By Dakota Dobrovich-Fago, Contributing Writer
With COVID-19 still impacting society, collegiate athletes are doing the best they can to prepare for next season. This statement especially holds true for the Susquehanna University men’s rugby team.
Often seen doing crazy workouts such as long distance runs or running up hills on Sassafras Complex, the rugby team certainly means business and as seen in the team’s games, their hard work clearly pays off. You can always count on seeing a lot of big hits, toughness, and electric tries.
After coming off a successful season in the fall, however, the team wants more.
“Next year we want to work as hard as possible to have our best finish in program history,” rising senior Seamus Hanrahan said. “We have the potential to surpass last year and we know that we have to put work in to do so.”
Training in times like these is important and self-driven motivation goes far. Working hard now will reflect good things later on. With all the uncertainty happening, now is the perfect self-reflection time: the best time to look at yourself in the mirror as an athlete and work on your weaknesses.
The only unfortunate part is that not everyone has the necessary equipment to workout. But at the same time, this only proves who is serious about getting better for the season ahead. As successful as a season they may have had by making it to nationals, the River Hawks know that they want to do better and that they are capable of doing so.
“Personally, I’ve been running every day to not only stay in shape but to clear my mind from the surroundings of a pandemic,” rising senior Julius Gorbea said. “Also, I’ve brought back some drills that I learned from across the pond (abroad) that don’t involve a partner nor a ball.”
“It is all designed to program your body and mind to perform the movements and perfect them before you incorporate the ball. And of course, I watch the national game we lost against the number one ranked team. I watch that over and over again to find the mistakes and I work to better those mistakes,” he added.
With a ‘do or die’ mentality, the team has not been on their own, as the coaches have administered a fitness program for the team as well.
“Our coaches have given us a fitness plan that can be easily done at home,” Hanrahan said. “We log our results each week and compete for the best results. The main goal is to keep the conditioning we gained in the spring and build on it, so we can get right back into work come the fall.”
With COVID-19 being as contagious as it is, many parks have been closed, so it has been tough to find space to work out and tough to even find trails to run on. Gyms are still shut down which does not help either. But the River Hawks are determined to work through these tough times and keep each other motivated in the process.
“We’ve kind of been doing the best we can,” rising senior Charlie Dowling said.
“We still keep in touch with one another and are just taking the good with the bad, making the most of what we have. We’ve turned to zoom a few times to help keep our spirits up and allow us to physically talk to one another.”
While the team is certainly not working in ideal conditions, they hope that they achieve their goal of having the best finish in program history.
