There is an unspoken consensus among student-athletes across Whitman’s campus as to why they spend so much time during the week with their team, honing their craft. It is not because Rousseau is that much more palatable after three hours of cardiovascular activity, or the sometimes mistaken notion that 8:00 a.m. chemistry flies by after a nice, long 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. practice the night before. Simply put, team athletics foster a lifelong community through a much different outlet than other social clubs or groups on Whitman’s campus. That is, a community built on countless hours of physical exhaustion and a shared goal. A kind of bond that is necessarily forged in conflict wherein you can measure traits of your peers that you might not otherwise be able to examine like one’s toughness, integrity and perseverance.

The men and women’s rugby teams on campus provide the kind of leadership opportunities and sense of community that make athletics in an already overcrowded schedule more than worthwhile.

“It means a lot to me to be a rugby player,” senior captain Issy Kelsey explained. “It is a big part of my identity here at Whitman, and it has helped me become a strong leader (I suddenly became captain as a sophomore and had to learn really quickly!), to embrace strength as a valuable trait and to be more fearless in general.”

The women’s team not only shares the glut of benefits of practicing together three times a week and the leadership that comes with that self-driven discipline, but there is also the added bonus of paving a new tradition at Whitman.  

“I started playing with the men’s team in my first year because there was no women’s team back then. For all intents and purposes, the teams function pretty similarly and we practice together a lot. I revived the women’s team my sophomore year and I relied a lot on the men’s team to help make up numbers at practice. The men’s team has always had a pretty solid foundation. This season the women’s team has 12 players and is officially playing in a competitive league, so we have a lot more structure.”

The men’s side, not to be outdone, is also on the cusp of new and exciting developments.

“At the moment we play colleges across the Pacific Northwest, including Gonzaga, WSU Tri-Cities, North Idaho and Seattle University. We’re also considering playing Seven’s matches because it is a form of rugby that’s been gaining a lot of popularity recently, such as in the summer Olympics in 2016,” senior captain Devin Reese shared.

Rugby, that foreign sport hailing from somewhere across the globe, is making the impact that makes hours out of one’s day, week and month seem like currency well spent.

“Rugby has been a defining experience of my time at Whitman. I’ve embraced a side of myself I never knew before and have gained an immense amount of confidence and maturity,” Reese concluded.  

Time well spent, indeed.