Field hockey's newest recruit: a rugby player?

Sarah Palermo Guest Writer

Rugby players wear teeny tiny shorts, so opposing players have less to grab onto when tackling. Field hockey players wear skirts because skirts are cool. Some rugby players wear nifty little hats so their ears don’t get ripped off in the scrum. Field hockey players wear shinguards so their legs don’t get broken by their opponent’s vicious wooden stick.

So, the two sports are pretty different, but are they really incompatible? All in the interest of journalistic integrity (and the desire for a good laugh), we were curious if a men’s rugby player could handle the girl’s field hockey practice for a day. We enlisted the handsome and brave Tom Weishaupt ’07 of the men’s rugby team to go out to Prentiss Field and find out.

Right away, Weishaupt noticed that the players were a bit smaller than he expected. But he didn’t have much time to adjust to his new teammates, as Coach Judy Finerghty started the team off with some warm-ups. Weishaupt exceeded expectations during a skipping exercise, showing off his grace and coordination. It looked like he wouldn’t be that bad after all. The warm-ups concluded after about half an hour of sprints and then the feature presentation: a stick work drill.

There were several rules Weishaupt needed to learn first. When Assistant Coach Kate Morris noticed his “golf-like” swing, she informed him that players aren’t allowed to raise their sticks above their waist. Oops. Contrary to Weishaupt’s rugby training, players aren’t allowed to use any part of their body to stop the ball and they can’t touch any other player’s stick.

With those formalities settled, Weishaupt got ready to participate in the drill. In this drill, players were responsible for several skills. They stopped a pass, using only their stick, of course, then shot it under three hurdles. Jumping over the hurdles to catch up to the ball, they then shot for a goal. Simple enough. The players handled the drill as though it were as routine as their morning coffee.

But Weishaupt’s stick was about four inches shorter than it should be, putting him at a slight disadvantage. The proportions of the stick made him feel like “the big bear at the circus riding the tiny tricycle.” But by the end of the drill, Coach Fingherty said that one of Weishaupt’s shots was “not all that bad.” He never actually scored a goal, though, because the “girl in the big orange booties,” as he called goalie Ellie Pomerantz ’08, managed to stop them.

Looking back, Weishaupt says that he wasn’t at all nervous, only “disoriented because I wasn’t able to tackle anyone.” He overcame this, and several other obstacles rather quickly though, becoming as adept as one could expect from someone using a field hockey stick for the first time. The team welcomed him from the first moment and gave him rousing cheers of support for every move.

But will Weishaupt be trading in his teeny tiny rugby shorts for a field hockey skirt? You’ll have to look for him at their next home game to find out!