by Rob Bartlett
Special to The Gazette

Rob Bartlett/Special to The Gazette Frederick Rugby player Rob Smith breaks away for a try against the Maryland Exiles last weekend in Laurel. Frederick won the match but ultimately lost in the tournament semifinals to Baltimore.

While the game of rugby may be relegated to relative obscurity on the scale of mainstream sports in America, it is alive and well in Frederick.

The Frederick Rugby Football Club has been competing in the county since 1990 when Don Briggs, former coach of the now defunct Frederick Falcons semi-pro football team, introduced several of his former Falcons to rugby. From the founding members, to keeping the Falcons' black and green colors, the club has always had close ties with and has become the legacy of the semi-pro team.

Now most of the players from that era have moved on and the club is composed of members from the community who have fallen in love with the game at various times in their lives. Unlike some other clubs in the mid-Atlantic region, Frederick's players are almost all locals and are recruited from the around the county, rather than from larger areas like Baltimore or Washington. They compete every season except winter, with exhibition games, tournaments and regular competition.

Players come from all walks of life, including Fort Detrick scientists, state troopers, high school teachers, sheriff's deputies, software engineers, and even a state senator.

Sen. Alexander X. Mooney (R-Dist. 3) of Frederick has played for the club ever since he was an intern in Washington in 1994 and is still an active player when he is not bound to commitments in Annapolis. Like many players, Mooney was introduced to the game in college, having played as a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Another source of talent for the club stems from a close relationship with Fort Detrick, which used to serve as Frederick Rugby Football Club's home field (or "pitch," as it is known in rugby). Several players stationed at Fort Detrick have, at one time or another, played for the Army Select Side, an all-star rugby team composed of players throughout the service who compete against some of the top teams and all-star teams from across the country.

Some of these players have included Richard Looney, Rob Schuster (former member of the Samoan national team), Shawn Boos, James "Doc" Oliverio, and current player Rob Smith. Oliverio and Boos have temporarily left the team a bit short-handed as they are both serving tours of duty in Iraq, as a surgeon and medical logistics coordinator, respectively.

The team also has benefited from the services of skilled rugby players from other countries, whose various jobs have brought them to the Frederick area. Such players include Kenyan Peter Goto and Englishman Julian Reading, the coach of the squad.

"Part of the attraction of playing for Frederick to me, as an Englishman, was coming into town and instantly having a close-knit group of 50 friends. There's a world of camaraderie among rugby players that those who have never played the game have yet to experience," Reading said.

For all this talent, Frederick Rugby has not disappointed on the competition end of things. In 1994, 1998, 1999 and 2000, the club made the National Division II Sweet Sixteen, going so far as the Division II National Championship in San Diego, Calif., in 1998, where Frederick lost a heartbreaker to Division II power Wisconsin Rugby Football Club by a score of 16-8.

In 2002, Frederick toured England, playing a series of local clubs with reasonable success and, as Reading said, breaking "a few English hearts" along the way.

Individual players have made a splash on the national scene as well; current player and team MVP Troy Bartley made the USA National Team (known as the Eagles), and from 1997 to 1999 former Eagles captain Will Brewington made Frederick his home club.

In addition to representing Frederick County on the rugby pitch, Frederick Rugby has made significant contributions back to the community as well, giving time and money to several local charities.

Player Fain Moran had only recently moved to Frederick when terror struck on Sept. 11, 2001, and one of his friends from his former club of North Jersey Rugby Football Club was killed in the attack. Moran's new teammates rallied around him and put their efforts behind organizing a "home and away" series with North Jersey to raise funds for charity. The first match, played in New Jersey, raised more than $10,000 for the Thomas P. Knox Memorial Fund (named for the player who was killed).

The Knox Memorial Fund is set up to give money for the children of employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that lost nearly all of its employees in the attacks.

"Everyone here was so supportive, especially for someone who had just joined them, and went the extra mile in the name of someone they never really knew just because of their involvement in rugby," Moran said. "I think that really shows that the support and camaraderie that you see in rugby is really like nothing else out there. There's just no other sport like it in the world, no question."

In the return match this past year, played in Frederick, the funds raised went to the families of former coach Jim Ford and to former player and club president Pat O'Connell, both of whom died untimely deaths in the past few years. More than $6,000 was raised, and the families decided to give the money to the USO.

The match has become an annual tradition, with the money going to the Knox Memorial Fund or the USO every year. Moran hopes that next year it could develop into a tournament involving more teams and raising even more money for the two organizations.

The club plays its home matches at Baker Park in Frederick, thanks to cooperation with the city's Parks and Recreation Department. New players of all skill levels are always being recruiting, including those who have never played. More information, including match and practice schedules, can be found on the club's Web site, www.frederickrugby.org.

Reprinted from The Gazette