Author: Kelsey Longmuir
As the academic year moves into full swing, students find that the homework load steadily increases, volunteer opportunities begin and on-campus jobs get filled. In the face of all these intellectual opportunities and obligations, the women of Oxy Rugby are busily preparing for their upcoming season.
It is common for the Club Rugby team at Oxy to be a student’s first exposure to formal rugby.
“My goals for the season are to learn how to play, since I’ve never played before, and have some fun getting to know the other girls,” new addition to the team Amber Fandel (junior) said.
Fandel and other new players are learning the game from coaches Buddy Lee and Thom Richmond. The two play club rugby in the area and bring their knowledge to the team.
“They are both very experienced players, and bring the enthusiasm to the team,” Rosie Avolio-Toly (sophomore) said. “Their expertise is critical in teaching new players and to the very success of the team.”
Unlike varsity athletics at Oxy, Women’s Rugby is a club sport and therefore not administered by the NCAA, but is instead regulated by USA Rugby. USA Rugby divides collegiate club rugby into seven territorial unions. Oxy plays in the Southern California Union against schools like Claremont, the UCLA B-team, and UCSD.
As a Club Sport, rugby is run with a minimum of faculty or staff supervision, and the majority of organization al responsibility falls on the captains. This year Erica Boudette (senior), and Meilani Bowman-Kamaha’o (junior) are bearing that load. These two students have been organizing practices in addition to providing opportunities for team bonding.
Unlike most varsity sports, the Club Rugby doesn’t recruit incoming first-years prior to their arrival at Oxy.
Most of the recruiting “took place via [word of] mouth and at Club Day,” Fandel said. The returning members of Women’s Rugby were out in full force on Club Day, sweating it out in the sunshine in hopes of recruiting new members, “Hopefully we will be able to get about ten or more new girls to add to the team,” Avolio-Toly said.
So far this year, the team has been meeting three times per week. Two of the practices are focused primarily on building general fitness through running and other aerobic exercises. The third is designed to work on ball-handling and learning the game through touch games and drills.
Though informal practices have already begun, the team will be taking interested participants at any time during the year. The team won one game last semester. Avolio-Toly said that the “fact that we lost a lot of games is more reflective of our lack of people and experience than of our lack of skill.”
The first game for Women’s Rugby is on Nov. 1 against Claremont. There is a sense of excitement surrounding the season and morale is high. “I think we’re going to have a great team,” Fandel said. “Everyone seems to be really excited about playing.”
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