HARC, Number One in the Hood G

84 – 7 made for an entertaining match for the fans watching HARC vs. San Antonio Rugby Club last Saturday April 24^th at Westland Family YMCA in Houston.  Westland YMCA is the home of the now undefeated in regular season play Houston Athletic Rugby Club (10 - 0, #1 in the division, and # 4 ranked nationally).  The word is growing as more fans continue to show up for the sport they can’t explain but love to watch.

While most people where watching the NFL Draft wind down Saturday afternoon a select few athletes where enjoying playing the sport which spawned American football.  On a beautiful Saturday in April down the road from the Houston Texans beautiful Reliant Stadium sits the shabby rugby field adjacent to the Westland Family YMCA.  On Fondren Road near Airport Blvd sits a police station where across the street HARC’s field sits.  Players spill their blood, sweat, and more blood in the ideal setting for grown men in short shorts running Oklahoma drills without the pads.  “Nobody bothers us over here; this area of town has its share of setbacks but has been very good to us,” noted team president El Jefe Rojo. It is a field that should be familiar to those involved with rugby in the U.S.  It could be better and it could be worse, but the team makes do with the facilities they have.  Here HARC’s players battle their opponents on Saturday, because only Saturdays are Rugby Days.

The players are all amateur, they foot their own equipment bill, pay their own registration, pay dues, and travel costs.  Players not only meet several times a week to practice and play but have full-time jobs, babies at home, families, or maybe no jobs at all especially during these times and they still find time to take the growing sport as seriously possible.  The team takes care of its own in a way no other amateur sport matches.  Whether it’s helping each other move, assisting in a job search, or perhaps most importantly being there for a teammate when times are tough. Some refer to the team is their second family or depending who you ask their proper family with the team pub (Ernie's on Banks) as a second home.  But this is no boozy softball league.  The players take the competition to heart and put it in the hard yards off the field to improve their performance on it.

In the United States, most people are done with competitive sports after high school. A select few get to compete in college and even fewer in the professional ranks.  Youth rugby is growing in the United States and there are many college and club teams to play for after high school.  When a player's career is over, he can move into coaching or become a referee (if his skin is thick enough).  The main difference rugby offers over other sports is an availability of lifelong high level competition that most other sports do not offer.

Most of the season HARC's games were played in overcast muddy conditions that did not allow the game to open up.  Last Saturday was a sunny day and HARC responded by scoring the more points than any other game this season with a relentless 84 - 7 drubbing.  The day was not as sunny for San Antonio as they have struggled after moving up to Division I this year, even forfeiting an away match to Shreveport at one point.  They are a good club and have a solid core and will regroup and rise to the level of the competition.  As player/ coach HARC's #8 Carl Newman is never completely satisfied after each win this season, after the last match he said of one of his starters Johny Kubik aka “Jon Luc Retard”, “He is a very versatile player, and by versatile player I mean he is great at bar trivia, darts, and playing pool; when on the rugby field he is like a small child who wanders into the middle of a movie.”  Coach Newman is often referred as that angry Brit who is either eating or complaining or complaining about not eating.  Luckily his hunger off the field is far surpassed by his hunger on the field to crush his enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. 

This is the business end of the season because the playoffs are where the real competition begins with a national title on the line.  HARC now has the chance to get out of their hood for some more intense challenges in Austin and further west into Colorado.