On a bright and sunny, high of 80 degrees, Saturday morning, the Women’s Club Rugby Team hosts their annual rugby tournament on the intramural fields near the Williams Center. Involved in this tourney were Northern Illinois University and UW-Oshkosh, competing against the UW-Whitewater ladies who teamed up with UW-Stout. Whitewater hosts one competition per semester, each team in the surrounding area will host one. This tournament is in “festival style” due to low numbers of athletes, therefore Whitewater is teaming up with Stout, and Oshkosh with NIU. The rugby club has been on campus and within this community for many years, and is only increasing in popularity. 

“There is a whole community for rugby that people just aren’t aware of,” said past player, Morgan Freund, on the community coming together to watch student athletes at the club level compete against each other and other schools.

Rugby is a unique sport that has been gaining more and more players over the years, and is prevalent in the community. Our club team consists of a group of women athletes that compete and practice with each other to gain a community of competitive individuals. Having a club team on campus “is kinda like having people have your back in a community style, since there is low recognition throughout the campus,” said Freund on why it is important for the school to have this club on campus. 

The field played on is the size of a football field, the sideline was packed with players, community members, parents, and friends, all coming out to watch “something on a saturday even though they aren’t collegiate athletes,” said Cierra Brann, club sport supervisor.

Brann watches over the game as the athletic trainer to make sure that any injuries are taken care of, and that everyone is safe. There are teams of 15, and the games have four quarters of 20 minutes each, meaning that their games are “festival style because there aren’t enough players for each team to have their own game against one another,” said Kameryn Eger, a rugby enthusiast. Eger goes on to explain that each of the tournaments held throughout the state and surrounding areas are all this way, as a way to involve every member of four teams during one game. 

If you are interested in joining the club, or watching their games, visit the rec sports website. Their next game will be at UW-Oshkosh in October.