PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Even though it was just practice,
Chery Sequel shot the ball, got down on his knee, pointed a
finger and shouted “Scooooooooore!”
His excitement was contagious. Later, he led a chest bump
with teammates who combined for another goal.
Sequel had another reason to be happy as well. He was on a
soccer field playing the game he loved despite having lost
his right leg an automobile accident in 1992.
The 39-year-old Sequel is among a slowly growing contingent
of Haitian soccer players who have had an arm or leg
amputated because of an accident or an injury during the
country’s 2010 earthquake. Currently, 24 men are part of a
team of amputees who joined together to prove that they can
be athletes and contributing members of society.
That’s a difficult task in a country where the amputees are
rarely accepted.
At practice early March 17 at a field nearly under the flight
path of nearby Toussaint Louverture International Airport,
about a dozen team members participated in rigorous agility
drills, reviewed positioning techniques and scrimmaged.
Almost all have lost a leg. Goalkeeper Francois St-Julien had
part of his left arm amputated after being injured in the
earthquake.
The players dribbled and passed well and hustled to chase
loose balls. Most team members glided across the field with
the aid of crutches, using them for support when they shot or
passed the ball. The crutches were considered extensions of
their arms, and any attempt to block or pass the ball with
them was not allowed.
The team meets three times a week to practice. On most days
not all team members are able to practice because they must
report to work, said head coach Cedieu Fortilus.
Fortilus, 35, also is a technician at the Ossur International
Prosthetic and Orthotics Laboratory at Bernard Mevs Hospital
in Port-au-Prince. There he assembles prosthetic devices for
amputees under the University of Miami’s Project Medishare.
The project is also funded by the Knight of Columbus under
its Healing Haiti’s Children program.
The team is nicknamed the Tarantulas – “zaryen” in Creole.
The name is significant, Cedieu explained, because a
tarantula is not hampered when it loses a leg and can
regenerate the lost limb over time.
Fortilus and colleague Wilfrid Macena have been instrumental
in building the team since it formed in August. An avid
soccer player, Macena lost his right leg when a wall fell on
him during the quake.
The two were concerned that many people with an amputated
limb felt they would be hampered from living a normal life
because of their disabilities. The two men talked with
supervisors at the hospital’s prosthetic and physical therapy
program and were put in touch with the Challenged Athletes
Foundation, which helped with funding for uniforms and shoes.
“I am so proud that I can show some people I am amputee and I
can walk again,” said Macena, whose wife is expecting the
couple’s second child in July.
He has been fitted with a prostheses, but removes it to play
soccer. He said he drives to work daily at the lab. The
couple continues to live in a tent camp in the Dichini
neighborhood of Carrefour, just west of the capital.
St-Julien said playing soccer has helped him overcome the
adversities he and his family have experienced since the
earthquake. He said he has been unable to find work since the
disaster hit and continued to live in a tent camp not far
from the field with his wife and seven children, ages 2-16.
Team member Xavier Semareste, 39, said playing soccer helps
him “feel alive.”