Creating a core college memory

STEVENS POINT, Wis. — The quest to broaden their horizons through new activities in college led three young women to embrace a sport they had little knowledge of: rugby.

This fall, Maddy Hensel, Emily Sheehan and Isabell Wipperfurth were all first-year members of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s women’s rugby football club — an adventure that took them all the way to the elite eight round of play in the Division 3 national tournament, the first Pointer team to compete in the tournament. The team that knocked the Pointers out of the tournament — the Colorado School of Mines — was the eventual national champion in their division.

In addition to being teammates, the three soon learned they shared more than a developing love of the game: all three hail from dairy backgrounds.

Hensel, a native of Pittsville, spent her youth actively involved in the Wisconsin Junior Holstein Association and developing her own small herd of registered Holsteins. Sheehan, a former Wisconsin FFA officer from Beloit, grew up spending time at her family’s dairy farm near Orangeville, Illinois. Wipperfurth grew up working on her family’s 500-cow dairy farm near Lodi.

With their combined agricultural backgrounds, the trio said they were pleased to connect with fellow agriculturalists.

“I see kids wearing FFA shirts walking around campus frequently,” Sheehan said. “That’s fun for me because of my time as a state officer. I recognize so many of the school names, and I often wonder if they are someone I had crossed paths with.”

Sheehan is the only member of the trio to have experience playing rugby prior to this season.

“I spent three semesters at Winona State University studying nursing about five years ago, and that was where I first played rugby,” Sheehan said. “I decided nursing school wasn’t for me, so I took some time off and did some traveling before deciding I wanted to return to school for something in conservation and natural resources. I also knew I wanted to find a school that offered an established rugby club.”

The rugby team at UW-SP was first established in 1993 and has experienced ups and downs in participation over the years, the trio said. The team is not funded by the school’s athletic program and is considered a club, meaning the players are responsible for their own travel and expenses when attending games.

Despite those limiting factors, the women’s rugby team is experiencing a surge in participation.

“We have about 35 women who come to practice,” Hensel said. “We can roster 23 and 15 play on the field. It’s been really nice that we have so many coming to practice; we can field two full teams to play actual games during practice.”

The team practices for two hours, three times a week, from the beginning of the semester until the season ends. The spring season kicks off in February, when only seven players are on the field each time.

The best way to describe rugby is that it has similarities to both soccer and American football, Hensel said. Sheehan described the ball as being like a rounder, overinflated football, with no laces. The ball can be kicked both forwards and backwards, but can only be thrown backwards.

“It’s full-contact and it’s continuous play,” Hensel said. “So you get tackled and the ball immediately goes back into play. What’s really unique is that you have to pass it backwards before you can run forwards.”

The rules required Hensel, a former high school soccer player, to readjust her thinking on the field.

“Having to throw backwards threw me off; it goes against your mentality,” Hensel said. “As a soccer player, you’re always thinking about running forward into the space. In rugby, once you pass the ball backward, you have to fall back so you’re behind the ball to accept the next pass.”

Known for intense physicality, rugby is played with little protective equipment — only a mouth guard. Despite that, Sheehan said player safety is important.

“The reason we’re allowed not to have padding is because safety is a huge aspect of the game,” Sheehan said. “If we tackle wrong or something is played wrong, you’re called out on it, and penalized for it — you’re either sent back 10 meters or you could be sent out of the game. Safety is such a big part of the rules of the game.”

Walking into her first rugby practice as a freshman was intimidating for Wipperfurth, who had played tennis and softball in high school.

“I was looking for a tennis club at the student activity fair when I found the rugby club and thought that would be something fun to try,” Wipperfurth said. “Going into it with no knowledge of the sport and not knowing anyone on the team was pretty intimidating.”

The trio said team chemistry is the tie that binds.

“The atmosphere of the practice kept me coming back,” Wipperfurth said. “Everyone was so nice and supportive, so encouraging. They really taught me how to do all the different skills and included me in everything. I would have missed out on a lot if I hadn’t made myself go outside my comfort zone.”

Team support is paramount to learning the game, Sheehan said.

“It seems like organized chaos; I remember being so confused and discouraged when I was learning to play at Winona State,” Sheehan said. “My teammates were always asking me what questions I had, being so helpful.”

Overall, rugby has become a nucleus in the college experience for the young women.

“It’s something I think each of us has fallen in love with,” Hensel said. “It will be one of my core college memories. I’ve spent a lot of time working through college and attending classes online. Getting involved with the rugby team this year gave me the chance to have a more traditional social college experience.”