Another Option

HSSTM: First, tell us a little bit about the sport, starting with its differences from American football. Charles Ford: We have fifteen a side, football has eleven. We have no stoppages, except for injury or substitution. We don't have specialty players who come in and off. Everybody plays offense, and everybody plays defense. Britton Harper: No blocking, all passes are backwards, there's an offsides. If someone behind you kicks the ball, that'd be offsides, so you have to retreat until he passes you. You have to actively retreat, or the referee will call it. Wayne Janne: There are eight forwards and seven backs. The forwards are usually tight-packed - wherever - and then the backs make a three-quarter line diagonal behind them. So when the ball comes out of the "scrum half", he'll pass the ball on down the line as it progresses forward. When the defense comes up to you, you can either take the hit or pitch it out. The object is to keep moving the ball to where you can create gaps in the defense. Britton Harper: When tackling, if you put your head in front, you will get hurt. You'll take a knee to the head, or a hip. Charles Ford: You have to lead with the shoulder. Britton Harper: You have to wrap every tackle. You can't just come up and hit somebody. HSSTM: Who is the Wichita Rugby Club? How long has it been in existence and what are some of its successes over the years? Charles Ford: Verne Francis, a captain stationed at McConnell, put an ad in the local paper here and went around to the local parks recruiting players. There were 15 or 16 of us who met on a July afternoon and he started to teach us the game. Our first game was August of 1973. The following year, a New Zealander by the name Brian Morrison, who was instrumental in USA Rugby at the time, came to a game and decided to coach us. He brought in a new style and a couple of great players. Britton Harper: The current crest of the club is made out of the past three major clubs in Wichita: Wichita Rugby Club, Old Yeller, and the Barbarians, which is the name for the two clubs which merged. Wayne Janne: There were two teams, and they combined in 1981. Britton Harper: The club folded for a year and re-formed in 1991. David Farris, who played at Cornell and K-State and Washburn, came to Wichita and called up some of the guys who used to play for the Barbarians. I came to town in the fall of 1993, and we went to the western regionals in 1998 and 2001. Now we have a roster of 45 players, from linemen for AT&T to engineers at Cessna. HSSTM: Why did the Wichita Rugby Club decide to start the Spartans high school squad this spring of 2008? Wayne Janne: My son expressed interest in the game in November. I said, well, if you can get a bunch of your friends together, I'll teach you how to play. Then I talked to some of the other guys in the club, and we put our heads together. Britton Harper: In the summer of 2001, I canvassed a lot of the middle schoools and tried to do a summer touch program for under-14 kids. That summer I had about 12 guys, including my son who was eight years old. The following summer, I was unable to do it. Last fall, Topeka came down for a match and didn't have enough players. So I found a pair of shorts, found some cleats for my son and got in big trouble with his mom - he was 14 at the time - and I got to play with him that game. I sent out an email several weeks later after that and talked with people in the club about getting a high school team started. HSSTM: What are your goals for this team? Wayne Janne: To provide high school-aged kids with a viable alternative to football - a contact sport they can play other than football. Most guys aren't going to be playing football after they graduate from high school, but rubgy, they can play for life. Also, it's camaraderie. Rugby can teach them how to be strong young men and determined. Britton Harper: Also, it's for kids who maybe haven't played high school sports before. We're not trying to take away kids from football. Wayne Janne: In fact, we've told the high school football coaches around here that we're not there to steal their players. They can have their players - just give us the rest, the guys who aren't getting to play. I've emailed with all the athletic directors. HSSTM: If you could send any message about the game to prospective players and their parents, what would it be? Charles Ford: I can get out statistics about that thick on football injuries in high school. There's about a two to six percent chance on getting hurt in rugby, where in football you have a 34 percent chance. Wayne Janne: A good thing about rugby is whenever you've got the ball, you've pretty much got a triple option. You can run with it, pass it, or kick it. Plus, you can't get hit if you don't have the ball, so you're not going to get blind-sided or have your knees taken out. We teach proper tackling technique, and without the equipment they have in football, there are no weapons! Britton: When you're wrapping with a proper tackle, you're not going to hurt someone like you would dropping your shoulder in football. The game is more about possession than territory.