Warsaw girls rugby put on the prom dresses and took to the mud for a Rugby Charity Prom event Saturday afternoon at WCHS. InkFreeNews photos by Dalton Tinklenberg

By Dalton Tinklenberg
InkFreeNews

WARSAW – What do you get when you mix a sports journalist who’s never seen rugby, prom dresses, and a talented group of athletes? You get the discovery of perhaps one of Warsaw’s best-kept secrets all while a phenomenal charity benefits along the way.

For those who may not know, Warsaw has an excellent girls rugby club team that is now getting the support of Warsaw High School as the program continues to flourish. Saturday that same rugby team hosted a “Rugby Charity Prom” to support Chain-Breakers, a local non-profit organization.

The entirety of the team along with coaches donned prom dresses to participate in a 15 on 15 friendly on a very muddy playing field at the high school. While the laundry machines and car interiors of the parents were unlikely to be fans of the event, the game showcased some of the great young talents Warsaw has.

“We’re playing ourselves out here today but essentially, rugby is a game where everyone gets to run with the ball, everybody gets to pass the ball, and everybody gets to tackle,” said head coach Trevor Cracknell while wearing a black dress and orange wig. “It’s a huge amount of fun and we have a lot of fun doing it. I mean I wouldn’t dress up like this if I didn’t have fun, right? Rugby has been around for a lot of years, in fact, it was around before American football was. It’s a game that the rules are the same for the guys and the girls. It’s really the only contact sport here in the U.S. for girls.“

The most surprising factor in all of this was the fact that this program of dedicated athletes and passionate fans is not drawing more interest locally. Cracknell was quick to point out how recent school support had begun to help his girls.

“What’s really helped is just recently, the school has really helped us out,” said Cracknell. “Before that, we were just a club sport, and we’re still a club sport, but the school has been treating us like a varsity team with the ability to play on the field like this. We have a lot of new players out there. In previous years we’ve never been able to play 15 on 15 with all our girls out there so the support from the school has been phenomenal.

“The new athletic director came in and we’ve done a lot of work together and stuff like that. It’s enabled us to be out here. That’s what’s really helped us. This recruiting year we have 20 plus new girls and 15 or 16 freshmen. That’s what’s really helped us out this year is being part of the school and being able to have our equipment out here instead of playing offsite.”

The girls will travel to Michigan twice before returning to Warsaw for a game on Oct. 30.

Chain-Breakers was originally conceived as a way to introduce young men to adventure, implement mentorship, instill community service and expose them to the love of Christ. Since then, a program for young ladies has also begun to form at Chain-Breakers. For more information on getting involved personally or financially, people are more than welcome to reach out to Nate Gernert at [email protected].