My focus during my first five semesters at Columbia was solely on Spec Sports. I spent a year and a half climbing the ladder by writing boatloads of stories, editing articles, and learning as much as I could about Columbia athletics. In December 2007, I was rewarded with the position of sports editor for the 2008 calendar year.
Being sports editor was as rewarding as it was time consuming, and left little time for much else in my life. During winter break a few months ago, I realized I had a huge gap in my spring schedule considering that I was no longer going to be spending most of my free time at the Spec office or dealing with Spec things. It was then that I decided I was going to be “new Matt,” the guy who—just like everyone else—made the New Year’s resolution to go to Dodge and get in shape.
Getting in shape—lifting, running, etc.—is a good thing on its face, but I knew that I’d have a hard time keeping myself on track. It also wasn’t going to satisfy my competitive nature or my desire to be involved with an extracurricular activity on a regular basis. After years of telling my rugby-playing suitemate that I would consider joining the Columbia University Rugby Football Club, I finally did it—I decided to dedicate less time to writing about athletes and more time to being one.
I thought I knew what I was getting into, but—surprise, surprise—I didn’t. Three years of doing as close to nothing as possible in terms of fitness didn’t translate very well to keeping up during the first practice of the spring season—which happened to be chock-full of conditioning on a freezing Saturday morning on the last day of January. Despite being frozen and sore, I was excited that I didn’t take any sprints off and was looking forward to future practices where I expected that I would hack and wheeze my way to better fitness and learn what rugby was and how to play.
The rules and how to play might sound like things that rookies would learn at the first practice or two, right? If that was the case, all I knew after two or three weeks of practice was that rugby involved a lot of running, passing, and samurai swords. There was also something called a lineout, but there was no explanation as to when or why it was done. I also knew that at some point there would be a scrum, but I wasn’t sure when or if I would be in it.
Eventually, I began to learn the game, mostly through trial by fire. The first game I ever played, I was put into a position I hadn’t practiced, but things ended up OK—I learned on the field. It’s easy to figure out the game on the fly if you ignore your instincts. For example, usually you try not to run into people, but as a forward on the rugby pitch, that’s 99 percent of what you should be doing. If you’re running into someone—whether you have the ball, they have the ball, or you’re fighting for the ball—you’re probably doing the right thing.
I would tell you how much I learned, how well the team bonded, and how much fun was had during our spring break tour to practice and play teams in Trinidad, but that’s against the rules. What happens on tour stays on tour.
This weekend was the culmination of the spring season—the Ivy League tournament. Since the Ancient Eight rugby teams don’t play each other with any regularity, seeding is based on the previous year’s tournament. Last spring, Columbia finished seventh, meaning that on Saturday, we faced Harvard, the No. 2 team. To the surprise of everyone but ourselves, we beat Harvard in every aspect of an extremely close game, that is, except for the score. A win and a loss later, CURFC finished sixth, which was not the goal, but was a higher ranking than the team had achieved in the previous four years.
I didn’t join the team to write this or to back up statements in earlier columns that I’ve written saying that club sports are a worthwhile venture and people should look into them. I joined because I wanted to get in shape, experience the thrill of competition, and get to know a bunch of new people. I accomplished all three to some extent, and can say now that I didn’t just meet a bunch of rugby guys—I sweated, bled, and bonded with a new group of friends. That final part was something that I wasn’t fully expecting, but I’m very glad that it happened.
Thus far, Spec and CURFC have been isolated parts of my Columbia experience, but next semester the two will have to find a way to mesh. I’m excited to come back to campus in the fall and head up to Baker multiple times a week, not just to continue to cover the football team, but also to play for a team of my own.
Matt Velazquez is a Columbia College junior majoring in history.
sports@columbiaspectator.com
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