Anderson Women's Rugby Scholarship

As someone who grew up an athlete--started with picking dandelions on the soccer field at 4, and continuing to this day--I can say I've been a part of my fair share of families. It's something people who don't play team sports wouldn't understand. The bond created when you struggle, physically and emotionally, with a group of other girls' you'd otherwise never talk to is unparalleled. I struggled to find a team, or rather a family, that would truly accept me before I entered college. Because of that, I switched sports constantly. Soccer, lacrosse, flag football, swimming, sailing, tennis, basketball, volleyball, cross country--all of them with their own comforts, but none that would really accept me as I was. I wasn't a product of my town like the rest of my teammates. I was black and gay and raised in a single parent household. To my teammates, no matter where I went, there was always something off about me. I wasn't white enough or rich enough--they couldn't relate to me, and so I was outcasted. I grew to resent the sports I'd played, and by the time I graduated high school, I'd decided that I wouldn't join any sports in college, for fear that I'd end up being the third-wheel on my own team. I'm embarrassed to say my resolve crumbled rather quickly. I was approached by the captains--MY captains--of the women's club rugby team at my college, and I was intimidated enough to accept the invitation into their team-chat (they asked if I knew what rugby was, and if I knew how to play: I did not). 3 weeks later, I found myself getting tackled, run over, and stepped on in my first ever rugby game; it was the most fun I'd had in months. What really made me decide to stay after getting rocked was my teammates, who I'd barely known at that point. There was such an intense sense of community I witnessed that day. Screaming out our teammates names, cheering them on when they made a good play, losing their minds when we scored a try, passing out water and answering the many (MANY) questions us rookies asked. It didn't end when the game was over though, afterwards I attended my first rugby social, and that was when I realized that most of my fellow teammates were fully committed to fostering relationships with ALL of their teammates, not just the ones who looked like them. Over the course of the semester, those 22 strangers ended up becoming my best friends. Rugby family to me is a place of unparalleled acceptance and laughter. It's driving to a random frat house at 1 in the morning to go fireman carry your drunk friends out. It's watching lego batman and having sleepovers. It's running faster than you thought possible, dog tired after 45 minutes of straight running and tackling, and scoring a try. It's having your teammates circle you after a try, singing the Try-song, and then doubling down. My rugby family is as solid and important to me as my blood family, and there is little I wouldn't do for those girls.