Students are organizing a rugby club on campus. According to co-President, Moriah Blue, “from our rugby class [in the] Spring, enough people had serious interest to pursue a club.”
The Spring ’01 class gave students who were interested in the sport a rare chance to learn the fundamentals and get out on the field and play. Soccer coach Collette Bowler taught the class and will be the Rugby Club’s advisor. Students joining the club hope to make it one that will be recognized as a team. According to junior Hannah Freed, “I think it’d be awesome if they took [us] seriously enough to give us uniforms treat us like a team… It’s about time women were taken seriously in hard-core sports.”
Blue, who plans on organizing rugby scrimmages with other college women’s teams, is very serious about the sport.
“It just grips you… there’s something about it; it becomes part of your life,” said Blue.
Her goal for the year is to get the team funded to attend the Women’s Rugby Tournament in Florida.
Rugby is a sport similar to both soccer and football, but is known to those unfamiliar with it as a more violent form of football. Teams consist of 13 or 15 players each. The oval-shaped ball is thrown, carried, or kicked between players, however, it cannot be passed forward. Though not wildly popular in the U.S., it is gaining popularity in the college-aged circuit. Given that Rugby is an emerging sport for college students, a small college like Mills provides a more level playing field than other sports.
