The Loyola men’s rugby team is hoping to have more dependable members for the next season.
Flyhalf and captain, Mike Krautkraemer, undeclared freshman, said, “If we want to have a team, recruitment’s no biggie. If we want a good team, recruitment will be a big part of it.”
Krautkraemer said recruiting members is not the problem for the team; it’s keeping the members consistently coming to the practices and games. Gaining members for the team is mainly through word of mouth. Guys bring their friends to practice and they enjoy it, but they are not dependable for future games, Krautkraemer said.
The rugby season is already over for Loyola. The regular season for rugby teams is in the spring, but in the South it’s more during the late fall and early spring.
“I was alternately pleased and displeased on how the season went,” Krautkraemer said. “Given a larger team, we could actually turn ourselves into a good program.”
Vice president and flanker for the team, Warren Oliver, political science sophomore, said, “We’re not big like a fraternity. We can’t have fines if people don’t show up to practice … It’s fun and I love all the guys on the team, but then again how do we fix this kind of problem?”
Krautkraemer said the problem is not the skill of the players or the attitude of the team. People are busy with school, work and other activities that are often during practice which is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Prop and president of the club, Zach Saale, senior, works on updating the rugby Web site with the schedule of the games, pictures and other information. The team played nine games this semester and won one in the fall semester against the University of Southern Mississippi. The other schools the team played this year are Spring Hill University, University of Louisiana- Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana University, Jackson State and Tulane University three times.
“T (Thomas) Stover was the old captain and with us for the majority of the fall semester on this roller-coaster ride,” Krautkraemer said about the visual arts senior who was captain before him.
The number of members on the team is always fluctuating. They need 15 to play in a game, but Krautkraemer said 22 would be more comfortable so that players get breaks. They have played with only 13 before, in which case there is no one in the flanker position.
In the fall, the team did have a coach for two-thirds of the semester, who they called “Big Jim,” according to Krautkraemer. Under Big Jim the team won their only game. The coach ended up leaving because there were too many practices when only three to five players would show up.
“If we have numbers then we can get a real coach,” Krautkraemer said.
The team used to watch rugby films Thursday nights where the players would see professional rugby teams and learn off of their plays. Again, numbers lessened and eventually film nights ended. Oliver and Krautkraemer said they want to refurbish the club completely and get it functioning properly as a real rugby team as opposed to guys who practice together. They want to get more frequent games and continue film nights on Thursdays.
Oliver and Krautkraemer plan on continuing to play in the fall and hope that some changes can be implemented.
Julia Russler can be reached at
