Rugger changes
St. Michael's men's rugby team alters image

Alex McIntire | photo editor
amcintire@smcvt.edu

James Quill shows off his battle wounds after a tough-fought opening match against Boston College. Photo courtesy of athletic department

When the St. Michael’s College men’s rugby team was forced to cancel its 2005 spring season after being caught drinking in its hotel after a fall 2004 away game, the future of the team was in serious jeopardy. 

Since the incident occurred two years ago, the team has gone through serious changes: once left wondering if there was going to be a team to now being able to have a preseason. 

For the first time in the squad’s history, men’s rugby was allowed to come to campus six days prior to the school's opening to prepare for the fall 2007 season. Not being an actual varsity team, the club team has found themselves jockeying for support between both the college’s athletic department and the Student Association, Club President Matt Brown says.

Finally, about six months ago, the team found a happy medium where it can be helped and respected by both the college’s administration and the athletic department. This helped prepare for the first-ever rugby preseason, Brown says. 

Making a change
With a little less than a week before the official opening of the St. Michael’s residence halls, there was a new group accompanying other fall sport varsity athletes.  The men’s rugby team was settling in and preparing for its fall season. But getting to this point as a club was no easy task, Brown says.

According to Zaf Bludevich, senior associate athletic director and the men’s rugby team adviser, after the 2004 incident the team gained a lot of attention and was identified as a sport that was under the control of the athletic department, but in fact was not.  Since the school did not want to terminate the team indefinitely, the athletic department then took the team in to provide guidance. 

“I look at [the joining of the athletic department and the rugby team] as a positive,” Bludevich says.  “I think the [rugby team] prospered by that marriage.”

Because of help from the athletic department, both the men’s and women’s teams have goal posts in the 300s field. They also travel to away games in buses and have gained a much stronger relationship with the athletic trainer’s office, Bludevich says.

The St. Michael's rugby team (stripes) picked up its first win against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst last Saturday. Alex McIntire, photo

However, while the men’s team received much help from the athletic department, it still wanted more.  Almost a year ago, Brown and fellow senior Evan Sivo started campaigning to both the St. Michael’s administration and the athletic department to allow the team to arrive to campus early to prepare for the season.

“We play hard and we need to be in shape, and they can’t expect us to not come into our season a little bit more fit than we should be, and (the school) shouldn’t deny us that,” Sivo says about one of the rugby team’s main arguments for having a preseason.

After a formal preseason proposal was established by the team and was given to the college, and a club social contract for the season was submitted as well, the school granted the rugby team’s wishes and allowed its early start, Sivo says. 

The proposal included an itinerary of the team’s six-day preseason and stated the time and place of scheduled events.  The social contract declared that there would be no drinking, and that while on campus they would be committed to the sport.

“The school pretty much put a lot of faith in us,” Brown says.  “If anyone got in any trouble the whole team was screwed.  We would have all got sent home.  So thankfully we stayed true to our original promises.”

A "drinking team" to a rugby team

While gaining a preseason has been a huge step for the well-being of the team, as the club hopes to make the early campus appearances regular, the men’s rugby team was helped in other ways.  According to both Sivo and Brown, the extra week was invaluable to the team. 

“We have kids who are coming into the season in shape now,” Sivo said. “Now we’re playing games and kids are running 80 minutes.  I don’t know if they did something over the summer or it was the preseason, but things are definitely different this year.”

Brown says he received compliments from members of the University of Vermont (UVM) rugby team about how much the St. Michael’s team physically wore down the UVM team.  And even though the Purple Knights were beaten, it shows just how different things have been with the help of the preseason, Brown says.

While the team dropped its first two games to Boston College and UVM, the increase in seriousness and intensity of the team is easy to see, especially since a couple years ago, Sivo says.

“When we came here it was pretty much a drinking team with a rugby problem,” Brown says.  “Now it’s a legit rugby program.”

Sivo also commented on the teams turnaround.

“We’ve got 40 committed kids who come out and bust their asses,” Sivo says. “These kids come out and put a lot of time in for being a club, four or five times a week.”

Looking forward

Men's rugby club president Matt Brown watches a play during last Saturday's match against UMass, Amherst. Alex McIntire, photo

As the first men’s rugby preseason went off without a hitch, the future looks promising for the team and its potential preseasons in upcoming years, Brown and Sivo say. 

As rugby continues to grow on the St. Michael’s campus and become a more serious sport, Bludevich is hoping that the upcoming players will bring the club even more attention.  This is because more students are playing rugby in high school, like Brown and Sivo, who played together at Bishop Hendrickson in Warrick, R.I. 

The team’s matches against large Division I teams including Boston College and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who the rugby team beat for its first win of the season on Saturday, Sept. 22, are testaments to the teams desire to make men’s rugby better, Sivo says.

“That’s what I love about this team,” Sivo says.  “Who else here can say they played BC or brought BC to this campus?  It was more of a pride thing just to be out on the field with them.  We get to play on a different level.”