The Fullerton College Rugby Club began practicing for their first full-length season as a competing squad. The club is not technically recognized as a team on campus. However, they will compete against teams from a number of schools, mainly universities.

This is technically the club’s second year on campus, but things never really got going in the first.

“It took us most of last season to raise money for jerseys, and we never got to practice on campus,” said head coach Keri Adams. “It took us about six months to get accepted by the school.”

The club has grown tremendously since last year, and will feature a men’s team and a women’s team. The men’s team will play with 15 players on each side, and the women will play with seven. Wih rugby being the second fastest growing sport, behind lacrosse, they hope the team will only continue to grow.

Even though this will be the club’s first full season, the men aim to be pretty competitive this season. The team will compete in the same division as University of California, Irvine, Cal State, Northridge, and UC San Diego.

“We were originally going to compete at the Division 3 level,” Adams said. “However, I thought it would be a better idea to go up to Division 2. This way we will get a fall and a spring season.”

Adams is very confident that his squad will fare well when they begin competition. The team has 12 players who have past experience from local, youth rugby teams.

A good number of players have not played before, but Adams said that this is the case for just about any rugby team, even up at the Division 1 level.

“For the men’s and women’s sides we still have a lot of finalization to do,” Adams added. “Both teams have a good core, and it is about putting solid units behind them.”

Adams believes that his team can compete in the regional, and maybe even national playoffs. The team has a lot of good players, and a lot of them have previously played on teams together.

The president of the rugby club, Josh Ceballos, also will be the leader of the men’s squad. Although he has only been playing rugby for three years, he has made a name for himself and already has some experience with Mexico’s under-20 national team.

“I believe that we are going to have an awesome season this semester and next semester,” said Ceballos. “This team can go as far as this team is willing to. We are really raw and need to come together as a team and pick up some knowledge.”

The women’s team is also practicing hard in preparation for their debut. They will be playing in the sevens division, which means seven players on each side at a time.

The women will need to have their endurance at a high level to compete in sevens. A rugby field is the same size as a soccer field, and only having seven people on each side will mean that each player will have to do a lot of running.

“Sevens pose an interesting challenge for the women,” Adams said. “Their cardio has to be at a high level. The defense will need to be sharp, because the scoring is a lot higher.”

The women have a long way to go before they can take the field on October 5th against UCI to start the season. They will need a few more girls to be ready, if they plan on fielding a full squad.

“As of now we have seven girls that are completely ready to play,” said Rugby Club vice president and women’s captain April Fox. “The next couple weeks of practice will be about filling out the roster and getting a solid back up unit.”

The club is off to a great start, and will look to continue to grow.

“In the long run, I see hundreds of people coming out wanting to play rugby,” Ceballos said. “The sport is great and teaches you a lot about discipline and working as a team.