Rugby at Loyola has been a popular source of entertainment for players and passerby as they fought tooth and nail for, well, teeth, and bragging rights of course.
Originally established in 1996, Loyola’s club rugby team has experienced many ups and downs. With it being a club sport, organizing and funding were issues that were tough to tackle.
Luckily SGA’s efforts to get increased funding for club sports netted the rugby club plenty to work with. With funding, semi-regular coaching either from staff or senior players, the rugby club would begin to see its golden years.
The rugby team took home the trophy in South Alabama 7’s Tournament in 2016 and later the Father Engh Bowl at the Jesuit Cup in 2017.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic would bring all of this to a grinding halt, forcing the club to declare as a ‘dormant club’ for well over two years.
By the summer of 2022, I’m a freshman. In high school, I played every sport under the sun. One day, I saw four guys having what looked like a large egg around the quad.
A mere hour later, I was hooked. Unfortunately, the near 30 people we were expecting to build a team with were not.
This resulted in my five teammates and myself having to show up to tournaments, asking, begging to hop in with another team with hopes that we would play, ideally on the same team.
As the semester progressed, our retention tore it’s metaphorical ACL, resulting in just a practice of my senior teammate, law student and genuine tough guy, Jake Licata. That was the last straw, then it started to rain.
Fast forward a year and a half later, and Loyola rugby is back to being dormant.
One day, I hope we might see those boys in their striped polos and short-shorts roughin’ it in the quad again, but for now, those hopes sit on the sidelines.
