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Steel Valley Rugby comes to WATTS
Valley club teams
set for showcase
By BRIAN DZENIS
YOUNGSTOWN
One Youngstown rugby club is gearing up for another run to the playoffs while another is just getting off the ground.
On Saturday, Steel Valley Rugby is hosting a charity preseason event at the WATTS in the third annual Thomas “Chris” Smythe Memorial Rugby 10s Tournament.
Proceeds from the tournament and concessions will go toward the Smythe scholarship fund.
For the first time, the club is debuting a women’s team. The team came together in January.
“I don’t think we’ll look like the typical six-week old team,” said Renee Whittenberger, the team’s captain and startup coordinator.
The women’s side currently has 15 members and is looking for more. Most players came from various defunct women’s teams across northeastern Ohio, so Whittenberger expects the team to be pretty competitive.
The team is looking to get its numbers into the 20s in time for the start of its regular season in March.
Steel Valley competes in Division IV of the Midwest Rugby Union’s Tri-State League, an amateur league.
The club started out as Youngstown RFC in 1973 and was disbanded in the mid 1980s. It came back as a Youngstown State-affiliated club team and stuck around until disbanding in 2000 after running out of eligible players.
Steel Valley Rugby in its current form has been around since 2010. The team is no longer a YSU club team, but still attracts students, according to Marquinn Jones, a player and recruiter.
The Steel Valley men’s team has around 30 players, ranging in age from 18 to 50. Some are students, others are cops, corrections officers and trade workers. Some hold other jobs.
Jones, a Rayen graduate and former University of Akron football player, was looking for a new hobby after walking away from an arena football career.
The 26-year-old former defensive lineman and linebacker found the game through his former defensive line coach at Rayen, YPD officer Bill Burton.
Jones initially found the rules baffling. There’s no forward pass and the technique for tacking stresses wrapping up a runner.
“People tee off on each other in football,” Jones said. “There’s rules against that [in rugby] and you can’t do that without hurting yourself.”
Last season, the team made it to the D-IV playoffs in Detroit, but couldn’t compete due to a lack of players because of injuries and work commitments.
“I was disappointed, but I understood,” Jones said. “Some guys are cops. Some are students. They just couldn’t take a day and go to Detroit.”
The women’s team boasts a similar eclectic makeup in occupations and ages. Anyone from engineers to waitresses play. Whittenberger was bored with running marathons when she discovered rugby.
“It was weird. At first you love it and then you don’t stop until your body or your job says no,” she said.
The sport attracts people, but the camaraderie keeps them around.
“We’re all joking around until it’s time to hit each other,” Jones said.
The games start at 9 a.m at the WATTS and run until 5:30 p.m. The tournament features 10 men’s teams and four women’s teams.
Admission is free, but the club would appreciate donations to the Smythe scholarship fund.