Reprinted with permission of USA Hockey Magazine
By John Tranchina
Photo by Glenn James
Armed and
Dangerous
 |
Despite Being Born Without A Right Arm,
Kevin Qualls Excels With A Little Help From His Family & Friends |
Nick Skelton, coach of the Dallas Stars Bantam B team, knew he had a special
player when he introduced Kevin Qualls to his teammates after his first
practice.
Kevin was keeping to himself when Skelton put him on the spot and suggested he
tell everyone the story about his right arm. Qualls, whose arm simply stops a
few inches past his elbow, proceeded to tell a highly embellished tale of pain
and suffering. “He told the team that his sister cut off his arm when he was a
little kid,” Skelton laughed. “A great practical joke. I stood outside the
locker room and watched them — every single one of those kids came out of that
locker room with a blank face. Like a sheet, pure death.”
That story, of course, is pure fiction. As Cathy Qualls, Kevin’s mother, puts
it, “That’s just how he was born. That’s how God made him.” “People
might say it’s bad or it’s not cool, but it really bonded the team together
fairly well,” Skelton said of the tall tale. “We let it go for a couple of
weeks and finally I said, ‘Okay guys, by the way, that’s not true, he was
born without an arm.’ ”
While he has used a prosthesis in the past, Kevin is most comfortable without
one and doesn’t wear one to play.
“It’s harder to use the prosthesis,” he said. “With my arm, I can
control whatever it does. [With the prosthesis], it’s harder to pick up
stuff.”
Kevin, 13, has devised a unique way of handling his stick and shooting the puck.
“I hold the stick up underneath my armpit, and then I use my hand to just
fling it,” he said.
Coach Skelton was initially skeptical when he heard he had a kid with only one
hand trying out for his team. Then he saw Kevin play.
“I started watching him skate, and I noticed, watching his stride, that he was
really quick,” Skelton recalled. “Then we moved into the shooting drills,
and I realized he was picking every single corner of the net. I just thought,
‘Wow, this kid’s got it.’”
And he doesn’t just play ice hockey.
“Kevin never stops,” mom Cathy says. “He inline skates, he skateboards, he
played football in middle school this past year in the fall, he snowboards. You
name it, Kevin can do it. It’s not an issue as far as Kevin has one hand.
It’s never been an excuse.”
| “He is the heart and soul of our team. He gets
everybody energized when they’re down, he’s constantly
talking.” — Coach NICK
Skelton |
Except for one thing. He can’t tie his own shoes, or, for that
matter, skates. As a child, his parents would tie his skates, but as he got
older, that became more awkward. Over a year ago, the Qualls family began
searching for a company that offered an alternative to traditional lace-up
skates.
Their quest ended at CCM, who had recently introduced a skate called the Vector
Boa, designed for kids under 10, enabling them to tie their own skates.
“There’s a lacing system called Boa lacing — you find it on snowboard
boots and they’re easy to tie,” Andrew Stewart of CCM explained.
“Basically, you push the reel in, you crank it, and it tightens the whole
skate all by itself. It’s got a miniature stainless steel cable that runs
through the lace guides.”
There weren’t any plans to make the skate for teenagers or adults, but Stewart
started the development process to that end, providing Kevin with skates he can
tie himself and utilizing him as a field tester.
“Basically, he’s our guinea pig for adults,” Stewart said. “It’s a
great way to test a product, on a kid who wants to wear them, and he gets to tie
his own skates in the dressing room now.”
Kevin supplies Stewart with periodic feedback on the skates’ performance, and
his comments have already resulted in an improved model with more ankle padding.
“I love my skates,” Kevin said. “They’re so easy to tie, and they’re
really comfortable.”
And Kevin is now so comfortable around his team, he’s become a key leader.
“He is the heart and soul of our team,” Skelton said. “He gets everybody
energized when they’re down, he’s constantly talking.”
As the season has progressed, perhaps due to Kevin’s nonchalance about his
condition, the team coined a new nickname for him: Nub. Even his coach uses it.
“I like my nickname,” Kevin said. “It’s not insulting or anything,
that’s just what they call me.”
His mom calls him something else.
“Kevin’s a good hockey player,” Cathy Qualls said. “Whether or not
he’s got one hand, he’s just a good hockey player.”
John Tranchina is a freelance
writer in Dallas.
