Rugby players in their element during Snowball

Snow falling, temperatures dipping, the world outside seemed to have stilled into a deep, white silence. What was a group of rugby players to do? Find a way to play, of course.
 

"We were sitting around in the middle of winter about nineteen years ago, wondering what to do," says Tim Britain. He is the treasurer for the Kalamazoo Rugby Football Club (KRFC), the team established in 1988 and known as the Kalamazoo Dogs.

 

What the rugby players, or ruggers, came up with was Snowball Rugby—and it wasn't long before Tim Britain was nicknamed the Snowball Czar. He would become the director of the annual event.

 

During the warmer seasons of spring and fall, KRFC plays seriously, training, playing in tournaments, and in 2012, becoming Midwest Division III Eastern Conference Northern League Champions. But in winter, in the cold and in the snow, it's time just for play. 

 

"We decided to play in the snow," Britain says, recalling that winter 19 years ago. "No goal posts, 10-minute halves, shorter games."

 

The Snowball Rugby games have taken place in Upjohn Park, downtown Kalamazoo, every winter, ever since. The event draws from 300 to 400 people (regular season games draw around 100 per game), players and their family and friends, with the ruggers divided up into four divisions, 10 players per team: men's and women's teams, collegiate men's and women's teams. 

 

"Anyone can sign up," says Britain. "All you need is $30 for registration and to sign a waiver."

 

No practice, no experience needed, just a basic idea about rugby rules and a willingness to get down and dirty. Three fields have games going on at the same time with some 100 matches taking place over the day, starting usually at about 10 a.m. and ending sometime around 5 p.m. or so, says Britain. End of the day, flushed with their activity and the chill of the snow, the teams head over to The Ruggers Up & Under, a sports pub downtown Kalamazoo and a sponsor of KRFC, to celebrate victory or drown the agony of defeat, as the case may be. 

 

This year's Snowball Rugby tournament took place Saturday, Feb. 16, at Upjohn Park, with 29 teams participating and plenty of snow to toss around. Champions of the event were UIC Men's and Women's College teams, Flint Rogues Rugby Football Club, and the Michigan Mutts.

 

"It's a 150-year old game," says Britain, "and it's one of the fastest growing high school sports in the country. It's something like playing soccer, only you get to pick up the ball and run with it."

 

According to USRugby.com, there are 115,000 active rugby members registered in the country, and, according to Britain, two Kalamazoo-area high schools now have rugby teams, with 55 teams in the state of Michigan.

 

"We recruit high school students from schools around Kalamazoo and then they register with KRFC," he says. 

 

Unlike the snowball version, regular teams have 15 players per side and play two 40-minute halves, with positions sorted into "forwards" and "backs." All the players have the same rights and responsibilities, no matter what position they play, and they can "carry the ball, tackle, ruck, maul, kick or just about anything else the game requires," states the KRFC website.

 

"The Snowball Rugby event is our fundraiser to fund KRFC for the rest of the year," says Britain, who hasn't played for about three years now, but continues his involvement as director for the Snowball Rugby event and treasurer for KRFC.

 

"This year we've gotten farther than we ever have before," he says. "Our next game is in Erie, Pennsylvania, and if we win that one, the national championships are in Colorado Springs."

 

Andrew Gyorkos, known among his rugby teammates as Gold Bond, works alongside Britain on the Snowball Rugby event. He does what needs to be done, he says, helping to clean up the park after the event, running the raffle that helps KRFC raise funds for the rest of the year. He's been a member since 1997.

 

"There's a lot of rugby going on," he says. "There are teams in Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Midland, Detroit, Traverse City … basically most every university now has a rugby team. We're really excited about the spring playoffs in Pennsylvania. We've been very successful these last two years."

 

The Snowball Rugby event, Gyorkos says, is a social event open to all types and ages, and this year, he's bringing his son. "It's a good-time weekend."

 

Troy Dorstewitz was at that table of the winter-bored rugby players 19 years ago, shared in the brainstorming that birthed Snowball Rugby, and now, after many years of playing, he is a referee at the Snowball Rugby games.  

 

"I've played rugby for about 20 years," he says. "I played in the front, a forward position, and sure, bad things can happen, but they don't happen that often."

 

Dorstewitz is referring to injuries during the games, now a frequent topic among athletes and sports fans with recent studies focused on the physical damage athletes sustain in contact sports such as football. Rugby players don't wear helmets. They don't wear heavy padding. 

 

"It's a surprisingly safe sport," he says. "In 20 years, I had one concussion and one sprained ankle. It's not that violent … we sort out the criminals and, you know, someone catches them," he laughs. 

 

If it weren't for rugby, Dorstewitz says, he wouldn't have met his wife. He met her in 1995, as a World Cup spectator in South Africa. It was the only year he says he missed the Snowball Rugby games. 

 

"It's a phenomenal event, great for the team," he says. "I'm old and too slow now to play," he laughs, "but I still do what I can to help the team. Snowball Rugby is the one thing a year I don't miss."

 

If you are interested in learning more about playing rugby with the KRFC, email them here.