Matt Friedenberg '07 is one of over thirty Brandeis students who next year will voluntarily endure the mental and physical burden that comes with joining Brandeis' only collision sports team-the men's rugby club. The group may start out thirty men strong, but once the rookies realize the grueling nature of the sport, the team size will likely taper to a core group of student athletes in a process that former captain Alex Goldstein '06 calls "survival of the fittest." Before Friedenberg can tackle this task, he must survive something even more arduous: a second surgery on his left ACL, followed by nine months of rehabilitation and slow recovery. After originally tearing his ACL in a high-school football game, Friedenberg tore the ailing knee-ligament again this April during a rugby scrimmage game. He will undergo surgery in August, and return to school on crutches in the fall. If all goes well, he can return to the team in time for spring exhibition games.

"There's an understanding between [the rugby players] that we are sick in the head and that we enjoy getting our faces smashed into the ground," Friedenberg said. "There's an understanding that we're a little weird."

But Jacob Bockelmann '09, the team's president, seeks to defy the "sick in the head" stereotype. A horned-rimmed, Giorgio Armani glasses donning former Massel Quad Senator and member of the Finance Board, Bockelman is insistent that the team is not made up of "a bunch of meathead."

In January, Friedenberg's lip busted open during a practice when he was not wearing his mouth guard. He needed two layers of stitches to sew it up. Bockelmann says his charge is to keep this kind of behavior out of the rugby club, and out of the University's perception of it.

Yet ask Bockelmann his motivation for joining the team and this is his reply: "I viewed [the rugby Club] as my last chance to hit someone."

Their conflicting viewpoints are especially relevant in the light of the administration's increasing interest in club sports, which are played by countless students at Brandeis, but often receive less financial support than is necessary to safely run a sports team. The administration is currently considering alternative ways of funding the clubs, which are currently funded through the Student Activities Fee.

'You're going to get injuries. It's impossible not to.'

Goldstein said he was just as committed to improving the team's image and safety during his tenure as captain, and indeed, the team seems to have made strides in those areas. Goldstein carries with him memories of his first year on the team, which was somewhat of a glory year: The team won the Division IV championship for the first time. Back then, the team played on the field outside the commuter rail, which was deemed so dangerous by the league that they refused to send referees to the games.

"Routinely people were getting tackled out of bounds and into chain-link fence, or out of bounds on the other side and down the hill embankment," Goldstein said.

After the team's games and practices were moved to Chapels Field, Goldstein and others began crusading for a still safer playing spot to combat the injuries that they say were caused by the small, gravel-patched field. Their wish was granted last fall with permission to play home games on the newly installed turf on Gordon field, and a promise from Head of University Services Mark Collins to refurbish Chapels Field before the fall '06 semester.

Dan Tress '07, Matt Francis '07 and Bockelmann all show the signs of the team's need for a more suitable playing area. Tress and Francis were both injured in practice drills because of the inadequate field size, Goldstein says, and Bockelmann was tackled into one of the field's more gravel-filled areas and in Goldstein's words, "was pulling rocks out of his legs for two weeks."

Even without gravel, Chapel's field will always be a dangerous place to play rugby, Goldstein says.

"When you put 20 to 30 guys on an area about one-eighth the size of a football field, you're going to get injuries," he says. "It's impossible not to. You can't play the game the way it's supposed to be played."

The team also benefited in 2004 from hiring head coach John Dalton who is leaving the team before next season, and assistant coach Brian Casey, who will take over as head coach.

Though the team can only afford to pay their coaches $1,500 each year , Goldstein says that contribution to the team's safety is immeasurable.

With these recent improvements, Goldstein says that rugby is on the safer side of Brandeis sports. Bockelman agreed, and cited the season-ending injury of men's basketball forward John Saucier '08 as an example of one of the many injuries that sideline varsity athletes every year.

Goldstein says he wishes people did not automatically associate rugby with injuries. "It hurts the image of rugby and it makes administrations less interested in pursuing it."

'It's time for you to go to the hospital.'

When played correctly, Goldstein says, rugby is a natural and safe sport that results in far more "glory injuries"-bloody noses, black eyes, cuts, etc.-than serious injuries.

This puts the brunt of the blame for injuries directly on those aspects of the rugby club that are still far from perfect: undersized field space and bigger, more experienced opponents, but also a culture of toughness that may be more resilient than team leaders want to admit.

Francis cited the game when Goldstein broke his ankle last year.

"He wanted to keep playing, but we were like 'No, it's time for you to go to the hospital.' [Playing with injuries] is huge, because nobody wants to let down their team."

When Dan Mauer '06 blacked out for a few seconds after a hit in the team's first game of the season, he consulted his coach to see if he should keep playing. After a few words with coach and with BEMCo watching from the sidelines, Mauer went back in to play 70 more minutes of what his teammates called the best rugby of his life. It wasn't until after the game, when an ambulance was called to bring him to Newton-Wellesly hospital, that it was determined that he had suffered a crack in his skull and a concussion.

The injury effectively ended contact sports for Mauer, but during the game, he brushed it off.

"You get shaken up during rugby games," he said. "So I kept playing. It seemed on the surface like everything was OK."

Both a coach and staff of EMTs failed to detect Mauer's injury. While the sport of rugby may be safe, negligence is not.

'Sick in the head'

Rugby injuries won't go away because of a refurbished field, but the rugby team also won't vanish from a few season-ending injuries. In fact, men's rugby is as popular as it ever has been in its 20 years, with large fan turnouts at games and possible rugby merchandise on the way, according to Bockelmann. Without the visceral spectacle of football to rally around, Brandeis students may be turning to rugby for that community aggression-letting outlet that young adults desperately crave.

One sign of fan support is the cans of beer that were found on Gordon field after the Rugby team's Oct. 31 game, evoking an angry letter from President Jehuda Reinharz. When was the last time you and your buddies knocked back a few beers while "tailgating" a Brandeis sporting event? Apparently someone did.

Next year's team will embark on a rebuilding process in every sense of the word. Bockelmann says that the team takes pride in its diversity, in players such as Jason Unger the "team rabbi," and Ian Tang '07, whom Bockelmann and Goldstein describe as nice kids who routinely take down guys three times their size. Friedenberg, meanwhile, takes pride in the team's unity and in its closeness to a varsity sport. Once, he said, a player got into an altercation at an off-campus party and the entire team showed up to defend him. This is just one reason why the team "is more than just a club sport."

Mark Paige '07 will replace Goldstein as captain. He, Bockelmann and others will be responsible for shaping the identity of the team for years to come.

Whether it is just a group of typical Brandeis kids looking to play a fun sport, a great chance to "hit someone", or a band of "sick in the head" daredevils, will be for the students and the administration to decide.