As the fall terms start across colleges in the United States, many people look forward to the competition of college sports such as football, soccer, lacrosse and others. People come together over the prospect of school pride fueled by their sports teams. The air of excitement is almost palpable as sports seasons begin.
As prestigious as UTD is in terms of academics and scholarship opportunities, it notoriously stands out as one of the few major colleges in Texas– if not the United States– that doesn’t place heavy focus on collegiate athletics. However, this doesn’t stop the students at UTD from finding ways to participate in sports.
In 2011, a group of students at UTD founded the Men’s Rugby team and quickly rose to the top ranks as they won the Texas Rugby Union’s Division three Championship in 2012. The UTD Rugby team is still playing with heart to this day.
“Pre-game we are kind of running through the things we have worked on in practice and making sure we all know what our responsibilities are, and kind of how our approach is for this game against the opposing team,” Rugby player Octavio Conde de Frankenberg said.
On Oct. 16, UTD had a home game against SMU as they battled against a team with more resources and players. This brings light to the most recent struggle the team has faced: difficulty in trying to recruit players.
“I think that a lot of people just don’t know that we exist.” Social Chair and Rugby Captain, Zayan Hasan said. “It’s surprising as we have been established since 2013 or 2012.”
Currently, the Rugby team has flyers posted throughout campus which work as their primary source of advertisement for their team, as well as their instagram.
“Come to practice.” Hasan said. “If you come to practice, you’ll get playing time, it doesn’t matter if you’re good or bad, you’ll be on the field.”
As of now, the rugby team does not have specific tryouts or require prior experience.
“I think 90% of our team has never played before coming to this school, including our president.” Hasan said. “The head captain, including him, he’s never played rugby before this and he just recently went to Argentina for tour. He made the Texas All-Star team, which is basically the best collegiate rugby players in Texas.”
Hasan notes that one of the most common misconceptions regarding rugby is that it’s a dangerous sport due to the lack of padding. Another misconception is that players have to have a certain physicality which Hasan rejected as a qualification to join the UTD team.
“Rugby is very technical,” Hasan said. There’s a referee and unlike football where the referee is on the sidelines, the referee is actually following you. I think the ref goes out of his way to protect you, protect everyone on the field and make sure everyone is following the rules properly.”
“Also, our team has built in health insurance.” Hasan said. “Everyone is protected and everyone is insured.”
In terms of competition with other schools, Hasan thinks that UTD is underestimated.
“I do think from especially the last two years I have been here, we are definitely underestimated.” Hasan said. “I think our team has a lot of potential, I think we train very hard and I think that is very evident game by game. Our numbers keep going up, our points are going up. We just have the little mistakes here and there that we can tweak.”
“With the team comes automatic networking.” Hasan said. “I’ve gotten my research because I’ve played rugby.”
Hasan also states that being on the team and playing a sport in college has taught him a lot about time management and devotion, which has transferred over to his academics.
“It keeps me very scheduled.” Hasan said. “If you can’t make it out to practice, you have to start managing your time properly.”
“I’ve been an athlete for a good amount of my life, I think just having that outlet is good for you.” Hasan said. “I think having a hobby in a busy college life is good for you.”