DSHA's success -- and the news coverage of DSHA's national title run in two articles from the Journal sentinel (one, two) -- really illustrates how far high school women's rugby in Wisconsin has come in the past 11 years. Perhaps one of the more important side-effects of DSHA's success is not the title, but the positive impact on the image of rugby in the community. This positive impact is highlighted by one simple fact, the location of the story in the paper. Both the stories about the DSHA national title run were printed in the sports section with the tag line "rugby." This may seem like a small accomplishment, but the very first press that DSHA received from the Journal Sentinel (and don't get me wrong, we were glad to receive it) was a full, front page story in the STYLE section. Women's high school rugby has clearly moved from a "curiosity" to a legitimate, competitive sport -- with DSHA leading the way for all of us.
The legitimacy of women's high school rugby in Wisconsin as a sport is no small accomplishment. In Kicking Stereotypes into Touch: An Ethnographic Account of Women's Rugby (full cite at end of post), P. David Howe notes that, even in Wales where rugby is an important cultural activity which forms part of the Welsh national identity, negative perceptions of women's rugby impacts the ability of rugby clubs to recruit high school players: "We have real difficulty attracting high school girls to the team. It would be great if we could because by the time they are in there [sic] mid-twenties they could be really accomplished at the game." (Howe, p. 237).
Wisconsin seems to have to overcome some of these negative perceptions associated with women participating in a contact sport -- an accomplishment that is due in no small part to the inclusion of rugby stories in the preps section of the Journal Sentinel. Last weekend, I was in the mall and getting a hair cut. The barber noted that I seemed to have gotten a lot of sun. I responded that I spend a lot of time on the sideline of the rugby field. The barber stated, "oh, I thought that around here only the girls played rugby." I indicated that I coached a girls' high school team and this led to a discussion about how her daughter was a senior at a high school in Wisconsin and how she wished that there was rugby at her school. The significance of DSHA's success (and its coverage by the press) is that the general public -- those with no connection to rugby -- form a positive image of Women's rugby players and see rugby as a legitimate sport for women. (an ironic comment given the fact that there are probably twice as many boys high school teams as there are girls). The positive perception of women's high school rugby creates the opportunity for the growth of women's rugby in the high school (and by extension boys' rugby). There is interest in the growth of women's rugby by female athletes who read these stories; The only thing holding us back is the need to find more coaches and referees!!
So, kudos to DSHA -- not only for winning an impressive 6 National Titles and having the first ever USA Rugby Coach of the year in John "Chin" Klien-- but also for generating headlines that highlight the athletic accomplishment of our women's high school rugby athletes and foster a positive image for rugby.
For those of you who want to follow up on the citation: Howe, P. David (2003), Kicking Stereotypes into Touch: An Ethnographic Account of Women's Rugby, in A. Bline and J. Granskog (eds.) Athletic Intruders: Ethnographic Research on Women, Culture, and Exercise, pp. 227-246.
(p.s. -- it is really nice to have access to a tier 1 research institution's library when exploring your casual interests!!)
3 comments:
This is a great commentary. It's interesting to note that girls probably DO get more public notice in rugby than boys - probably because boy's rugby is often overshadowed by other sports such as soccer, football, basketball, baseball, etc. In any event, the growth of the sport is very encouraging and exciting.
Great article! Thanks for expanding my reading list and putting together a well thought out article.
Thanks for the comments. As to the book -- and other articles posted online -- I'll note that the research on women's rugby focuses almost exclusively on either elite level athlete (i.e. international and top-tier women's clubs) or colleges (in the USA).
Despite the fact that there are many studies about youth and adolescent participation in sports (from a health/fitness perspective) ,I think there is a gap in the research about participation in rugby from a high school and women's perspective. It would be worthwhile for some aspiring academic to put this on their research agenda. I think one high light of rugby is that the small size of the rugby community encourages communication between club/college/high school levels -- thereby encouraging players to continue to play after entering the sport and fostering life-long health and fitness in a way that is not done in any other sport. (i.e. if you don't make the cut for a high school varsity program or a collegiate varsity program in soccer, your sports involvement ends very early in your life). In rugby, the no-cut, multi-side philosophy enables wider participation at various levels of interest and ability, thus encouraging life long fitness.
Just a thought.
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