Teammates praise Travis Murao’s contributions on and off the court

TORONTO – If Travis Murao’s name, bio and photo appeared first when you Googled the word “teammate,” it wouldn’t surprise anyone who played with him during his more than 20 years in wheelchair rugby.

“He was the glue guy, the good-vibes guy that you need on every successful team,” said longtime teammate Zak Madell. “That presence will be missed whether it’s on the bench, the court, the locker room or on the bus rides.”

Murao, a four-time Paralympian from Steveston, B.C. and now based in Toronto, has officially announced he is retiring as a competitor.

The good news: he’ll continue to be very much involved in the sport.

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Murao is currently an assistant coach with the Canadian women’s wheelchair rugby team and his full-time job is wheelchair rugby technical coordinator with Ontario Para Network.

This past summer, Murao was on the Canadian team at the wheelchair rugby world championships. He had an outstanding tournament and was named Canada’s player of the game in the last match.

Murao, 43, started this Paralympic cycle with intentions to go to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

“I was hoping to kind of last forever, or at least to LA,” Murao said. “But especially the last two years and a lot of injuries, just seeing the growth of the program. There are a lot of good young athletes ready to fill my role and take my spot.

“The timing was just right.”

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Murao is known for his sense of humour and his thirst for knowledge. In the past, he’s blogged about wheelchair rugby and starred in the humorous web series “Wheelchair Rugby Talk with Trev n’ Trav” with his teammate and now national team coach Trevor Hirschfield.

“He was able to lift spirits after a tough loss or distract the team from whatever happened,” recalled Madell. “He was just funny to be around. On the road he’d organized sports watching and card playing parties in his room, just a lot of great memories. And now it’s cool to see him step into a coaching position.”

Murao’s passion for both language and wheelchair rugby took him to Tucson where he studied English Literature at the University of Arizona and won a US Quad Rugby Association national championship title with the Tucson Pterodactyls.

“He always had stories to tell,” said Madell. “Sometimes it was interesting. He’d go on these tangents about history or Greek Mythology that he heard on a podcast, it was quite remarkable.”

After being injured in a snowboarding accident, Murao was introduced to wheelchair rugby in 2000 by Duncan Campbell, one of the inventors of the sport. Campbell became a mentor, teaching game skills and life skills to a young person with a disability.

“I was very fortunate to be mentored and play with some of the Mount Rushmore type figures in wheelchair rugby,” said Murao. “Sharing that love of the game and all the knowledge you’ve built up over the years, is one of the most important parts of being a veteran on the team.”

Now Murao is ready to pass on his experience to the next generation of wheelchair rugby players and Para athletes.

His current assignment is as assistant coach with the women’s national team. The head coach is his longtime teammate, Patrice Dagenais.

“He’s a very good communicator,” said Dagenais, who like Madell played with Murao in his four Paralympic Games appearances. “He knows the game really well. It’s easy for him to share his knowledge and explain things properly to players.

“As a player he was an intelligent tactical player who found ways to contribute without necessarily being the biggest or strongest athlete on the floor. And of course, off the court, he was the teammate that could make things lighter.”

For Murao, it’s a natural progression to join the coaching ranks.

“I’m super excited for the next stage of my life,” he said. “I want to see the sport continue to grow and for that to happen we need to also keep developing the women’s side of the game.”

A driving force for Murao was his father Phil who passed away recently. Born in 1944 in a Japanese internment camp in B.C., the family had everything taken away. His grandmother raised her seven kids in difficult circumstances.

“To see my father overcome all of that and bring our family up in such a way that I could pursue my dreams in a way that he never could, it feels pretty important,” said Murao to CPC in 2024.

“To wear the Maple Leaf on our national team gives me a lot of pride.”

Murao was a member of Canada’s gold medal winning team at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto. That victory over the U.S. earned Canada a spot for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.

In 2012, at his first Paralympics, Canada also beat the U.S. in the semifinal on route to the silver.

He says it’s that special bond of being on a national team that he’ll miss the most.

“There’s nothing better than being part of a team and travelling around the world, representing your country with your best friends,” he said.

After more than 20 years, Murao may have left the court, but he hasn’t left the game.

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