for many of us here in America we were not born into rugby, or shown the sport at a very young age.but i do hope in the coming years that changes. for some, like i, we discovered the sport on college campus or through Friends in high school. it was my senior year in high school, valley christian high school - san jose ca, football season had just ended and ill be honest i never did start. of all my 4 years of playing high school ball i did not start and hardly played. but our season had ended and us seniors decided we didn't want to play another sport in our last year, but there were these kids we noticed who would wear there rugby jackets and jerseys to school in the winter/spring time. at first of course like many our question was, whats rugby? why should i play? it didn't take much to convince me and 5 others to come to a practice. so the fallowing day we showed up of course with our heads held high because we came from playing football. our first drill was to pass the ball correctly. that took us a whole practice, but we still had fun and wanted to keep showing up.as the practices went on we all began to fall in love with the sport little by little. before we knew it our first game was upon us. i took the position as a 5 and my buddy who was a linemen in football took the 8. from our first hit on we were hooked. our highest try scorer was my friend who played 8. big and fast and loved to get contact.
as our season went on we where able to schedule a nigh game at our high school against our rival, bellarmine college prep-or at the time bellarmine college park. the whole week both programs spread the word to everyone and anyone who would listen to show up and support each other because unlike some places a Friday night game, mainly a tradition for football games, was being taken over for one night for rugby. about 150-200 people showed up. my team ended up winning and winning by a large score. but what really made everything worth it wasn't just the win but in the crowd was our football defensive coach who was also the athletic director of the school. both i and my friend knew we made him stand up and realize that they did not use us properly in football. our 8 man ripped a few TRY's in long running and prevented a few. i my self made also long runs into the other teams 20 and try line. at the end of the game our rugby coach came up to us and asked what our positions where in football. we told him, and i asked why did he ask? his response was simple, "I don't know why they didnt use you guys more often?" for a person who was never a big star on football and never did get his name in the paper, or even school paper. to have a coach come and say something like that, it means the world for a young student athlete.
from there i returned the fallowing year to help coach what would be the programs final year, and then move on to play two pre-season's with san jose state university. like many i had to "retire" due to the birth of my daughter and the importance my job has taken.
my point is to not just share my first experience but to also say from personal experience, rugby is the only sport that any athlete from any sport can come into and be a instant impact, and what i loved most was that there is no "bench warmers" it takes all 15 players on the field to win a game and all X amount of guys on the team to prep and win a game.
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