Warsaw Area Rugby player Reese Bause found room to move during a middle school match. (Photo provided)

WARSAW — It is a Tuesday night and Warsaw’s Baker Youth Center is abuzz with activity. Groups of parents are gathered in a meeting room while the gymnasiums and upstairs track are filled with kids, boys and girls ages 8 to 18 flushed and sweating from exercise.

Along with the seemingly constant running, they can be seen tossing an oddly-shaped ball around. It is a “quanco,” the precursor to the American football, used in rugby, the sport which has brought this energetic group — the Warsaw Area Rugby Club — to BYC on a cold January night.

Dugan Julian, center, is currently coaching both middle school and high school boys’ rugby teams. He started as a freshman in 2003, the year Warsaw Area Rugby Club was formed. (photo by David Hazledine)

Warsaw Area Rugby was founded in 2003, and since then club has grown by leaps and bounds in spite of its non-Indiana High School Athletic Association status. There are many reasons for this, according to Dugan Julian, middle school rugby coach, who was himself a Warsaw Community High School rugby player, starting as a freshman in 2003.

“Rugby is known as gentleman’s sport played by hooligans,” Julian remarked. In spite of its intense physicality — he described it as “in between soccer and football” — rugby is governed by an underlying ethical code distinguishing it from other sports. Mutual respect is built into the game itself, with referees always referred to as “sir” or “ma’am” and spoken to only by the captains of the teams. Not even the coach is allowed to address the ref. Also, at the end of every game, teams meet for a “social,” explained Julian, no matter how brutal the game.

It is a sharp contrast with the current state of Indiana athletics, which in the last month has seen statements from IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox calling for more sportsmanlike behavior from players, coaches and, especially, parents at sporting events.

A democratic spirit pervades rugby. All 15 players on the team can catch, pass, kick, score and tackle. “Everyone can do everything,” Julian quipped. He added rugby is also attractive to those who may not be “typically athletic.” A short, stocky player, for example, who may be relegated to the role of a lineman in football, could still be an offensive force in rugby. Moreover, they would get a lot more exercise, running a minimum of eight or nine miles in a typical game, as opposed to less than a mile on the gridiron.

While the boys’ rugby teams trained in a downstairs gym in the Baker Youth Center, the girls ran the upstairs track. (Photo by David Hazledine)

In fact, American football players only move, let alone run, for a total of around 10 minutes in an average game, according to a study by the Wall Street Journal.

Girls are increasingly drawn to rugby because, for one, it is the only contact sport available to them. Also, said Julian, the rules are exactly the same for girls as for boys.

“There has been a huge exponential growth in the women’s game,” he added. Another reason for this has been the global success of the USA women’s sevens rugby team. On the local level, however, Warsaw’s women’s rugby teams have won three state championships and been ranked nationally.

“It’s something to be proud of,” exclaimed Lee Ann Miner, chairman of the rugby club’s parent board, which organizes socials, fundraisers and other events.

“Anybody and everybody plays,” she said, “and they welcome them with open arms … The passion and heart these coaches have for these kids is amazing.”

For more information, visit Warsaw Area Rugby Club on Facebook.