Womens Rugby Org Shows Major Growth

By Gwendolyn Peterson

The Cedarville women’s rugby team is a new org on campus, and it might look a lot different than you would expect.

The org has grown this semester from six girls to over 20,. It centers around learning, practicing and playing the game of rugby. They practice weekly and have participated in one scrimmage so far this year. The team is mostly beginners, with only four of the members having any experience playing the sport.

One of the experienced members and head coach, Bekah Colon, said that the game is a lot different than what most girls of the girls expected.

“I definitely think there’s a negative stereotype following rugby,” Colon said. “People think that we’re just beating each other up. It’s not like football or soccer, it’s unlike anything. So I think a lot of people’s expectations are wrong.”

One of the first-time players, Hannah Lamarco, said that the sport is as tough as she was expecting.

“But don’t let that intimidate you,” Lamarco said. “It’s also a lot more fun than people expect.”

The team had their first scrimmage a few weeks ago in Cincinnati and played a total of four games throughout the day.

“Almost all of the girls had never played before, so I was nervous,” Colon said. “But they played so hard and they did better than I thought.”

Kirsten Sommers, a coach and president of the org, said the team’s performance was shocking to their opponents.

“A lot of people couldn’t believe that this was the first time playing for most of our girls,” Sommers said.  

Sommers said even though they didn’t get a single win, it still was a good opportunity to learn more about the game.

“We didn’t win any games, but it was still a good opportunity for our players to get out there and gain some experience,” Sommers said.

Lamarco said the experience was still enjoyable even without the wins.

“Overall it was really encouraging to us because we did better than we were expecting, and we had a lot of fun,” Lamarco said.

Sommers said that they made a lot of good connections that make them look forward to next year. The coaches hope to have deeper connections with other schools for next year’s season, and they plan on joining an official league in order to play more games.

Looking to next year, the team is hoping for even more growth.

“I would encourage anyone who is interested to just come to one practice,” Lamarco said.

Colon said that there’s a place on the team for anyone, and she hopes that more people will give it a try.

“Rugby is such a fun sport, there’s a great community and it’s a lot of fun,” Colon said. “I would definitely encourage everyone to try the sport if they are interested.”

Gwendolyn Peterson is a freshman English major and off-campus news writer for Cedars. Her favorite things include coffee, Ron Swanson quotes and Oreo Thins (because the serving size is four instead of three).