The women’s club rugby team, the “Dirty Ducks,” are seeking their seventh-straight Pacific Northwest League championship this year on the strength of a roster that boasts 17 returning players, five of whom are seniors.
“We are looking at a really good team this year,” said flanker and club coordinator Kara Winek. “We have really great team leadership and continuity, plus some solid rookies that have been playing with us over the summer.”
Winek said that one of the reasons the Dirty Ducks have been so successful is the team’s attitude.
“We’re dedicated. We’re Division I athletes and we train like it,” said Winek. “We have the attitude that we are very serious about what we do, but we still have so much fun working towards that.”
Another of the teams’ goals is the “sweet sixteen” for Division I rugby in Gainesville, Fla., which they missed out on last year after losing to UC-Berkeley in the first round of the regional tournament.
“We missed out last year, but its okay,” said Winek. “We still ended the season ranked 25th in the nation, so we felt pretty good.”
Like most club sports, fun is a high priority for the rugby team. The team meets every Friday to watch film and will often hold a barbecue or spaghetti feed along with the film sessions to promote team unity.
And this close-knit vibe isn’t unique to the Dirty Ducks. Winek said that one of the things that drew her and many others into rugby was the feeling of community.
“A bunch of us have rugby connections everywhere just because of the rugby community and the way it works,” said Winek. “Like right now, if I need to go to Washington for an internship or something, I know I could call a couple of rugby friends from up there and they would help me out with a part-time job or a car or a place to stay. They would help me out any way they could.”
If you pick up a women’s rugby pamphlet in the Club Sports office, located in the basement of the EMU, you will note that it says in big, bold letters that there is “no experience necessary”
to play and there are no tryouts. That isn’t just lip service, and they’re not just looking for practice dummies, said Winek.
“Anybody could show up, walk onto the field and say ‘I want to try this’ and we’ll teach them how to play,” Winek said. “When I showed up at my first practice a couple of years ago, I didn’t even know what a rugby ball looked like.”
Practices are 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday at Riverfront field and are open to the public.
The Pacific Northwest League is one team smaller this year after Western Washington dropped out due to a “lack of interest,” Winek said, leaving three teams: Oregon State, Reed College and Oregon. The Ducks play two league games, one home and one away, against each of the other schools. Two of the league games will be in November and the other two will take place in March. The roster for league games is limited to 22 players, but a bulk of the team’s games are ‘friendlies’ or unofficial games between clubs where everyone gets to play.
“If you come and practice, you’ll get to play,” Winek said.
One of the goals of the team every year is to help grow the sport of rugby in America.
“Rugby is almost impossible to market in America because everyone is so football crazy,” Winek said. “But rugby is totally continuous. In football you have 10 seconds of action and then a minute of nothing.”
“We’re ambassadors. We’re trying to make rugby more of a campus presence, so people are aware of it and can come watch it and have a great time. Rugby games are fun no matter what. There’s always just so much craziness going on.”