As the threat of Covid-19 canceling fall play developed into more of a likelihood, National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) began brainstorming means to support members during an unorthodox, uncertain season, if not year. When the organization officially postponed the women’s 15s championship seasons, NCR was ready with a slate of online offerings. In addition to coaching forums (Sept. 29 is the next installment) and RUNY-run coaching workshops, the Small College and Open divisions can participate in a virtual season starting Sunday.
RELATED: NCR Fall 2020 Virtual Season Overview
“Everyone thought I was the grim reaper of fun,” NCR Women’s Open Division Commissioner Angela Smarto said of pandemic planning. “I wasn’t feeling good about the fall season back in April and it took a long time to convince folks that [the possibility of a cancellation] was real. But once the writing was on the wall, we felt that we needed a way to engage teams, because the fear is that they could fall off the map and not recover.”
Smarto is also head coach of the Robert Morris University (Pa.) women and the Allegheny conference commissioner, and so she is familiar with college teams’ vulnerabilities. This fear of attrition permeates the rugby community and is reflected in the steady requests for more non-contact drills, social options and activities that will keep players invested and the team visible.
When NCR started talking about a virtual season, Smarto had already beta tested a four-week fitness challenge, the Quarantine Cup, for ARU senior clubs in April. She drew from that experience when discussing competition options with NCR Women’s Small College Commissioner Bryn Chivers.
“We wanted to provide something because that’s what we do: We’re providing services and what we feel our teams need,” Smarto said. “It didn’t feel right to say, ‘We can’t play face-to-face so I guess there’s nothing else.’ It’s a unique opportunity to look at other things.”
But it wasn’t until Great Waters commissioner Stephanie Desens reached out to NCR leadership that these conversations on a virtual season shifted from theoretical to practical.
“For the past four months it’s been: What are you doing? What can I do? I’m out of ideas,” Smarto said of coaches and teams navigating Return to Play guidelines. “Stephanie reached out to us and said, ‘I want to do something for my teams.’
“So the goal of the virtual competition is to, first, take some pressure off of coaches and commissioners to create something from scratch,” she added. “Second, it gives players something to do.”
Desens and Smarto are both teachers, and many conference commissioners are also educators or involved with their universities at some level. Google Classrooms is a familiar tool among this population and students, and it became the right platform to collect and organize data for an online competition. Smarto sent Desens the Quarantine Cup to review and 36 hours later the Wisconsin native had a prototype for a competition.
“She deserves a gold medal,” Smarto bowed. “She put everything into Google Classrooms and made little videos on how to navigate it, and all this stuff. So it was our idea but Steph did the content creation. She’s an awesome asset.”
The virtual season has several components, ranging from fitness elements, law quizzes, to social media challenges, and teams earn a range of points for the strength or speed at which activities are completed. Conferences oversee their local competition and determine the means by which a champion is named. After the five-week conference season, the national Round of 16 (Oct. 25-31), quarterfinals (Nov. 1-7), semifinals (Nov. 8-14) and championship (Nov. 15-21) will follow. The national champion will receive Rhino Rugby custom kit.
“This provides some structure that you can adapt for your players and use how you want,” Smarto talked flexibility. “You can participate fully at home or on campus, and you can complete all the tasks through your laptop basically.”
Smarto explained that the activities are both useful and chosen with care. The fitness component, for example, doesn’t require equipment and enlists a range of exercises that showcases the diversity of a rugby team.
“I’m a front row forward and no matter what team you put me on I will never have the fastest shuttle run,” Smarto said. “But maybe I can do the longest wall sit, or do more squats, or someone else can do the longest broad jump or ab bridge. No team should be advantaged or disadvantaged if they’re a forward-heavy team or a 7s-only team.”
The law quizzes occur weekly and dedicate time to a task that is typically pushed to the end of the to-do list.
“That is the unique thing about rugby: You can play the sport without ever learning all the rules,” Smarto winced. “You can pick up the sport and two days later be playing in a game. Now newer players can learn the laws.”
The social media element revolves around team-bonding activities and maintaining communities’ strength.
“That’s the thing: You miss rugby because you miss your friends and the people you do rugby with,” Smarto said. “Incorporating team bonding into those challenges is keeping teams engaged with one another. It keeps those social safety nets that people need intact.”
Smarto indicated that buy-in across teams and conferences has been good but not 100% participation. Teams have either been eager to do something this fall while others are focusing entirely on school or too fatigued from 2020, but there aren’t many teams in between those two stages. The Open Division commissioner also said that if a team joined a week late, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
The competition is set to begin this Sunday, Sept. 20, so stay tuned for updates. Typically after the fall 15s season, NCR transitions to 7s with the all-star competition in Florida and then the spring build-up to 7s nationals in April, but the “Grim Reaper of Fun” isn’t assuming that life will return to normal at the turn of the year. That said, expect NCR to keep checking in with its membership and attempting to give teams competition and connection.