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Alabama might not be the hotbed of rugby that California and New England might be in the US but it is making some reasonable strides to becoing a recognised rugby playing force.
We have been fortunate to catch up with Sterling Brothers President of the Montgomery Yellowhammers RFC and Chris Steketee from Jacksonville State University to discuss Alabama Rugby. Make no bones about it, Alabama is a football State as Sterling notes "We tried to help coach the new players in the basics of rugby. There are still a lot of people in the U.S. who do not know what rugby is; in the southeastern U.S., American football, baseball, and basketball are the traditional major three sports." Continuing in the same mould Chris added "Alabama is completely dominated by football, and probably always will be". Confusingly to the outsider the senior teams play in the South Territorial Union Sterling explains "we (Montgomery Yellowhammers RFC) play in the South Territorial Union which falls under the jurisdiction of USA Rugby. USA Rugby has broken the U.S. into seven territorial unions (i.e. South Union); these seven territorial unions are composed of many smaller unions." The standard of this expanded competition is not lost on Brothers "This year our strongest competition (in our South Union) probably came from Pensacola RFC (a club based in Pensacola, Florida composed mainly of U.S. Navy personnel). Although, we will be headed to Austin, Texas May 17-18, 2008 for the national playoffs (USA Rugby's Division III Men's Club Playoffs--currently only 8 clubs left) so our strongest competition may lie ahead." The growth of the game is highly tangible, Steketee noted that "our current coach Mike Trowse has been working with neighboring high schools in hopes to help the sport grow." Brothers concurred "Yes, I believe that rugby is growing in Alabama (although I have not seen any statistics on this). I have seen new high school and college teams established with in the last four to five years." The growth of the game is vital to the success of clubs such as Sterling's and Chris' both clubs are highly active in the wider community The Yellow Hammers approach is explained by Sterling here "Our club tries to be active in the community. Two examples, 1) We support several youth soccer teams through the local YMCA, 2) We also recently helped collect clothes and other items for Goodwill. We try to publicize rugby through our local newspapers and television stations. Last year, there was a new high school rugby club that formed in a surrounding city. We tried to help coach the new players in the basics of rugby." JSU are also more than doing their bit in the community "We are hosting a Breast Cancer tournament in the fall featuring Alabama and Auburn. All teams will be wearing pink socks.' said Steketee. both approaches will only do the game of rugby good in the Alabama community. With vast distances these teams have to play a match both clubs travel around 2 and a 1/2 to 3 hours to play a match there is no doubting their commitment to the game. Rugby in Alabama is much the richer for teams such as these and the others we contacted. |
