There are very few sports quite like Rugby Football. Whether it is the intensity of “American Football without pads” or the sport’s global reputation for a culture of inclusion and camaraderie, “a hooligan’s sport played by gentlemen” as it is sometimes referred, it is anything but mainstream, making it just the right combination to pull in Mike (and Lindsay 2 years later) and leave a lasting impression while at UCONN.
A dozen or so years later, with 3 kids in tow, 1 which was finding the sport after experiencing the uglier, hypercompetitive side of another team sport, “the gentleman’s sport played by hooligans” as IT is sometimes called, they were staring at a newly cleared and seeded field on the SouthEast corner of BaseCamp31 just begging for use. As is the case with any successful endeavor, high-level sport should be focused and serious but that should never be at odds with fun. With that in mind, the dream of bringing “the game they play in heaven” back home to Hunterdon seemed not only doable but important.
It started with a trial of flag rugby, the no-contact version played at the “K to 8th” youth levels over the summer; a combination of very basic skills and a good reason for the community’s kiddos to run around. By year 2, with growing numbers and a newly minted set of red and white striped jerseys emblazoned with the BaseCamp31 Athletic Club shield, the “candy-canes” or “the waldos” (as we lovingly referred to them) took the pitch with swagger and style. By the Summer of 2019 things were looking up. The oldest Gen-2 Eisenhart Rugger Lauryn was getting some attention from college rugby recruiters, Mike signed on to assist the Drew University Men’s team and with a little help from our friends in the next county, the first BCAC tackle team took the field and a 1 point tourney win. The same principles that were bringing success in the training room and for our corporate clients were helping kids achieve. Things were looking up and Rugby was becoming a positive source of energy but in early August, when one of Pro-Activity’s original partners (Tom E) had a serious fall, it became an energy outlet. It turned out to be the first in a series of challenges that fell out of our direct control in late 2019, with the pandemic and lockdown following only a few months later. Not to be deterred, for Mike (and now Alissa, Gen-2 Eisenhart Rugger number 2), it was masking-up for practice and a distant hope to play a few games as assistant coach and athlete respectively with the Morris U18 Girls Team. The pandemic ravaged the sport. The BaseCamp31 branded team eventually fell victim as so many youth sports teams did, but Morris was hanging in there and, most notably in the women’s game there was significant growth collegiately. The only trouble was, with no active games or tournaments, recruitable players weren’t going to be seen. With a spirit not unlike many of the 25 we’ve captured here, the Pro-Activity team rallied around the stakeholders, a group who affectionately call themselves “the sappy dads” and their athlete-daughters, to design and deliver a college showcase and recruiting event that would bring teams together with college scouts and set a new standard in the sport. With everything going on at the time, you’d have to be from Mars to think this was doable. So that’s what we called it, The Mid-Atlantic Women’s Rugby Showcase, MAWRS. And then, six weeks after the first inkling of an idea, at one of the last of many sporting events Tom would spectate, we did it. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was a major step in the right direction, a meaningful contribution to getting life back on a normal track, and yet another moment where Pro-Activity lived its mission. MAWRS grew up to be the Rugby Showcase East and, under the umbrella of BaseCamp31, the Elite Girls Rugby League was founded. It now represents a dozen teams from Connecticut to South Carolina with plans to expand Westward and is the leading platform for High School Girls Rugby in the US. The Eisenhart Gen-2 Ruggers’ Bowdoin College and USMA West Point Flags hang proudly at BC31 where hundreds of girl’s high school rugby players can see them each June as they showcase their talents and we showcase our commitment to Human Achievement - even when it looks alien to the eye of the uninitiated.
-Mike E.
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