The Rolling, Inspirational Journey Of Simon Calcavecchia

The Rolling, Inspirational Journey Of Simon Calcavecchia

Simon Calcavecchia was paralyzed playing rugby, but that didn't stop him.

May 25, 2017 by Alex Goff
The Rolling, Inspirational Journey Of Simon Calcavecchia
The last time I saw Simon Calcavecchia walking was at a bowling ally -- I was playing a game with my son, and Simon was leaving for Australia.

This was 2002. A few months later, he came back paralyzed, his life forever changed. But what Calcavecchia would do with that changed life was still unknown.

I was helping coach what became the Budd Bay Barbarians high school rugby team in Olympia, WA -- it was known as Capital at the time -- and Simon played hooker for that team in 2000 and 2001. He was part of a group of kids who started a team in 2000 under head coach Pete Sullivan. With only two players on the team with any rugby experience at all, Capital finished second in the Pacific Northwest and won the Festival (basically Tier II) at the Boys High School Championships. In 2001, the team went one better, winning the PNW and finishing 3-1 and fifth at nationals, its only loss 13-10 to Xavier.

"I liked football well enough but I didn't really try hard at it," Calcavecchia said. "I wanted to score touchdowns ,and I was always playing on the line. But then (classmate) Matt Hudson comes to me and says, 'Hey, you should play rugby.' I asked him what that's like and he says, 'Everyone runs with the ball.' I said, 'Say no more, I'm in.' And I loved it. I never worked so hard at a sport in my live. I still love it."

A Sudden Loss


A stocky, hirsute hooker and sometimes prop who was secure in his lineout throws and played well in the open field, Calcavecchia got the opportunity to play for a Sydney, Australia, club after graduation thanks to connections from Sullivan, who is from there. Calcavecchia went down to train and play, and then one day, tragedy struck.

He had been trying to incorporate some advice from a teammate into his scrum engagements at prop. Focusing too much on that, he didn't engage into the scrum the way he needed to, and with the impact of the engagement, suffered a broken neck. 

The event was catastrophic. Rushed to the hospital, Calcavecchia was immediately in the best of medical hands, but he was paralyzed. 

"The club I was with were so nice and so supportive -- they were incredible," Calcavecchia said. He was visited constantly, and even got a visit from Australia national team captain John Eales.

A year later, I myself was in Australia and met Eales at a function. His first words to me were: "How's Simon?"

With the support of friends and teammates in Australia and the USA, as well as donations (in a pre-GoFundMe world) from around the globe, Calcavecchia was brought back to the Pacific Northwest, where he stayed at the University of Washington Medical Center, once again with teammates constantly at his side. Those same teammates retrofitted his mother's house so Calcavecchia could move home, and the recovery started. He was fortunate to have his English-born mother, Julie, by his side. She never once shied away from the enormous task presented to her of caring for her son. 



Because of her support, Simon's recovery was an active one. He learned to use his wheelchair. He would observe what was now the Budd Bay Rugby Club boys practices and supported the new girls team, as well. 

"I love rugby," he said. "I still love rugby. I am a huge rugby fan. People say I should be the last person who likes rugby because of my injury, but it doesn't work that way. The teamwork, the camaraderie, there's nothing like it. I'm even helping to coach, although I basically say stuff like 'good job.' But for me, finding a sport where a 5-7, 220-pound kid can carry the ball and play… it was great for me, and I still defend it."

Inspiration In Setbacks


Calcavecchia took on his new life with gusto. He played wheelchair rugby. He traveled. He got his degree and began speaking at schools about living with disabilities and how to talk to those with disabilities.

He went dancing and trained to climb Mount Rainier. That, however, might have been a mountain too far. His training and active life caught up with him, and Calcavecchia developed an arm injury that made it impossible for him to achieve his dream of climbing a mountain. He had to stop playing wheelchair rugby, and it hurt.

"I was not really discouraged by my original injury, because I felt I was going to adjust and take on that challenge and do everything I wanted to do," he said. "But the second injury, while it might not seem so serious, really got to me. It was tough, because now I had found a limit."

Maybe, maybe not. At around the same time, Calcavecchia was also embarking on a new project -- writing a book. He knew artist Arturo Alvarez and one day brought up the idea of the two collaborating on a children's book.

"I knew I wanted the main character to be an animal, and an animal with similar disability as I had," Calcavecchia explained. "I knew Arturo for two years before I ever saw him draw something kid-friendly. He's very driven and ambitious, and at that two-year mark I said, 'Art have you ever thought about making a children's book?" And he said, 'Let's do it.' So I had the idea of the character being an animal, and I thought, what kind of animal uses a wheelchair in real life? I immediately thought of a wiener dog. And then I knew he had to have a fun name, so his name is Frank, because he's a wiener dog. Then I thought Frank needs a buddy, because in my life I rely on other people to help me be more independent."

He contemplated various animals, and then he decided Frank's friend should sit on his back. He came up with a little bird. Alvarez drew a yellow bird, and suggested its name would be Mustard.

"I said, 'Mustard? I don't know, man, that's a little ridiculous,'" Calcavecchia said. "But I thought about it and realized it was brilliant."

So the characters were born, and Calcavecchia wrote the book "The Adventures of Frank and Mustard: Stuck in the Mud." It's designed for young children, and the story of the book is modeled after a real event in Calcavecchia's life. He had gone to Vancouver, BC, for a wheelchair rugby tournament and took a detour to visit some gardens. His wheelchair got stuck in the mud, and the strips of material designed to help walkers get traction in the slop spun around his wheels and made him even more stuck. 

After Calcavecchia's friend couldn't get him out, they ended up eliciting the help of various people and responders to get Simon out of trouble. That story is reflected in the book.

Now an author and 34 years old, Calcavecchia is finishing up his second "Frank and Mustard" book. He speaks at schools about the book and his life in a wheelchair and works to make disabled people seem less strange for young children.



"I love it," he said. "I am able to lead a life of passion and do something that I love. That book, when I was injured it was a tough time for me, and it was a tunnel of hope. It's helped me continue to have passion and meaning in my life, and that's what drives me."

'You Are Still You'


For years, friends would get excited about every little development in Calcavecchia's recovery. He seemed to move better, and the thought that he would walk again was too exciting to hide. But that optimism among his friends didn't bother Calcavecchia. He knew he was still paralyzed but said his friends were just being supportive. He thrives on that optimism, and said you never know, he could still be walking again some day.

Calcavecchia was able to buy his mother's house, where he and his mother and his grandmother still live.

We asked Calcavecchia about a recent injury that made the news after Cal's Robert Paylor suffered a serious paralyzing injury while playing in a game. The two stories are somewhat similar -- a fairly innocuous rugby event leads to paralysis. Calcavecchia had this to say.

"Robert's life has changed a lot, and it will be very different from now on," he said. "But I'd say to him what someone once said to me: You are still you. The things that make you who you are have not changed."

Simon has not changed. I can tell you that. He was the fun guy on a really good rugby team back in 2000-2001 -- the kind of guy who would shave designs into his belly hair. He's a little more serious now but not much. He's certainly still easy-going but driven at the same time. Rugby lost a great player that day in 2002, but, really, we didn't lose him at all. And while Simon Calcavecchia may have lost the ability to play that sport he loves, he found something, too.

See more about Frank and Mustard at www.frankandmustard.com