Rugby club prepares for fall season with training camp

Recruiting enough players to field a seven-player team is at the top of the list this season for Augustana’s Women’s Rugby Club. A rugby training camp held at Augustana on Sept. 9 offered a first step in reaching that goal and fostering awareness of the sport on campus.

The camp is the first time that the Women’s Rugby Club has held match-like play on campus. In previous years, the club held games at a rugby pitch near the Sanford Pentagon. Players from Augustana, the University of South Dakota and the Omaha Goats Women's Rugby team attended the camp.

Club Co-President Taylor Studer said if players cannot consistently attend practice, gameplay can be more challenging. Fewer players at practice also means fewer opportunities to run full drills.

“It is a very high contact sport, so we want to make sure that we get enough practices in so everyone knows what they’re doing,” Studer said. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s the biggest thing — that’s when you can make a mistake.”

Introducing players to the physicality of the sport begins with practicing tackles and soft falls to ensure comfort on the field. The club will occasionally use the pads in the Elmen Center to tackle so players can gain an understanding of how a full tackle feels.

“If you’re uncomfortable, you don’t have to play. You can just watch, you know, but we try as much as possible before a game to get them comfortable,” Studer said.

Augustana seniors Jenna Sime and Studer first discovered the Women’s Rugby Club as freshmen at the Student Activities Fair. Studer had not heard of rugby, but Sime suggested they both join the club.

“I said, ‘What is that?’” Studer said. “And [Sime] goes, ‘It’s like soccer but with your hands and you get tackled.’”

Four years later, Sime and Studer are co-presidents of the club.

The Vikings belong to the Prairie States Women’s Collegiate Rugby Conference, along with USD, South Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota Morris.

Currently, players from Augustana and SDSU work together to establish a team with seven players. However, the Vikings hope to form their own team this season and consistently play against, rather than with, the other teams in their conference.

A small conference brings multiple benefits, assistant coach Molly Schoenfelder said.

“We really do know every single player on the other teams by the end of the season, which is really fun,” Schoenfelder said. “And it’s really fun to see people grow, and if they stick with it, seeing how they advance.”

Studer said the recent training camp offered the Vikings an opportunity to practice drills that they usually cannot do with so few players.

“We did a run through of actual gameplay, which gave people a feel for what’s gonna happen in an actual game,” Studer said.

Although camp participants did not engage in an official match or full-contact drills, they ran through gameplay scenarios and rehearsed basic rugby skills, like passing and rucking. A ruck occurs when players from opposing teams engage in contact over the ball, which rests on the ground.

Danielle Larsen, a Campus Safety officer who had no previous experience with rugby, attended the camp.

“I wikiHow'd the rules last night,” Larsen said.

Larsen said she enjoyed learning how to ruck at the camp and appreciated the club’s support and acceptance.

“Once you kind of get into it and you start playing and you have a basic understanding of what you’re supposed to do, it’s super, super fun,” Larsen said.

Junior Sophia New also had not played ruby before they attended a practice and joined the club.

“I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I’m gonna have time. It’s something new. It’s going to keep me busy. So I’m just going to go for it,’” New said.

As the first official game nears, New, Sime and Studer hope other students on campus will take a similar interest in learning the sport and joining the club.

“I think [the club is] very intimidating for people, but they don’t understand that literally it’s just random, average people,” Schoenfelder said. “None of us knew what we were doing when we joined here. We all just figured it out.”

The Vikings will head to Vermillion on Saturday, Sept. 16 for another camp and a scrimmage before their first game at SDSU on Sept. 30.

USD’s rugby club secured a second place finish at Collegiate Rugby Small College 7’s National Championships in 2022, making the Coyotes one of the Vikings’ biggest competitors.

“It’s more of a friendly competitiveness,” Studer said.

The club’s first home game is set for Oct. 28 at the Sanford Pentagon.

Head coach Mikayla Schroeder said she looks forward to watching the players form friendships and learn the sport.

“I just like teaching the basics of rugby,” Schroeder said. ”I like seeing young women get excited about rugby and just find a new sport that they can find friends through and find a way to be active.”