SEATTLE — As a onetime high school football player and wrestler, Casey Alusi of Mukilteo probably knew as much about rugby as most people.
That is, very little.
But a University of Washington fraternity brother suggested he come out and Alusi agreed, even though, he said, “I had no id
ea what any of the rules were. But at my first practice I was already thinking, ‘I’m going to play this sport.’
“Coming from football, where I never touched the ball (as a lineman), it’s a lot of fun,” added the 19-year-old Alusi, a 2009 graduate of Kamiak High School. “But until you’ve tried it, I don’t think you can understand what it’s all about. It’s different from any other sport. Honestly, there’s something special about it.”
Rugby, the national sport of New Zealand and South Africa, is a growing sport in the United States, although still far from mainstream. It is similar in some ways to football, albeit without the helmet and pads. But unlike football, where play stops after every down so teams can huddle and call a new play, a rugby game keeps going.
“There’s never a point where you can just stand and watch,” Alusi said. “It’s all action. It’s constant action. And it’s the most demanding sport I’ve ever played. Wrestling is more intense, but it’s just six minutes.”
Washington’s head coach is 42-year-old Shawn Loudenback, also of Mukilteo, who took up rugby while attending New Mexico State University in the 1980s. A scholarship football player, he was losing interest in the sport and eventually dropped out. But a few months later he saw some guys tossing around a rugby ball — “I had no idea what they were doing,” he recalled — and when they invited him to an upcoming practice, he said sure.
And he’s been hooked ever since.
“It’s not like any other sport,” he said. “The appeal, first and foremost, is the physicality — being able to run, tackle, hit — and then there’s the camaraderie. And there’s a bit of machismo there as well. When we entered a room as a group, people knew the rugby team had arrived.”
After graduating from New Mexico State, where he was a rugby All-American, Loudenback was invited to join the Seattle Rugby Club. He moved to the Puget Sound area and eventually he got into coaching.
Five years ago he took over the program at Washington, where the team’s motto is “Quietly, Violently and Deliberately.” Though technically a club sport (that is, no scholarships), the Huskies are members of the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference and play fall and spring seasons against other colleges and universities from the Pacific Northwest, including traditional foes such as Oregon, Oregon State and, of course, Washington State.
Among rugby players, Loudenback said, “there’s mutual respect whenever you step on the field. But it’s also war, whether it’s Washington State or Utah or BYU or anybody. From my perspective, I hate them all the same.”
The biggest rival, though, is Central Washington, which has one of the top programs in the country. Loudenback doesn’t like CWU very much either, but it is, he admitted, “pure jealousy. They’re a powerhouse. They’re very, very good.”
Becoming a top rugby player is a little like getting good at football. Size helps, but strength and speed are even more important. Stamina, too, because Loudenback estimates a rugby player runs 6-8 miles in a typical match.
And, yes, there are injuries. Because, as Loudenback pointed out, “if you play correctly and if you play with the passion that’s allowed you, it’s not a matter of if, it’s when.”
Shoulder and knee injuries are the most common, while injuries to the head and mouth — specifically, concussions and lost teeth — are infrequent.
For Alusi, the irony is that he gave up football after his sophomore season at Kamiak because of repeated concussions. Later, though, he received a doctor’s go-ahead for rugby.
“I’ve never had any head problems playing rugby,” he said. “The way you tackle and the way contact works, it’s not the same (as football).”
“In terms of contact, it’s definitely below football and hockey,” Loudenback explained. “Those are collision sports. But rugby is a contact sport. … We’re very, very conscious of managing the concussions. There are more concussions in soccer than there are in rugby.
“In an aggressive basketball game, you probably have as much contact as you do in rugby because the only time you’re really going to get hit is if you have the ball. The rest of the time it’s just pushing. And running.”
Oh, and here’s one more thing you should know about rugby. The ladies seem to love it.
“I haven’t really figured that one out yet,” Alusi said with a smile. “But most of the girls I talk to, and when I tell them I play rugby, the response is (often), ‘Wow, you play rugby? I love rugby players!’ I’ve heard that from a lot of girls and I honestly don’t know why.”
While that might be a good reason to try rugby by itself, Loudenback said most players soon experience an even greater reward.
“You don’t normally meet a dispassionate rugby player,” he said. “People that play rugby, they’re passionate. It’s a way of life for them. It’s challenging yourself every day, every game, every time you step on the field. And it’s that passion that keeps them coming back.
“Because once you get the bug, the passion for the sport, you probably won’t ever lose it.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
