Introducing our three-part mini series on Club Sports @ Bentley!
Last week, HYPE got the chance to talk to Men’s Rugby president Brendan Hartford and Women’s Rugby president Allison Doucette. Women’s and Men’s teams to find out what the clubs really entail. We talked to Interested in learning more about the rugby teams on campus? Find out here!
Women’s Rugby (Allison): Rugby brings together a group of competitive girls to play as a team. Most of the girls have no rugby experience, so we learn the sport together and build our team from the bottom up. We play full tackle both semesters. During the fall we play games with 15 players on a field and in the spring we play with 7 players on the field and compete in multiple tournaments over the course of the semester.
Men’s Rugby (Brendan): The Men’s Bentley Rugby club is a group of motivated men that have various athletic backgrounds. We are a physically hard working team and we push ourselves to get better to reach our goal of being conference champions, which we accomplished this past season. Even with all the practices and hard-fought matches, we regularly find time to reward ourselves and have fun as a team.
Now that you know what the clubs are, how you can balance being a part of the club while still staying on top of all that GB work? Hear stories of the team members about their practice and competition schedule.
Women’s Rugby: Our practices are twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm.Occasionally we will have a weekend practice before the season starts or we will have other team events throughout the week. Events may include team gym sessions or a chance for us to bond together.
Men’s Rugby: We practice every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30pm with an additional conditioning workout during the week and a Rugby match against an opposing team on the weekend.
Competitions:
Women’s Rugby: We usually have games every weekend, mostly on Saturdays. In the fall we have about 7 or 8 matches whereas in the spring we compete in 4 or 5 tournaments.
Men’s Rugby: In the fall, we compete every weekend for about 10 weeks or more if we move onto the National Tournament. We also have a similar spring season that includes tournaments on the weekends.
The only question left to answer is, how can YOU get involved?
Women’s Rugby: Anyone can start rugby with any level of experience. There are positions for every type of athlete. Every semester we start off with an informational meeting before the season begins for anyone who may be thinking about joining. Our practices are all open so if someone wants to come down and observe or try it out for a day they are welcome to do so. Anyone interested can contact our GA account at GA_Womens_Rugby@bentley.edu.
Men’s Rugby: If any male Bentley student wants to join, they can come and show up at any of our practices and we are open to all athletes interested. They can find more information by reaching out to the president Brendan Hartford at hartfor_bren@bentley.edu or our head coach, Brian Pendergast at brian_pendergast@hotmail.com