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Lucky
bounce The Rugby Club finished its sixth official season of play with a second-place ranking in Division III. Though the club has only existed for seven years, the ranking didn’t happen overnight.
Keith Dalton, a TCU alumnus, started the club in 1994 while playing rugby for the Fort Worth Rugby Club. “Every year we would host a Cowtown rugby tournament in the fall,” said Dalton, who graduated in 1994. “As the collegiate division got bigger and bigger, we realized that TCU was really the only prominent university in the Southwest Conference that didn’t have a rugby team.” Hundreds of flyers later, Dalton had 30 students show up to the club’s first official meeting. But after the first few practices, the number of active members quickly dropped to 16. During the next few years the club saw drastic change. In 1995, Dalton became the head coach of the club and decreased his involvement in the Fort Worth Rugby Club. Then, in 1996, the Rugby Club became certified by the Texas Rugby Union, which allowed the club to officially play in a division. During its first year of competition, then in Division II, TCU finished in the top 16 in the country. “We had a really successful first couple of seasons, much more than we had any right to expect, but there was just kind of a natural drop after that,” Dalton said. The “natural drop” occurred and the club athletes soon found themselves moved down to Division III because of a last place finish in 1998. However, as the seasons progressed, TCU has become more determined to win its division and win the support of fans, club members said. “The interest for TCU rugby is definitely growing,” said Jamie Hutchinson, a sophomore and member of the rugby club. “It’s an uphill battle just because of the lack of knowledge about rugby.” Hutchinson said that even though rugby is gaining popularity, it still has a ways to go. “Rugby is not an American game,” Hutchinson said. “Rugby, especially in Texas, can’t compete with football.” This is mainly due to the misconception that rugby is a barbarian sport, Dalton said. “People look at football and they think that the players wear all those pads for safety, but the pads are really weapons,” he said. “If the guy that is hitting you doesn’t have any pads on, it is a much more controlled atmosphere than you think.” But Hutchinson said rugby is a logical game for football enthusiasts to follow. “Once somebody comes out and watches a game, they realize that in most cases rugby is football without pads and no blocking, so you’re going to get hit every time you run the ball,” he said. Ironically, athletes from other sports are what usually supply the club with new players each year. “Most of our players are ex-athletes from high school, either they are ex-football players or ex-soccer players who aren’t playing anything in college.” said Hutchinson, who played soccer during high school. Ryan Matthews, a sophomore and member of the rugby club, said that after playing six years of football and joining the rugby team, he has noticed a significant difference in the intensity level between the two sports. “There’s more running on the field in rugby,” Matthews said. “In football you get breaks. When I played football, I played on the offensive line, and when the defense was out there, I got a break. You don’t get a break when you’re out there on the rugby field.” During this past season, the Rugby Club finished higher in the standings, which may help next year’s team, Hutchinson said. “To turn around and make a jump and finish second this year is a really big improvement,” Hutchinson said. With the exception of St. Edward’s University and the University of Austin, TCU defeated every team on its schedule along with two Division II teams: the University of Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. But now with the season over, Dalton said, expectations for next year’s club have already been set. “We plan on beating all of the Division II teams and win Division III and the year after that win Division II,” he said. “There’s no reason that these kids can’t do it. I just got to get them all out to practice.” John
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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