The Harding rugby team had its first practice last Tuesday under the leadership of new student-coach and captain, senior Hayden Dorsett.
The club has been coached by students since it formed. Last spring, Dorsett began learning the ropes of coaching and preparing to step up to the position.
“It’s a little intimidating,” Dorsett said. “Just the mental preparation and getting ready [to coach]. Now this whole team, this whole season is relying on me to prepare them for it.”
Dorsett began playing rugby his freshman year at Harding. Dorsett said that most guys who come out for the Harding team have little prior experience playing rugby, just like himself freshman year.
Sophomore rugby player Kevin Bolivar said one of the biggest challenges is training players, many of whom have football backgrounds, to pass the ball backwards.
Bolivar said Dorsett’s coaching reflects that of last year’s student coach, Robbie Cribb, who helped prepare Dorsett for the position through the training techniques he learned as a player for the Cayman Island national rugby team.
“[Hayden] learned a lot from Robbie,” Bolivar said. “Him and Robbie were really good friends. Robbie had excellent coaches in the Cayman Islands so a lot of the drills he learned, a lot of techniques he learned, he would implement here. He teaches rugby the way he learned rugby and we practiced rugby the way he practiced rugby. He always taught us to be gentlemen when we play because that’s what the sport’s about.”
Dorsett has also taken on the responsibility of helping the team raise funds. According to Dorsett, the rugby team is receiving school funding this year for the first time as part of a budget passed by Dean of Students David Collins to help Harding athletic clubs cover some of their expenses.
Dorsett said the team has worked the concession stands of the Harding Academy and Harding football games to cover expenses and they will continue to do so this year. It is the team’s passion for the game that keeps them motivated to continue learning and performing on the field.
“It’s all about the love of the game,” Dorsett said. “The guys that are on the team and stay with it throughout the year, they do it because they love playing rugby. And we do it for each other because we want to better our team, we want to raise money for our team and we want us to grow.”
The first home game is Sept. 29 against the University of Memphis.
