Letter to the Editor | Unfair, unfounded critique of rugby team

I am writing in response to the article featured in last week’s The Miscellany News entitled “Men’s rugby plays hard, sees losses.” As a member of the rugby team, I was very offended by the negative tone of the piece and by the numerous false statements within it.

It is clear that the authors did not sufficiently research the subject of Men’s rugby here at Vassar. The score of our first game was 32-24 in favor of Army, not 32-34 as the article had reported. Secondly, our coach Tony Brown did not play at Southern University in England. Tony Brown played for St. Luke’s College, and was chosen to represent the Southern Universities during his playing days overseas. Simple errors like these could have easily been avoided if either of the authors or one of the editors had contacted one of the Captains (myself or Vice-captain Matt Tracey) or Tony Brown. The two players who are given as sources by the authors have less than a year and a half of Vassar rugby between them. This lack of attention to even simple details shows that the authors are not in a position to charge our team of partying before games.

The most insulting part of the article was the accusation that the rugby team parties before games. Both the Men’s and Women’s rugby teams here at Vassar take our sport very seriously and follow the policies of the Vassar athletic department. Included within these policies is the 24-hour rule which prohibits any Vassar athlete from using a controlled substance 24 hours before a game. We take this rule very seriously and would never compromise our performance by partying. Anyone who knows the physical demands posed by rugby would know that it is impossible to play an 80 minute game right after a party.

I understand that the goal of The Miscellany News is to cover what takes place on Vassar campus, but it seems strange that the performance of the Men’s rugby team would be reported so severely. True, at time of writing, our record is 1-2. However, last year we finished 11-5 including wins over #2 ranked Middlebury, two Division I teams, and our first win ever overseas. We have gotten off to a slow start, but I am confident that we will not finish 1-12 as another prominent Vassar athletic team did last year. Furthermore, we have played only one home game this year, and I do not remember seeing any writers come along with us to Seton Hall or West Point so I find it hard to understand how the authors could have such harsh words for our recent road performances.

While criticizing our performance on the field is one thing, it seems unfair that that the authors wrote that rugby players present an "appearance of invincibility." This seems to show me that the authors do not know many rugby players personally. I believe that the majority of our team is courteous, down-to-earth individuals who fit right in among the rest of the student body.

Many of the members of the Vassar rugby community have talked to the authors and the editors of this article but have not found anyone willing to take accountability for the false statements printed. The intent of this letter is not to accuse anyone or to criticize the people who put in long hours for our campus newspaper. Rather, I urge the staff of The Miscellany News to be more conscientious and accurate in your reporting in the future.

—Tom Weishaupt ’07