Ripon College Days

Rugby isn't just a crazy British game like cricket anymore.

Even Gladys Knight is playing rugby these days. In a recent Super Bowl ad the soul singer showcased her rugby skills while hawking credit cards for MBNA.

And if you flip on Fox Sports Net late at night there's a chance you might catch a match of this weird football-like game that is gaining a cult audience in the United States. And even Ripon has been touched by the white oval rugby ball.

Next week students interested in playing or gaining knowledge of the sport and even begin playing will have the opportunity to meet with Brad Casetta, head coach of the Fond du Lac rugby club team.

Casetta says the meeting held in the classroom at Storzer Gymnasium Thursday, March 3 at 4:30 p.m, will give students the chance to get acclimated with members of the team, get information on the team's spring practice, basics of the game, and the team's membership in local, state and national organizations.

"We'll take anyone who's willing to practice and give it their all," Casetta says. "Don't feel intimidated if you can't make every practice. I understand how busy college students are with classwork, jobs and significant others."

Rugby originated at the Ruby School in England - hence the name - when one of the pupils, William Webb Ellis, picked up the ball during a game of soccer in 1823 and ran with it.

Eventually Cambridge University adopted the game and significantly helped popularize and define its rules. In 1895, a group of rugby clubs in northern England formed a league to compensate players for lost wages and established common rules.

By 1908 it had become popular enough to be an Olympic sport, but was removed only a few years later because of lack of interest. This was a significant setback for the sport and it dwindled in activity from many regions of the world, including the United States which had won the first two gold medals.

However, the game has survived primarily as a British territorial game, especially popular in Australia, New Zealand and South America.

The only thing that has kept rugby going in America has been its popularity among college fraternities continuing to play and traveling from campus to campus for weekend tournaments and forming intercollegiate leagues.

But in the last 10 years membership in USA Rugby has grown significantly, with a large push from the Midwest, specifically Wisconsin. Renewed interest in the game has even caught the attention of the International Olympic Committee. They are currently considering adding the sport to the 2008 or 2012 Olympic games.

"Rugby is so much fun to watch and even more fun to play," says ruby enthusiast, sophomore Drew Davis. "It's great that anyone of any size and ability can play."

Davis loves to watch the sport on television and says he has been playing for almost 10 years. The only problem, he says, is finding enough competition.

"I'd love to play more because it's hard just finding pick-up matches."

The basic game involves 15 players, although tournaments with seven members a side is also popular.

The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by carrying, passing, kicking and grounding an oval goal in the scoring zone at the end of the fields. However unlike football the ball may not be passed forward (though it may be kicked forward).

And similar to soccer the game doesn't stop from play to play and substitutions are usually only made in the event of injuring.

And if the experience of Ripon High School senior Evan Koon has anything to say, it doesn't take long to catch on.

Koon is a member of Fond du Lac's high school team, the Stoutmen, and in less than one year's time, he has gone from being the "rookie" to being called on by the United States U-19 squad to take on the world.

But Koon isn't the only one in Ripon who has experience battling over the oval ball. Ripon College junior Tim Peters, a defensive end on the Red Hawk football team, played the summer after he graduated high school on the Wisconsin U-19 all-star team.

"Football is my favorite sport, but rugby is more physically demanding because of the constant running and hitting without pads," Peters says. "I am definitely going to consider playing rugby again after my football days are over, and maybe in the spring if I have time and it's ok with coach."

Casetta hopes that students won't be intimidated by the idea of taking on a sport they have never played.

"Every person who comes to practice will get an opportunity to play and an opportunity to belong to a community and team," he says. "It doesn't hurt to try and you'll thank yourself you did."

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