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Women’s rugby heads to championship |
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Thursday, 19 April 2007 |
 Active Image | Bryan Tarnowski | The Appalachian
Appalachian State University’s Lucy R. Harlin (left) and other members from the women’s rugby team raised $3,000 to support their national championship trip to Gainesville, Fla this weekend.
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by ED RABIN
Intern Sports Reporter
Blood makes the grass grow.
That is the motto of the Appalachian State University women’s club rugby team.
The grass at State Farm Field, where the team practices and plays, must be getting pretty thick and green in light of the success the team achieved this year.
The team will be heading to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend for its first national championship tournament appearance.
The top four finishers in the tournament will advance to California to play for the national title.
Women’s rugby,
currently ranked second in the South, placed as one of the top 16 teams
in the nation, securing its national championship bid.
“We’ve worked really hard, and we’ve had major success,” team president
Ashley Edwards said. “Talent wise, we have a very strong team.”
Coming from a region that is not known traditionally for its rugby
talent, Edwards believes they had a tougher road to the championship.
“I think we’re at a disadvantage coming from a smaller school and from
a region where the pool of talent is just as great, but the amount of
people who know about the sport and want to engage in it is a lot
smaller,” Edwards said.
In other areas of the country, rugby is seen as more of a mainstream sport than it is in the South.
“We’re playing teams from up North and out West. They take rugby a lot
more serious than they do in the South,” rugby team member Becky Martin
said. “They have six o’clock workouts, trainers [and so on].”
In addition to the reputation of Southern rugby, the team has faced many obstacles over the course of the year.
Funding was a primary problem, with a lackluster budget coming into the year.
Throughout the regular season, the team fundraised nearly $5,000 to
support its endeavors, with an additional $3,000 raised for the
national championship trip.
The team held raffles, car washes and held T-shirt sales.
They have also managed to garner support from local sponsors such as
Cafe Portofino, Black Bear Books, Boone Bagelry, Parthenon and others.
“Rugby is an intense, physical game,” Edwards said. “You have to have a
lot of aggression and a lot of passion to play it. The week after [a
game], I’m so proud to go into class. I have bruises all over my body,
my face is cut up, and nobody knows that we beat Chapel Hill and won
the state tournament, but I know that.”
Not even injuries have seemed to discourage the team during its climb up the rankings ladder.
“I got 14 stitches at Ructoberfest, but even if you get injured, it doesn’t deter you. It’s just part of the
game,” sophomore Sarah Mosseller said.
The consistent success the team experienced this year prepared them to
take on the tough competition they will face in Gainesville.
“We’re going to go down there and give it our best shot,” Martin said.
“We’re going to go down there and play the same kind of rugby we’ve
been playing all year. It gives us a chance to prove that we’re a rugby
team that deserves respect.”
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