Occupy Rugby

Sports are much more than just games; rugby is no exception. Through sports we can teach and learn respect, humility, nutrition and many other important life skills.

That statement is the basis for my new Peace Corps project. At the suggestion of my players we successfully created Cuenca’s first middle and high school rugby teams. The process started last week with three separate presentations at a school explaining what rugby is and what we hope to accomplish. Rugby is a very new sport to Ecuador and Cuenca in particular. Many people think the game is nothing more than an uncontrolled bar fight full of barbarians and cretins. A doctor once told a player here that man has evolved from brutal sports like rugby to play futbol. This is an entirely false statement. Rugby, in fact, evolved from futbol in England in the early 1800’s and last I checked injuries still occur in futbol. We as rugby players face an uphill battle in this futbol culture.

Many of the kids expressed genuine interest and asked excellent questions during the sessions in the past week. On paper we had 30 or so interested in starting training the coming Monday. Due to other experiences I have had, I did not expect half of the people to show up. I was pleasantly wrong.

There were a total of 32 kids on Monday at practice! 16 of them were between the ages of 11 and 15. The other half was 16 to 18 years old. I must say I was a bit unprepared for those kinds of numbers but luckily I had help. Lucho, one of the players on my team was there to assist in dividing the horde into into the age groups and he took the younger of the two.

Several other players besides Lucho have shown up this week to lend a hand in teaching the next generation 3 times a week for an hour and a half. I could not be more pleased with this project. Although I cannot take much, if any credit for the idea or even the follow through of the project. My players came up with the idea along with David who attends the high school and trains with us. He was the one who talked with the administrators and set up meeting times for us to meet with the proper authorities to hash out the details. And before we knew it we had practices full of eager kids wanting to learn a new game thanks to a solid group effort.

It is an amazing thing to be a part of.