Rugby team looks to regionals
By Megan Finnerty
Features
Editor
Shouting, muscular men lunge toward a man at the
center of the pack. They lift his body above their heads, hoisting him
by his black nylon shorts.
He grimaces and reaches out toward the rugby ball,
an elliptical leather creation similar to a puffy football.
He secures the catch and draws the ball to his
chest as he drops to the ground; his teammates are already halfway down
the field yelling at him.
Any sport in which men lift one another by the
shorts, wedgie-style, is not one for the timid. And so the Purdue's
men's rugby team will continue to prove its mettle Saturday at the second
round of the Midwestern Regional Tournament.
The tournament is in Columbus, Ohio, at Ohio State
University where, if the men win, they will go on to nationals.
This is the first time in more than a decade that
Purdue's men's rugby team has made it past the first elimination round.
Club president Jeremy Morton, a sophomore in the
School of Technology, is excited about their first game against Northern
Iowa, who Purdue beat last year 12-8.
The men have not lost a game in a little more than
a year and team captain Billy Mattingly, a junior in the School of Technology
and a three-year team veteran, attributes this success to the team's
coach, Lafayette resident Erik Vaughn.
Vaughn has a sharp military crew cut and is dwarfed
by his players, many of them former football players. He turned the
team around last fall after it lost the first round of regional competition,
bringing the team, as Mattingly said, discipline and leadership.
"We're more dedicated on and off the field and
Coach helped out a lot with that," said the tall, broad-shouldered man.
Morton said the team has come a long way from what
Purdue rugby has been. He said the roughly 30-man team practices more
and takes the game more seriously.
"It went from a party atmosphere to now, we haven't
lost a game in more than a year," he said. "We have 356 points scored,
with 23 given up."
He said his teammates expect to win every time
they step on the field because they've changed their mindsets and their
habits.
These new habits include extensive conditioning.
During Wednesday's practice, the men, dressed in shorts, long-sleeved
shirts and knit caps, lapped the field in tight packs as Vaughn shouted
encouragement and criticism like a drill sergeant.
Scott Peterson, a junior in the School of Technology
and a three-year team veteran, said the team runs several miles each
practice.
"We run a lot more; we didn't used to be in such
good shape," he said. "In the games, we run 80 minutes non-stop and
it isn't fun if you're not in shape."
As the men circle the field, a late-arriving player
jogs up to Vaughn and tells him that he just got stitches in his head.
"That boy's still gonna play," Vaughn shouts, smiling.
"He'll be fine. We've got a game this weekend."
As they run up and down the field, players call
plays, "Bud Light, Oklahoma!"
Men scramble into position, their breath leaving
puffs of white mist in the air.
"Focus on what you're doing," Vaughn shouts. "There
you go, baby; be there; you gotta do it!"
Morton said he likes the team because with it's
new mindset comes new results, and he loves the results.
"We've just crushed everybody we've played this
last year," he said. "People don't know about us so they still think
we're the old Purdue. And it's starting to get out that Purdue's a really
great school for rugby.
"Being a part of a team like this is good because
every time we step onto the field, we know we can win. If we play the
way we know we can, we feel like we can hang in there with any team
and beat them."
For more information about the men's rugby team
or to join, call Morton at 495-1794.
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