Rugby: My Personal Experience In My Life

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One of my best friends is a hooker. There are a lot of other interestingly-named positions in rugby (loosehead, scrummy, fly), and when I first started playing, I was completely thrown-off by how alien the sport and its jargon were. Initial confusion notwithstanding, my introduction to rugby was a pivotal experience in my life.

I did not find rugby like most people do; no one in my family has ever played, I am not of British-isles or Samoan heritage, there was no team in my town. In my sophomore year, a large group of friends and I decided to quit the state-champion high school football program. The football team’s focus was winning, its coaching militant, and the culture toxic. Tired of this, we went looking for something that could provide us with the true brotherhood and sportsmanship we wanted. This is why I chose rugby; no other sport places more emphasis on fraternity and camaraderie. After playing several disorganized pickup games in the muddy fields behind school, my friends and I reached out to a parent who had played …show more content…

To get the team through its infancy, I spent weekends maintaining the field and helping at grocery-bagging fundraisers. I knew that in the beginning we would be beaten by older, more experienced teams, and we were: losing all but one game in our inaugural season. Through all of this and a black eye, though, I began to see the losses as motivation for us to work harder. My friends and I realized the potential we had and threw our collective weight into improving. Practicing for hours in the cold mud and still managing to have fun, I realized that along with becoming an exceptional team, we were breeding an exceptional culture. Intending to find a new sport I ended up discovering a powerful work ethic, an ability to see opportunity in adversity, and a new appreciation for the comfort of mid-thigh

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