After ten years as a varsity sport at CWU, rugby has been moved back to a club after the realization that the program at a varsity level was impacting CWU’s other athletic programs. The club is now where many former CWU rugby male and female athletes find themselves playing the sport they love while introducing it to many of their Wildcat peers.
The Rugby Club President Quaid Hunt spent the last three years in Ellensburg as a member of CWU’s lone D1 sport and now looks to keep rugby alive at the university.
“We had to sort of start from scratch, we had to create a presentation of our budget and all the teams we would play, the league we were in, who would coach and where would the team practice. Also had to figure out how to get more people to come play with us,” Hunt said. “Everything athletics did, we kind of had to scramble to do that ourselves … We just have to show how we are able to be a team that is fully student led without any support from outside entities.”
For the time being, the club is using high school gear for games and practices. “Athletics still has the rugby gear,” Hunt said. “I don’t think there has been much communication between them and club sports. The gear is there and I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, I think people just have to sit down and talk.”
The club held scrimmages called touch at Alder Field on Sep. 23 for Wildcats to come out and learn the game of rugby. After recognizing some players were missing the proper footwear, Hunt and others made sure those wildcats had the gear they needed.
“I thought it was one of the coolest things ever. A lot of guys didn’t come with cleats but by the end of practice I think everybody should have had cleats,” Hunt said. “I think that is one of the great things about rugby, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have stuff right now. There is a group of us that can all help you get what you need. That was definitely what I was most excited about. Now all of those guys who need cleats have cleats for the season.”
The team has goals this season of building up more connections with alumni and the community, but most of all they are looking to go out and have fun playing the sport while possibly expanding it to a new audience.
“Winning games is great but our biggest goal is to have a consistent group of people coming to practice and being excited to run around tackle and play rugby,” Hunt said. “The performance of the team is the last thing I’m worried about. The first thing I care about is how to get more people to show up to give their time to something bigger than themselves … There’s no support system right? There is no money coming in, it is all from us but that is cool because we can make it whatever we want and make it really good.”
With such a heavy contact sport like rugby, injuries are inevitable. For that reason the club will travel with a medical staff for games and will have CPR certified individuals at practice.
The team will be operating with Head Coach Emilio Carranza who was the Assistant Men’s Rugby Coach last season at CWU. Carranza also has a background playing the sport as he played at Lindenwood University. His job alongside Assistant Coach Jude Mullette will be to focus on the performance side of practices and games and also dictating the teams play style.
“There is a lot of excitement. It’ll be a lot of fun to be able to work with individuals that are new to the game and hopefully be part of their development as well as the development of club rugby at Central,” Carranza said. “I also think this puts the returners in a unique position of leadership. They get to work alongside their teammates and bring them up to speed and push the standard every day. This is going to be a really fun opportunity.”
The club practices from 4-6 p.m. at the Recreation Sports Complex located behind Dugmore Residence Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first game takes place Oct.11 with the location to be determined.
