VYRA News
A Message From John McKelvie
Four years ago, as I walked down a hallway in my high school and noticed a flyer for the local rugby club, there was no way I could have foreseen the incredible impact that this sport has had on my life. Despite my relative inexperience with organized sports, I began going to practices to understand what the hype was all about. A few weeks later in the midst of my first game, the gears in my brain suddenly clicked and I began seeing the game in an entirely new way. While it appears to the average spectator to be a jumbled mess of thirty athletes crashing around on the field, I came to realize that the choreography of the game, the intense physical aspect of play, and the camaraderie between teammates was the reason that this “mess” was the second most popular sport in the world.
Two years after that first bumbling, confusing game, I was the captain of the local under-19 club, and there was nothing else in the world that brought me as much joy as sprinting across the rugby pitch, breaking tackles, kicking goals, and bringing together kids of every athletic ability to play this incredible game. One of the reasons that this game is so widely popular is the fact that there is a position for every size, speed, and mind. My parents were understandably nervous when it came to their son playing a sport renowned for its physicality, but the contact in this game, unlike football, is heavily regulated and coaches teach techniques to specifically reduce the chance of injuries. While bumps and bruises are commonplace, more serious injuries are very uncommon in the high school level of rugby.
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