Toughness brought him to this place, and will carry him onward.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

You figure that 23-year-old Seth McBride is a tough guy, determined, maybe fearless.

If not, he wouldn't have survived tryouts last month for the U.S. Paralympics Wheelchair Rugby Team, which will represent this country in international events this summer, culminating in the 2006 World Championships in New Zealand.

If not, he wouldn't have once been a prominent high school ski racer in Alaska, and a developing freestyle skier, which is what he was doing six years ago, skiing in Canada in the summer before his senior year, when he took a jump wrong, broke two vertebrae in his neck and lost the use of his legs at age 17.

If not, he wouldn't have enrolled at the University of Oregon.

Maybe it's the latter thing that most makes you take notice, because here was this kid, barely a year in a wheelchair, his whole life changed, who left home in Juneau to attend college in Eugene because, well, that's what he'd planned to do all along.

"I'm obviously proud of the things I've done," he said, "but it seems like for me, that's never really been that much of a choice not to. There are so many things that I want to do. It was either a choice of sitting at home and just sort of being mad about everything, or actually going and trying to do the things that I wanted to do."

And so Seth McBride came to Oregon in the fall of 2001, his toughest entrance exam getting himself physically fit enough to live independently in the dorm as a freshman, and to get around campus in his wheelchair.

"Campus wasn't really bad at all," he said. "The biggest thing I had problem with was distances, and pushing up the little hills. As far as the buildings, there were no problems with that. Once I started getting the upper body strength to be able to push around, I didn't have problems with campus. ...

"I had a great time when I was down there. Definitely, the first couple of years was the typical college experience, loving being there, the social scene, going to parties, having a great time.

"The last couple of years, I've been pretty focused on trying to graduate. Eugene's a good town if you want to go out and have a good time, and if it's raining all the time in the winter, it can be pretty easy to stay in the library for a while and buckle down."

Which McBride did well enough to graduate last spring, having majored in international studies and political science, an impressive performance by any student-athlete, which he was, because by then he'd discovered "murderball."

Officially, the sport is quad rugby, or wheelchair rugby, but it was called "murderball" in its early days, and memorialized by an award-winning documentary by the same name.

It's a mish-mash of sports - basketball, soccer, hockey - played by wheelchair athletes who must have some impairment to all four limbs, on a basketball court. (McBride has use of his arms, but not quite full dexterity in his hands.)

Four to a side, roll with the ball in your lap, dribble or pass every 10 seconds, get two wheels into the key area, with the ball, to score a point.

McBride, who drives a car with hand controls, heard about the sport four years ago, and began playing with a club team, the Portland Pounders.

Last summer, he made a U.S. developmental team that played in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, he endured several rounds of tryouts to make the national team, which plays the North America Cup in Birmingham, Ala., next weekend, and then the Canada Cup in Vancouver, B.C., and then the World Championships.

"It's great being able to do something active at this level again," he said. "Even within the last four years I've been playing, the sport has grown so much. The speed and intensity of it have picked up so much. It's such a high-intensity game. You don't think about anything else while you're doing it."

Playing quad rugby, McBride said, has vastly improved his upper body strength, helping his everyday quality of life, and helped him overcome the accident that he still thinks about "a little bit, but not too much anymore. ...

"You know, I don't really get mad anymore, at all," he said. "I definitely did when I first got hurt, for the first year or two. Those years were definitely the toughest. Now, I've been able to do so many things since my accident, and go places a lot of people who are able-bodied don't get to see.

"So it's kind of hard to be real mad about it anymore. And I think that's one of the great things about rugby, too. You just see all these other guys who are in the same situation as you, and doing the same things, and living their lives, and going about it the best they can, and it keeps you in check a little bit."

McBride, living in Juneau now, plans to spend a month or so in New Zealand after the World Championships. He'd then like to move back to Oregon, to continue playing with the Pounders and perhaps study creative writing. Next year, he'll have to make the U.S. team all over again, and his goal is to do that, and to play in the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008.

Not exactly a life-long dream, but life changes, and we're measured by the way we follow through on old dreams, and find new ones.