In the maul

Women ruggers scrum together and take charge

It all began when a girl name Jennifer Wilson, J-Dubb as the team calls her, moved into my building the second semester of my freshman year. My friends and I invited her to a movie, and on the walk there she told us about rugby.

"What is rugby?" we asked. She encouraged us to come out to practice. So on Monday, my friend Kizzie Newton and I went to practice. The girls all welcomed us, and I remember them all joking a lot to each other. It was obvious that these girls have spent a lot of time together and were more than just a team, they were friends.

The women's rugby team is now 4 years old. Matt Waverly and Jon Mooney started the team in the spring of 1997. Two women were already playing on the men's B-side team, and Waverly and Mooney thought that it would be a good idea to have a women's team. So they called up a bunch of their girl friends and told them about it. They got a good response and began coaching the first group of women.

In the fall, the girls on the team started doing intensive recruiting. This included putting up flyers and tabling on the quad. Word of mouth proved to be most successful. The girls on the team started asking every girl they knew if they wanted to play. Jessie and Sunny Atchison were big promoters for the team. They encouraged some of their friends from crew to join, many of whom are still on the team today.

HSU women ruggers take on Stanford in a game they won 29-10 on March 31. photo by Kevin Bell

The men's coach, Chris Byrne -- with the help of Waverly, Mooney, Chris Amos, and Steve Lewis -- coached the girls. Eventually, Byrne could not coach both teams because it was very demanding, and Mike Davis and Aaron Staack stepped in and took over.

When I joined, the women's team had begun its seventh semester. The first few practices were pretty intimidating. I had played soccer almost all my life but never had I ever been so muddy. We learned how to tackle -- something that I am still learning -- and tried to learn the rules of the game. I would ask countless questions like, "OK, when do we do this in the game?" or "Why do I turn and present the ball?" The answer was always, "You will see in the game."

Kizzie and I began as wings. Wings are in the back row, and it's a joke that "wings never get it." This is not necessarily true, but it's a position that many newcomers play. We first played in the B-side game against UC Davis. Things began to make more sense, and I was pumped to learn more about the game. Our team's league games occur in the spring, and we were travelling almost every weekend to schools such as Stanford, Santa Clara, and UC Davis. These trips included long car rides, which allowed us to get better acquainted. Of course the girls all knew each other, but it was always exciting, at least to me, to hear all of their stories and adventures.

By the end of the spring semester, I was made a forward because, I was told, I have a big butt. The forwards are the players who form the scrum -- the formation that results from the 8 forwards of each team binding together and pushing over the ball. They taught me the position of flanker who is a wing forward. I played flanker in our last game against Santa Clara, and I was more confused than ever.

When I returned in the fall, I was excited for the new season. I had caught on to the game more. And while I still felt lost sometimes, I felt more like a part of the team. The first thing our team did was go camping over Labor Day weekend. We went white-water rafting, with our teammates as our guides. We ate so much corn that I do not think any of us have touched corn since. It was a great experience. It brought the team together and was just the beginning of an awesome season.

I continued to practice as a flanker. But then one day, Mooney said I was going to practice being hooker. The position is called a hooker because you are "hooking" the ball back into the scrum. Emilia Kelley is our fearless hooker on the team, and she is always helping me out at practice.

This year I noticed that not only does practice help, but conditioning on your own is a must. I began lifting weights and noticed an improvement in my strength. I am not nearly as strong as the other girls are, but I will work on that. Weightlifting is a time for improving strength and endurance, but also a time to socialize. I noticed when the rest of the team is in the weight room, my workout takes about two hours. However, when I go by myself, I can be done within an hour.

HSU rugger Jennifer Schreier struggles to break free. photo by Kevin Bell

With the help of coaches Davis, Mooney and Amalia McGreevy, our team ended the fall semester with a record of 6-1. We finished our Division 1 league play with a record of 2-2-1, beating Stanford and Santa Clara.

The team bond can been seen on and off the pitch (the rugby term for field). Some of the girls live together. And if they do not live in the same house, they live close enough that it's like they practically live together. We see each other everyday and practice all year. How could you not become friends? Sure, some people are closer with each other than others, but that will occur with any group. The majority of the team lived in the dorms together and has remained close since.

"I have met the most amazing people in the past four years because of rugby," Osberger says. "I have tighter bonds with some of my teammates than I do with my own family. No one knows what it is like to play in the rain, in the hail, in 30-degree weather, and get hit over and over again and get up over and over again, except a rugger. I play because it is one of the few things in life that I have done that is so physically challenging, but so emotionally rewarding. You feel good after and long, hard practice -- or after a bitter fight in a game. It's one of the most rewarding feelings."

Looking at how close these girls are makes me look forward to the future of the team and how someday I want to have that close of bond with my teammates.