TORI CALI
Inside the Pitch
History, lingo, and traditions through Elon Women's Club Rugby.
By tori cali
The only protective gear that an athlete needs is a mouthguard. This is the only sport in which a player can have full body contact with no protective gear.
Rugby is a combination of soccer and football. However, it is unique in its own way.
The sport was created in the United Kingdom at Rugby School, which was a co-educational school in a market town called Rugby in Warwickshire, England.
Rugby History
This is how the sport got its name.
In the 1830s, rugby games could last for five days and involved more than 200 boys. Since then, it has evolved.
Rugby has transitioned from a mindless sport to one with objective and reason. In the 1830s, villages and towns competed against each other. However, the sport did not became popular in the UK until the 1850s and 1860s.
Olivia Pellarin showing off rugby shirt
Photo by Tori Cali
The first match of rugby was in Scotland in 1857. Edinburgh University played against Edinburgh Academicals, a rugby football club team at the time. From there, rugby started to become picked up across Scotland, England, and Ireland.
Rugby was not played on United States soil until 1874 after Montreal, Canada’s McGill University played Harvard.
Today, there are 391 Division I, II, III and college club teams registered
with U.S.A. Rugby, which makes up the Pacific North, Pacific South,
Video on rugby lingo and plays
Frontier, Red River, Midwest, Southern, Atlantic North, and Mid-Atlantic leagues.
Elon University is part of the Southern league, registered as a Division II team.
Positions
Player positioning diagram from RugbyHow
Elon Women's Club Rugby
Pitch diagram from World Rugby
Elon Women’s Club Rugby team captain and junior, Olivia Pellarin had no intentions of playing the sport when she arrived on campus as a first year student.
“I just got forced into signing up at the organization fair two years ago by a friend,” Pellarin, who plays lock in the backline, said. “It just sort of happened and I started showing up to practices and loved it.”
This is Pellarin’s third season on the team. She stepped up to the captain position this semester.
“It’s been a fun and unique experience taking on a major leadership role with the team,” she said.
As a 5-foot-10-inch player, Pellarin has found that “there is no right size for rugby
[since] it is for all shapes and sizes."
The club team practices three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for two hours. Games throughout the school year are played in the fall and spring seasons at Elon University and away. The team has traveled to various schools within the Southern league that they are registered in.
Finding a balance between school and rugby was a challenge at first when Pellarin joined the team as a first year. Since then, the sport has been a way to get relief from academics. “During practices and games, I can really just focus on the sport and nothing else,” Pellarin said.
5"10
Olivia Pellarin's Height
Photo by Tori Cali
With Pellarin stepping up to be a leader, the role of coach changed this year. Head Coach, Alley Mitchell has only been with the team for almost three months.
Mitchell replaced Lilly and Jenny Emendy after they stepped down from the team after coaching for four years to pursue other careers.
“It's been fun so far - getting to know the girls on the team,” Mitchell said.
Interview of Captain, Olivia Pellarin
Mitchell was born in Savannah, Georgia but grew up in White Rock, Canada where she started playing the sport in fifth grade.
Before coaching the Elon team, Mitchell was the women’s head coach at Willamette University from 2013 until 2017.
The hardest part about coaching rugby is “finding out where the players place is on the field and how to coach them individually, especially at a small school” Mitchell said.
Coaching players from all different backgrounds is a challenge, according to Mitchell, “ballerinas...javelin...everything”.
With new people stepping into leadership roles, Mitchell says that Pellarin has been a great asset to the team, even before she arrived.
When Mitchell isn’t on the pitch coaching rugby, she works for the non-profit organization, Wandering Warriors Rugby as a project manager.
Mitchell previously served in the U.S. army as a combat Medic. After joining the army, Mitchell played on a men’s rugby military team in Alaska.
Alley Mitchell runs with ball while playing for Bragg Women's Rugby VS the Savannah Shamrocks at the St. Patrick's Day Tournament in 2012
Wandering Warriors Rugby
Wandering Warriors Rugby supports homeless veterans by playing rugby. The non-profit puts together teams comprised of veterans, law enforcement and emergency service personnel, along with family members.
These participants also play in remembrance of fallen service members. The Money raised is used to buy gifts towards different projects and programs that support homeless veterans.
Such charities that Wandering Warriors supports are Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless and Operation Renewed Hope Foundation.
This non-profit is based in Nashville, Tennessee and was founded in 2013 by U.S. Army Veteran, David Colarusso. Colarusso served 20 years Active Duty service and in the PA National Guard before retiring in 2008.
Colarusso played rugby for 30 years before starting Wandering Warriors Rugby at the collegiate club level and in the military.
“Not All Who Wander Are Lost,” is a motto Colarusso lives by. He started this non-profit for military rugby players to come together to support fellow veterans that are less fortunate.
In 2016, more than 39,000 veterans were homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
To learn more about Wandering Warriors Rugby and David Colarusso’s story visit: https://www.wanderingwarriorsrugby.org/about/
