Club sports here at UW, like all over the country, are made up of a group of guys who play for love of the game, with no promise of scholarships, a pro career or even the slightest bit of collegiate fame. When this same group of guys is competing at the level of Division I varsity teams, someone needs to take notice.
The University of Wisconsin, like many other large universities, provides outlets for students who are not on a varsity sport to participate in athletics. One such club is the UW rugby team, headed by junior president Ryan Meyer. Last fall they nabbed a Final Four bid in the Division II ranks and because of their stellar performace, the team will be moving up next fall to Division I.
\We go through [UW] Club Sports. It's a little different because there is no NCAA for rugby. But there is an equivalent called USA Rugby, so we can't be a varsity sport but we have the same standards we have to meet,"" Meyer said.
The rugby season works on an eight game season with playoff chances following those eight games. UW's squad received a No. 7 after a 7-1 season. The playoffs work on a standard bracket system and start with the best 16 teams in the Midwest.
The NCAA does not oversee a rugby program so the UW clubbers go through an equally respected organization called USA Rugby. USA Rugby is the governing body of nearly all rugby programs in the nation and splits its collegiate conferences into eight territorial unions. The UW club is placed in the Midwest Union, which dominates like the ACC in basketball.
""The Midwest is huge. The Midwest is where the rugby center is. With the exception of the one state of California, we have so many good teams here. It's really great to compete against these great teams,"" Meyer said.
Though they have no scolarship athletes, the team has accomplished what many club teams only hope for. So where do they get their talent?
""Wisconsin, as a state, has one of the highest number of high school rugby programs in the nation. It's grown every year. The nice thing now is that we have more and more guys coming in every year saying 'I played in high school.' They pretty much find us. It's kind of an addicting sport,"" Meyer said. ""Then there's guys who maybe played high school football and they're not playing here or are just looking to get involved in a sport; they come from all over the place.""
The step to Division I will be a tough one for UW, but when asked if the team is ready for the move Meyer seemed positive.
""We really do, we really feel like we can compete at this level. We've played DI teams before and we've done really well against them. Iowa, who we beat last fall, was a DI team. We feel like we play really cohesively and we play very technically-sound rugby, he said. ""When you step up to the next level it's kind of like no matter how good you are at one thing you can always get better at everything.""
