LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 38 In the early 1970s, Jan Plumadore was playing with the illustrious, Old Blue Rugby Football Club of New York City. However, being a native to Saranac Lake, he found it redundant to travel six hundred miles round trip in order to play the game he loved. This inspired him to form the Saranac Lake Rugby Football Club, nameless at the time, which he rostered with young men that he used to coach in high school football. Rugby had officially begun in the Adirondacks. The Can-Am Rugby Tournament started where most rugby tournaments begin; at a bar after a couple of beers. They began in 1973 with eight teams the first year and grew exponentially. Within two years there were thirty-two teams. Fifty years later, the Saranac Lake Mountaineers Rugby Football Club will once again host the Can-Am Tournament, one of the big- gest rugby tournaments in North America, with over one hundred teams in eight different divisions com- peting each year. Around the Mountaineers, we call Can-Am's "Rugby Christmas," and I completely agree with the sentiment. But why rugby? What about this sport that keeps over a hundred teams coming back to the North Country each year? The allure of broken bones, black eyes, and bloody noses shouldn't be as high as it is, but each year there's more teams sitting on the waitlist for their opportunity to get beat up. A typical game of rugby is played by two teams with fifteen players on each side. The goal is simple; score more points than the other team. A "try" is awarded when the ball is grounded over the opponent's goal line, resulting in five points. Penalty kicks, drop goals, and conversions are different types of kicks that re- ward your team a various number of points. "For America, it's a unique game. It's not one of the popular games, but all you have to do is get somebody to come out and play and they'll fall in love with it," said Jim Clark, lifetime rugger who has been partic- ipating in the tournament since 1975. "You get to utilize as many skill sets as you want to develop." With eight forwards and seven backs, rugby is inclu- sive to all weights and sizes. If you like tackling play- ers, come play flanker, that'll be your main goal. If you want to kick, come play fly half, they tend to kick more often than they should. If you like running around aimlessly, come play literally any position, it's a long game. You're bound to get lost at some point. It can be seen as a violent, brutal game, but it's also graceful and forgiving. After lining up across from a complete stranger tackling, rucking, and running through them for 80 minutes, there's always going to be a social, where you get to meet the other teams, explain to them your rugby journey and how many times you've broken your nose. If you want a group of friends to hang out with, join your closest rugby club, because it's more than just a sport. I was lucky enough to be born into the culture of rugby. Back in 1986, my mother decided to give rugby a shot while attending SUNY Plattsburgh. As she went to her first practice, the coach was a true Adirondack From Small Town Scrums to Regional Renown: The Legacy of Rugby in the Adirondacks By Kevin Morgan

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