On the easternmost field at South Recreational Complex in Warrensburg, one you can barely see from the parking lot, the University of Central Missouri men’s rugby team practices twice a week in the evening.
Rugby is club sport for both the Mules and Jennies, which puts them between the status of an intercollegiate team and an intramural sport. The Mules are members of the Gateway Collegiate Rugby Conference where they compete against mostly Missouri schools, but they also travel to surrounding states to compete.
“We play schools in the fairly local area,” said team President John Emery. “We travel as far as Carbondale, Illinois, in the regular season, then the playoffs for fall are held in Detroit.”
Emery said the team is doing well and growing as a club sport.
“Right now we’re working on making it mean more,” he said. “It doesn’t mean a whole lot right now because there’s not a lot of people that know about us, but we’re getting the word out through flyers and social media.”
Emery said the team does a lot together outside of playing rugby.
“We have a pretty good amount of guys right now and we do a lot more than just playing rugby,” he said. “We do study groups, fundraisers and have been getting into philanthropy.”
Mules Treasurer and team captain Bo Varvil said they have been working hard to raise funds.
“We’ve organized a fundraiser at Zaxby’s,” Varvil said. “We also did one with T-shirts for our old coach. We want to do more in the future and I’m the lead on that.”
Team Vice President Wyatt Franklin said he handles a lot of the responsibilities that fall down from the president.
“Anything that the president can’t get to pretty much falls on me,” he said. “Contacting and scheduling with other teams is a lot of it.”
Franklin said the team has been successful in the four years he’s participated.
“We’re pretty competitive in the Gateway Conference and got to play in the 7s tournament last spring,” he said. “We’ve gotten some tournament wins over the years, had guys go on to play for clubs and really grown the sport here.”
Franklin said he currently plays for a club in the summer and plans to continue playing following his collegiate career.
“In the summer, I play with KCRFC (Kansas City Rugby Football Club) and I won’t be graduating next year so I’ll probably be back here next year,” Franklin said.
Emery said the season has been up and down.
“We had one game where we played phenomenally, but there were a few where we didn’t really have our heads in it,” he said. “Right now, we are 1-3 with a couple games left.”
The Mules traveled to Kansas City Saturday and competed against the University of Missouri-Kansas City, defeating the Kangaroos 38-17 at Durwood Soccer Stadium to bring their season record to 2-3.
The fall season of rugby for the Mules is set to conclude with a home game against a familiar UCM opponent in Pittsburg State. The match is scheduled for Nov. 3 at the South Recreational Complex with kickoff to be determined.
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