Mudsock Rugby Team Starts Off Their Season

Silas Newton

The boy’s rugby team has recently started their season and have hopes to make it back to the state game this season. They just came off their home opener about 2 weeks ago against Noblesville. Southeastern Sports Network checked in with a couple of the rugby teams top players currently to see how they feel about the upcoming season. Jack Seyferth is a Junior Rugby player here at HSE, and when asked about how him and the team have been preparing for the season, he said this. “Before the season the rugby team has been practicing every Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday at 9-10:30 pm. Additionally we have a practice at 6:30-8 Saturday mornings. We have a lot of new members on the team, so we have been working on the basics and developing a new style of rugby with our team’s new coach” (Jack Seyferth-Junior). Jack was then asked how he feels the school/student body is doing to support the rugby team saying this. “The school and students don’t support the rugby team as much as I would like. The school doesn’t recognize it as a sport and doesn’t help advertise it. The students don’t even know that our school has a rugby team and in a way they are right. There are so few people from HSE and Fishers that want to play rugby we’ve been forced to combine teams. The school could do a better job by recognizing rugby as a sport and helping advertise a great sport and hobby to new students. Students could help support more by showing up to some home games to show their support” (Jack Seyferth- Junior). Another key piece of the rugby team this year has been Nate Ingalls a Junior as well here at HSE. He was asked the same about how he and the team have been preparing for the season. “We are at the very start of the season, so we do lots of conditioning like running and ball handling. We have a lot of new players, so we must make sure they know how to play” (Nate Ingalls- Junior). After being asked about how Nate himself feels about the school spirt towards rugby he stated. “To be honest we don’t have a lot of fans at games but most of our games have been away. I hope we have more fans at home games. I also think most fans don’t know the schedule or where the games are at” (Nate Ingalls- Junior). Lastly the new head coach of the rugby team this year was interviewed and asked the same questions. When Coach Paul Greener was asked how he has been preparing his team for another great season he said. “Practices are only 1 hour and 30 mins, so we don’t have much time to train. I’ve been teaching them ball handing, tackling and basic rugby rules” (Head Coach Paul Greener). Coach was then asked about the school’s support towards rugby and stated. “This is my first-year head coaching, but in the past, we have not had many fans. It’s more just parents of players” (Head Coach Paul Greener). As the rugby team starts their season, they would greatly appreciate more of the students going out to support them and cheer them on! The rugby team has a match against Westfield this Friday April 14th go out and cheer on your fellow Royals.