 |
READY FOR TAKEOFF? Front-line
players prepare for the ball.
Rod Searcey |
when she's on the pitch,
Shiyan Koh has a mantra: make the next tackle and remember
to breathe.
“You can’t worry about school, or relationships,
or getting a job,” says the senior double major
in economics and biomechanical engineering. “You
can only concentrate on staying upright and knocking
other people over.”
In the rough-and-tumble world of rugby, a field is known
as a pitch. A huddle is a scrum. Front-line players
are props, locks and hookers. And rucks and mauls are,
well, as threatening as they sound. “Yes, it’s
a pretty vicious sport,” says senior Katie Hill.
“It can seem like a mess out there, but it’s
a game that really makes you think on your feet. And
skill can get you out of situations where you have to
hit hard.”
Drawing inspiration from football, soccer, basketball—even
ice hockey, some would argue—rugby is a maniacal
drive down a 110-yard pitch, interrupted by frequent
pileups. From time to time, the ball is funneled into
the middle of a scrum, then shot back into play with
furious kicking and heeling. The only protective gear
most players wear is a mouthguard. Scrum caps are reserved
for the locks, so that their ears don’t get torn
when they’re smashed between their teammates’
hips.
The game has a certain mud-caked, stress-relieving appeal.
On a recent rainy afternoon, after a week of studying
for mechanical engineering midterms, master’s
student Kelsey Lynn, ’04, burst off her bike onto
Steuber Field with a screeching, “I’m going
crazy! And I’m ready to play rugby!”
Stanford women joined the fray in 1976, fielding a team
that included future astronaut Sally Ride, ’73,
MS ’75, PhD ’78. The club team won the national
championship in 1999 and has qualified for the finals
five other times. “They have a very good reputation
as a strong, well-run club,” says Kristin Richeimer,
manager of collegiate development for USA Rugby.
Although the NCAA has recognized only four squads, women’s
rugby is on its list of emerging sports and more than
300 teams nationwide are seeking varsity status. The
number of female players has climbed by almost 20 percent
annually since 1999; women now comprise 43 percent of
all collegiate players.
Dozens of rookies turn out for the first practice on
the Farm each autumn, and this year some 30 stuck with
it. “Most of them had never seen a game, so we
hung out at Toyon and watched old World Cup games on
the big-screen TV there,” says senior Cristin
Carey.
Like most players, Carey participated in high school
sports—“I played water polo and swam, so
land sports were new to me”—and she missed
being part of a team when she got to Stanford. Rugby
offers a position for every body type, from the lithe
5-foot wings who score points to the muscular 5-foot-11
props who shove the ball steadily forward in the scrum.
At a preseason tournament in November, junior Victoria
Folayan pulled on a pair of New Zealand-made boots she’d
just bought at Kumar’s Island Boutique in Redwood
City. As she fingered her metal cleats, the former long
jumper on Stanford’s track and field team bounced
to Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s
Hot” and visualized scoring her first “try,”
or goal.
And score she did, with two 50-yard runs across the
goal line. “She’ll be shooting the boot
tonight,” Carey said, referring to a tradition
the squad has established. Translation: team members
will pour a drink into Folayan’s newly christened
footwear, so she can take a long celebratory swig.
|
