than a year ago, and Scaturro now has his son half- time, except when he’s traveling with the rugby team.
When they’re together, Sebastian, whom Scaturro calls his “ball of energy,” goes everywhere with his dad.
When his father asks what he thinks of going to rugby practice, Sebastian answers, “Well I like you, but I just don’t like it (practice) because it takes too long.”
Scaturro’s mother, Jody Dertina, said Adam uses everything as a teaching tool for Sebastian.
“He’s a very good teacher. If you could watch him coach, you’d see how he sees the positive in every child and draws that out of them.”
Adam’s father, Pasquale Scaturro, owner of Exploration Specialists International, an adventure travel expedition company, encourages his youngest son to think without limits.
When Adam was 13, he climbed a volcano in Ecuador with “PV,” as his dad is known. With his father’s help, he was the first quadriplegic to reach the base camp of Mount Everest.
“I aspired to make the world accessible, and I’m not just talking about ramps,” Adam Scaturro said.
Pasquale Scaturro said his son is fortunate because he doesn’t have to worry about supporting himself, thanks to a settlement from the accident. That allows him to focus on coaching and rugby, with an eye on the 2012 Paralympics in London. It also lets him spend more time with Sebastian.
Tanya Thompson, Scaturro’s girlfriend and an occupational therapist at Craig Hospital, said Scatturo works hard to provide consistency in Sebastian’s life.
“He makes sure not to hold Sebastian back,” she said. “He takes him to the climbing wall.”
What he hopes most for his son, Scaturro said, is that someday he becomes a great humanitarian, knowing that his father loved him enough to set boundaries and listen to his concerns.
For now, Sebastian rides his bike, with his father by his side. He loves to draw and build things. He also wants his own rugby wheelchair.
“He wants it all,” Scaturro said, with a smile.
Just like his father.
