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As darkness fell on the DU athletic fields last Thursday night, there was only one team still practicing.
The lone team running through drills that night was not a team that garners much publicity or even a single athletic scholarship. The team, which has been a tradition here since 1968, is not allowed to play for an NCAA championship, because there is none.
This team sweats, bleeds and punishes themselves, not for personal glory or hope of making millions as a professional, but for the pure love of the game, the sheer pride of saying that they are rugby players.
As a one time national championship winning program, the DU men’s club rugby team has struggled in recent years due to a lack in numbers, as they were unable to even put an entire starting lineup on the field a season ago.
However, watching this team run tackling drills through the darkness on this Thursday night, it is hard to imagine that the Pioneers will fall victim to similar problems this year, as there are currently 37 players signed up on the team’s roster.
This fall, DU has experienced a surge of students being drawn in by this sport, increasing the roster number substantially compared to recent years.
Many current players credit the fast, free flowing and hard-hitting pace of the sport for sparking their interest in this traditionally non-American sport.
Rugby, though common in other parts of the world, has struggled through virtual obscurity in most American sports communities.
But, this hasn’t stopped DU students from joining a sport that many have never played or even seen before arriving on campus.
“The cool thing about rugby is that there is a position for everybody,” said junior flanker and club president Jarrod Beckstrom. “Every position has to have all the basic skills, but players of all sizes can find a position that they can have success at.”
Although having an added number of players should help the Pioneers this year, it also brings in a lot of inexperience to the team, as many players have never played before.
Rugby head coach Stuart Halsall describes the process of building a DU’s team back into a winning program: “It’s been a development. The challenge is that rugby is not commonly played. A lot of guys on the team have never played before.”
Though this inexperience could slow the teams early progress, the Pioneers’ confidence is high that this season will be the turning point in the program’s success.
“Last season was pretty rough,” said senior scrumhalf Adam Gregory, who has been a member of DU’s rugby program since his freshman year. “We were only 2-4 last fall, but this year should be different. This is the best team, athletically, we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
Halsall agrees with Gregory’s assessment of the team, as he believes this is “definitely the most athletic team and the most depth” that he has had while at the helm at DU.
The Pioneers hope that their depth and athleticism will bring them success as they play a strong schedule by participating in the Eastern Rocky’s Rugby Football Union, which consists of the Air Force Academy, Colorado College, Regis University and University of Northern Colorado, the defending national champion.
A strong performance in fall conference play could give the Pioneers an invite to the regional tournament, which is held in the spring.
“The keys for us this season is going to be staying healthy and learning on the fly,” said Halsall. “Other schools we play against start their practices in mid-August. So, we have two weeks to prepare for teams that have practiced for over a month. We have to adapt quickly.”
To prepare for a tough fall schedule, the Pioneers played an exhibition game this past Saturday against the Denver Highlanders, an adult men’s club from the Denver area.
Though the Pioneers lost the preseason contest to the overpowering Highlanders, they gained valuable experience, finally getting an opportunity to play in live game action.
“This weekend’s game was a good learning experience for a lot of our new players,” said Beckstrom. “We had seven players who got to play in their first ever rugby game Saturday.”
The game should help to give confidence to the Pioneers, as team veterans Gregory and teammate Michael Foland both scored tries, and first year players, freshman Nick Kitaeff and sophomore Andrew Dalpozzo, had standout performances.
As the Pioneers open their regular season Sunday, they will look to bring their storied program out of the darkness of obscurity and back to the success of old.
The Pioneers play Air Force Academy at home on Oct. 1st at 11 a.m.
