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| Volume 11, No. 49 |
September 1-7, 2010 |
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| | The power of the Scrum: New Rugby league opens | | By Steve Escajeda | | 
It’s a cross between football, soccer and Greco-Roman wrestling, and its popularity is about to explode around the El Paso area.
The El Paso Area Rugby Union is forming a citywide men’s rugby league to complement a high school-age program by providing teams in every area of the city.
“The league is currently made up of four teams but with the interest growing, especially within the military, that number could increase in the near future,” said Doug Park, EPARU director. “The teams are the Westside Crusaders, Northeast Spartans, Eastside Rebels and the Ft. Bliss/Military team.
“All those kids coming out of high school have no team to play with, so that’s why we created the El Paso Area Rugby Union,” Park said. “We’re creating our own league, which will be called the Rudolph Rugby Cup.”
But the new teams will not be confined to playing only league games.
“We also have some established associate member teams from Las Cruces, Chihuahua, New Mexico State and UTEP that we can play,” he said. “Think of these teams as non-league opponents to provide additional competition for our teams.
“Our teams can also play in other tournaments around the country,” Park said. “What we want to do is spread rugby all around the area because the city is growing so big and we’ve got kids all over town wanting to play.”
Though the new teams have already been established, rosters have not been completed and a search is going on for more players.
“We just started practicing but the kickoff for the league isn’t until September, so we’re still looking for new players to join the league, which should run through November,” Park said. “Each team will play six league games and about nine games altogether and all the games are scheduled to be played at Thorn Park on the West Side.
“I’m meeting with the City of El Paso this week to see if we can secure a field near Burges High School to accommodate the teams on that side of town.”
All games will be slated for Saturday afternoons.
Though rugby isn’t well understood by the average American sports fan, the younger fans seem to take to it.
“The response from the kids has been great and it’s a great way to work on their endurance skills and hand-to-eye coordination,” said Park. “It’s a great cross-training sport.”
A long-time advocate for rugby, Park got his start in the sport as a youngster.
“I grew up playing rugby in New Zealand, where it is the national sport,” he explained. “I’m a certified coach in the United States and I’ve been coaching in El Paso since 1974.
“We started the El Paso Youth Rugby Foundation three years ago and currently have five high school-age teams and we’ll probably jump to about six to eight teams next year.”
According to Park, rugby is about to be elevated in status locally in the near future.
“It’s going to explode here. I’m going to the Texas Ruby Union meetings in College Station next week to get our league to join them,” Park said. “They want us to make up the West Region of the TRU. We’ve always been in the Rio Grande region, which is actually in New Mexico.”
Park explained that once that is established, the next step is to petition the Texas University Interscholastic League to make rugby an official high school sport for boys and girls.
“Next to soccer, rugby is the most popular sport in the world and will be added to the next Olympics in England,” he said.
Anyone wanting to join the league can contact Park at (915) 833-1322.
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