TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --
Team Tinker member J. Dee Marinko will begin playing today
in Rio de Janeiro for another team with a valuable mission for America: the
United States’ sitting volleyball squad.
Marinko, a production controller with the 550th
Commodities Maintenance Squadron, arrived with his teammates in Brazil last
week for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Team USA’s first match is today against
Brazil.
It’s been 12 years since an American sitting volleyball
team has qualified for the Paralympics. Marinko and the team earned their spot
last year by winning silver in the Toronto Parapan American Games. Brazil won
the gold.
The 36-year-old former college football wide receiver has
been on the team for six years. The United States has risen steadily in the
sport in the last few years and the team is mentally pumped for a medal hunt,
Marinko said.
“I went back and watched some of our previous matches,”
Marinko said. “With the progression that we’ve made in cutting out the little
mistakes, I think we can go down there and get out of pool play and get into
the medal round. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people.
“I know the guys all feel the same way. We go down there
and play smart and we let the other teams make the mistakes and we’ll be just
fine.”
Bosnia & Herzegovina are the reigning world and
Paralympic champions. Iran will be another tough competitor, having won five
previous Paralympic titles.
Marinko said Team USA’s pool of initial opponents is
“pretty stacked.” The United States overall has nearly 300 Paralympians
competing through Sept. 18.
“We’ve got Brazil and Germany and Egypt, which all three
of those were in the last Paralympics, so they have experience,” Marinko said.
“We can just go in and play without a care because it’s all going to be new to
us.”
Sitting volleyball matches are scheduled to be streamed
live on teamusa.org.
Sitting volleyball is similar to standing volleyball, but
with a smaller 20-by-33-foot court. The net is about 3 1/2 feet high. Amputee
players, six to a side, must keep at least one “cheek” on the floor when
contacting the ball.
They can also block serves to score a point, which is not
allowed in the standing version. Setting, spiking, digging and passing are the same.
Marinko lost his left foot to cancer in 2009. His mother
and sister will be cheering him on in Rio.
Team USA’s sitting volleyball national training
site is at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.