Covenant’s rugby club is preparing to face off against three other schools on Saturday, April 1 in a multi-match Sevens tournament—and they have a home turf advantage.
“We want to revive campus popularity of the rugby team this semester,” said freshman Mac Stevens of Suburbs. “We want to get as many people out there as possible.”
Senior Dan Glad hatched the idea and organized the series, which will be a shorter, stripped-down version of the usual rugby format. Matches will be played with only seven players per team—usually there are 15—on a normal size field. According to Stevens, games played this way tend to be more exciting.
Covenant will host Bryan College, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Sewanee on Shadowlands. Each team will play each other team once, for a total of six games. There will be no playoffs. An MVP from each team will be named at the end of the tournament.
The series is the club’s first and only official activity this semester. The squad, once again coached by alum Erik Vitolins, hopes to attract a large crowd. The Scots Trot 5k race is taking place at 9:00 am the same morning, and high schoolers from around the country will be on campus for Campus Preview Weekend.
Stevens says the squad began training twice a week at the beginning of March. “Our training got more serious after spring break. We’re mainly working on conditioning and ball handling,” he says.
The Sevens squad is a mix of new and returning players. “The new players seem to really be enjoying it,” said Stevens. “We’re really trying to build for next year.”