Photo By Spc. Mary Ferguson | Sgt. 1st Class Robert D. Connell of the 32nd Signal Battalion focuses on an incoming...... read more read more
As the Soldier raises the ball above his head, he glances to his left and right into his teammates" anticipatory glares. He swiftly lowers the ball to his foot, and a week's worth of energy, excitement, stress and frustration rage from his tennis shoe, rocketing the ball toward his salivating opponents. After a few unexpected bounces on the rocky field, the ball finds a player's hands, and through a tornado of dust created by a mass of scrambling players, somebody yells, "Touch!"
A growing group of Soldiers, airmen and civilians on Logistical Support Area Anaconda have added Sunday afternoon touch rugby to their deployment calendars. Seasoned ruggers and rookies to the sport, both male and female, gather weekly at Killeen field for a 4 p.m. kick-off and play until the sun sets.
"People have gathered off and on in the past, but nothing was really going on now, so I started spreading the word in January to see if there would be any interest in playing on Sundays," said Master Sgt. David E. Clark of the 130th Engineer Brigade, who has played and coached rugby for 12 years.
"People started responding, and each week a few more come out to play," he said.
Despite rugby's increased popularity in the United States, the misconception still exists that the sport revolves around contact. Touch rugby creates an arena for the non-contact fundamentals of the sport.
"Touch rugby used to be a warm-up event prior to rugby practices, but it has evolved into its own game," Clark said. "It's a great aerobic work out that promotes flexibility and agility."
According to TouchRugby International, "This fast, simple and exciting game promotes the fundamental skills of running, handling, evasion and support play, while developing basic principles of attack and defense, without the fear of getting hurt."
The object of the game is for each team to score trys, similar to touchdowns in American football, while preventing the opposing team from scoring. Players employ a variety of lateral passes to onside teammates or attempt to run around or through the defending players to gain territory. When tagged by an opposing player, an offender must stop and allow the defense to reset before continuing an attempt to advance. If a team goes scoreless after six touches, the ball is handed over to the defensive side. All dropped passes result in a turnover, and when a team scores a try, they receive the kick-off to begin the next series of play.
The Anaconda ruggers use official touch rugby rules, posted at www.touchrugby.com, when organizing their Sunday afternoon matches. But, there are some significant deviations from the rules during Sunday matches.
"When playing by the official rules, the ball is rolled to the center to begin the match," Clark explained. "We choose to kick-off like in regular rugby."
A game typically fields two teams of six players who battle for two 10-minute halves. In an effort to promote maximum participation, the Anaconda games have no time limit and players constantly revolve in and out of the game.
"We do not keep score to keep the atmosphere jovial," Clark said. "Our reward at the end of the game is to take home some laughs and a sweaty PT shirt."
Many of the players take more than just an extra dose of physical training away from their Sunday evening games.
"The games are the most at home I have felt since being in Iraq," said Victoria Garcia, a Kellogg, Brown and Root employee on LSA Anaconda. "It's like having an instant circle of friends."
Garcia is an 11-year veteran of the sport, who tries to find a club or group to play with wherever her life takes her. It's an escape from work and a way to meet people from different branches and different areas of the base, she added.
Following most rugby matches, the home rugby club traditionally hosts a social event for the visiting club. Mirroring this off-the-field camaraderie, many of the Anaconda ruggers eat a post-game Sunday dinner together, Clark explained.
"I carry the rugby with me through the week," said Spc. Jeremy Reynolds with the 39th Finance Battalion. "In the states, Saturday is rugby day, and it plays such a huge part in my life. Here, knowing that Sunday is rugby day drives me to get through another week of deployment."
Though Clark, Garcia and Reynolds have years of rugby experience, like many other American ruggers, they began playing the sport later in life.
Everybody starts somewhere, and touch rugby is perfect for learning the basics about the sport before playing contact rugby, Clark said.
"Rugby players realize it is a total team sport," he added. "The sport has a very welcoming atmosphere, because it is relatively new to the United States and everyone is still learning and growing, and we need players."
As the numbers increase, the veteran players plan to offer more basic fundamental guidance to newcomers to make sure that everybody gets the most out of the Sunday games.
It may be the piercing tackles and the intensity of contact that draws eyes to television screens and brings crowds to their feet, but it's the thrill of the unity on and off the field that fuels the heartbeat of a rugby club. The Soldiers, airmen and civilians who stir up the dust on Killeen field every Sunday prove that adding the word 'touch" subtracts nothing from the sport's meaning.
| Date Taken: | 03.02.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 03.02.2006 09:21 |
| Story ID: | 5569 |
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| Web Views: | 95 |
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