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<< Front page Sports November 7, 2003
 
In the Locker Room with...
Reba Jones and Davi Shy

This week I interviewed a couple of my women’s rugby teammates, senior captain Reba Jones (or “wheels” as some have taken to calling her) and sophomore hooker and social secretary, Davi Shy. We talked about why they play — the joys and the frustrations.


In twenty words or less, explain rugby.

Reba: Just the best sport ever.

Davi: It is all-engaging. You need to be completely thinking and also prepared to get the wind knocked out of you.

Reba: It’s kicking everyone’s ass. That’s all there is to it.

[Reba and Davi chime in] Eat the Babies!

Davi: I mean, it’s life.

Reba: No it’s the afterlife. Today I was on A-level and I was really hungry and tired and I was like, “I’m going to go home and die”…and then go to rugby!

Yeah, on Mondays I have three classes in a row over lunch period and all through them today I was in King, ready to shoot myself, and all I could think was at 4:30 I’m going to rugby.

Reba: And then Tuesdays are so horrible because we don’t have practice so I just go and lift weights, because it’s the closest to rugby.

Davi: Except metal instead of people.

So in the past year there have been three ambulance runs, two knee surgeries, a broken arm, hip, shoulder…

Davi: You forgot Bea and her peck and Amanda and Caroline.

Reba: Annie today was like, “When I got tackled by Eden I saw a flash of light and I was kind of out of it, but I think I’m fine.” I said, “Annie, you probably shouldn’t play if it’s a concussion.”

Davi: Yeah, when I got hit in the game against Kenyon, I was like, “I’m fine. I have a big bump on my head, but I can see fine. This is surface. This is just fuckin’ surface. I’m totally fine.”

So, most people think that you would have to be crazy to play rugby…

Davi: [adoringly] Crazy.

Why do you play?

Davi: That’s a dumb question.

Reba: You don’t get hurt EVERY game.

Davi: It’s the furthest thing from your mind.

Reba: Yeah, you don’t think about it.

Davi: It’s like, “Why do you drive a car?” You just do. It’s the best part of your day…

Reba: Of your life.

Davi: It seems like there are a hundred million more reasons why you should play rugby than why you shouldn’t.

Reba: I mean does everyone love their sport this much?

What are the most frustrating aspects of being a club sport as opposed to varsity?

Reba: Well, because people do get injured, I think that the fact that the trainers won’t see us. Just ‘cause we don’t know if it’s the injury is major or minor sometimes.

Davi: Also, that we have so many levels of how people want to be committed and not always knowing where to go with it. How serious do we take it?

So what are the advantages of being a club sport?

Reba: It’s just fun. We all have fun. We’re not super hardcore, like we always have to win.

Davi: I think one of the greatest things about rugby is that it brings a lot of people in — like me — that may not have always thought of themselves as athletes, but then can totally change that.

How is this year’s team compared to teams in the past?

Reba: It’s the best team ever. People are so into it and so committed. We do have a lot of rookies this semester but it’s going really well and so much fun.

Davi: Since I’ve been playing, it’s definitely the most organized. And yeah, just awesome.

What positions do you play?

Reba: Basically I can play anything in the line.

Davi: And I play everything in the scrum. [laughter] I play hooker, but then one time the other team didn’t have enough players so I got to play eight-man for them which was super fun. And in both positions you get to yell a lot.

What do you yell?

Davi: Props! Seconds in! Sink! Touch! Engage! And when I was eight-man I yelled, “Drive!” And you can put in some little extra’s depending on the team.

Any comments on last week’s home game or the coming tournament?

Reba: I just wish you had to get naked if you scored a hat trick.

Did you have a hat trick in the game, Reba?

Reba: I did.

I think it’s funny that I have to ask these questions that I already know the answer to.

Davi: I think that for the most part we play teams that are either way worse than us, or a whole lot better than us. So I’m really excited for the tournament [this weekend] because we are playing enough teams that we are going to get some good competitive rugby in.

So this is the last question, do you have any response to the comment in the Grape that all the Oberlin women’s rugby players are 4’1”?

Davi: I’m five feet and I’m the shortest on the team, so if you’ve got beef with that take it up with me personally and see if I can take you down, and when I do you can write about that. And then eat it!