Less than a week before its first game of the season, away against Cherry Point on Saturday, the N.C . State Men’s Rugby Club looks to improve its 46-year-old image on campus while improving its team depth. With 125 members, an average practice size of 60, and a coaching staff with nearly 90 years of combined rugby experience, it seems just a matter of time before that legitimacy is achieved. The team’s head coach, Robert McAlister , said the team is preparing for its upcoming competitions and looks forward to defending its previous championship.
“The club focus is to prepare for the upcoming season,” McAlister said. “We will be competing in the ACRL league, where we will be playing 15-a-side rugby. We also play seven-a-side rugby, which is a lot more open of a game. We’re the defending champions of the ACI 7’s Tournament, which we will be preparing for on Sept. 17 and 18 in Greensboro.”
Brandon Ramos, a sophomore in nuclear engineering and club media committee member, desires his club to be viewed more like a varsity team.
“We’re trying to make our rugby team seem more official, unlike years before,” Ramos said. “In addition to playing, we have committees that you have to be on in order to be on the team.
“I feel like last year we weren’t that organized. We just went to practice on Tuesday and Thursday and had games on Saturday. We did maybe two community service projects and one for fundraising. That’s not too much. We want to be more involved with the campus instead of seeming like our own separate club.”
The team, who will be returning to practice on the fields at Method Road, has already knocked down two solid weeks of team practice. McAlister expressed his interest in expanding the 501(c)(3)-status club’s benefits offered to its members.
“We do have aspirations to model ourselves more after the varsity sports on campus,” McAlister said. “One of the things we will be looking at, but not necessarily implementing, is a grading policy. Our members will have to maintain a certain GPA to remain eligible. We’re also going to start fundraising so we can offer some scholarships, as well.”
Team captain Matt Pace, a senior in biological engineering, anticipates his team will bounce back after a previous season of unfortunate events.
“Last year, we were plagued by illness and injury,” Pace said. “We went 3-4. The year before, our record was 8-2. We’re going to have a strong side this season with our returning athletes and our new talent.”
For those interested in playing rugby who are uncertain about the dangers of the sport, McAlister mentioned that the gameplay itself is relatively safe.
“Rugby’s a contact sport that the rest of the world plays in place of American football,” McAlister said. “There’s no reason to worry about suffering any higher rate of injury in rugby than you do in football. Statistically, rugby is a lot safer of a game to play.”
Even though the first game is this week, the club still encourages all who are interested in joining to come to a practice and test the waters. Ramos hopes, by holding open tryouts, that the rugby team will shed its stereotype and be seen as a more approachable group of guys.
“I think that a lot of people think that the rugby team is just a bunch of gross guys,” Ramos said. “We’re not a bunch of ‘d-bags.’ We are an organized club and we have goals of being number one. We want people to come out and play rugby. It’s fun, it’s active, everyone can play, and it’s team oriented. You don’t have to be a star running back from high school. You can be 300-pounds and still score. It’s about who’s able to play with the team and who has that team mentality. Everything I do isn’t for myself; it’s for the rugby team. We’re family.”
The team holds practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Method Road from 5:30-7:30 p.m . Ramos doesn’t want anyone to feel too intimidated to come out and give the game a shot.
“You might get hit by a guy a lot bigger than you every now and then, but it’s not going to happen often,” Ramos said. “Sometimes, you’ve just got to man up and take a hit. That’s rugby.”
