Women’s rugby team develops strength, speed, year-round family

It’s about 5:25 p.m. on a Monday in October. The members of the IU Women’s Rugby Club team trickle in from the parking lot behind the North Fee Lane Fields.

There is instant chatter as they dump their bags on the ground and catch up on the stories of the weekend.

The women take their time to take the field. Monday is conditioning day. There’s no rush to run laps. But when cleats are laced and hair is up, the girls wander over and start their warm-ups.

Junior club president Kelly Shank stays behind. She’s wearing black Converse sneakers, jeans and a women’s rugby sweatshirt, not practice apparel. Touching the sleeve of her sweatshirt is a cast.  

“I went to tackle a girl who was a lot bigger than I was,” Shank said. “She just hit my arm, and I just broke my arm on her body.”

But she’s still at practice because the women’s rugby team is a year-round family. And this family’s doors are always open.

***

The team just ended its fall season with 9 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie but will start up again in January. They went to the Sweet Sixteen last year, and the year before that. This spring, they’re looking to do it again, and go to the Final Four at the USA Rugby National Collegiate Division-I tournament.

In the off-season, new members of any skill level are welcome to join the rugby family before practice starts.

A lot of the players didn’t play until college, like sophomore Jesse Wang.

“I’ve never played rugby in my life,” Wang said. “I’m from New York originally, so I went online and I was like, I want to check that out.”

Even though Shank said injuries are rare, Wang happens to be injured. At this practice, she has a broken collarbone from when the team played Ball State and a girl landed on top of her.

While the other team members condition, Wang and Shank stand on the sidelines with their coach Vaughn Mitchell watching.  

Mitchell is an IU alum who played on the men’s rugby team before he graduated. Coaching rugby isn’t his full-time job, but he commits 11 hours during the week to practice, plus his time during the weekend to games.  

He checks his watch as the rest of the team rounds the last corner of their first lap around the field. The first lap has to be no more than one minute and 35 seconds.

The girls come back, breathing heavily. They’re happy they all made their time, but then they take off running again.

The runners travel across the wide-open field, their various profiles against the sky. Wang said there is no particular body type for rugby.

“If you’re not in shape, we’ll get you in shape,” Wang said. “And it doesn’t matter how big you are or how small you are, there’s always a position on the team for you.”

***

On Thursday of the next week, the team is preparing for their Halloween game against Grand Valley State.

Again they come to practice chatting and sharing stories of their costumes for the weekend. They also make plans for a cookout after the home game on Saturday.  

Neither Wang nor Shank are there today, but the team doesn’t seem any smaller.

Mitchell is open to players leaving or coming early because of class or other responsibilities.

But senior Katie O’Leary is there. She played rugby her senior year in high school and heard about IU’s team from a friend. O’Leary is tall and thin and chooses to wear her hair down, which adds to her casual disposition. She doesn’t look like someone who would be aggressive, but for her, it’s the best part of playing.

“There’s no other sport where you can rectify a mistake through extreme aggressiveness,” O’Leary said. “In basketball, when I played, if I let a girl steal the ball from me, all I could do was chase after her and maybe try and block it, but in rugby, if I lose the ball, I can at least try and hit her as hard as I want.”

But at the beginning of this practice, there is no tackling, just perfecting of plays.  

When a play is done, the girls chat. Two sing Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”  

They also share a few comments about some other female athletes. The next field over is home to a coed football game.

“I wonder how many times those girls actually touch the ball,” one said.
“One caught it and just stood there,” said another.

But the stereotype of girls playing football could also be applied to girls playing rugby. Rugby is a contact sport. Isn’t it dangerous?

Not really, Wang said.

“It’s a game of aggressiveness,” Wang said. “It depends on the passion put into the sport. It’s a very fun sport. It’s not beastly at all, though it might seem that way.”

Mitchell said women’s rugby requires different skills than the men’s game.

“It’s more of a finesse game,” Mitchell said. “For the women it’s not about power or strength. It’s about who’s faster and who can get around the people faster.”

***

Despite their winning season, the women didn’t win against Grand Valley State.  

And while they all care about going to nationals and winning, Wang said that’s not her favorite part. It’s the close relationships the team members build on and off the field, during and after the season.

“We make new friendships on the team and off the team,” Wang said. “And we support each other mentally and academically. It’s very home-like. It’s like a family away from our family."