The Rhino Ruggers ended their season last Saturday with a loss against Wittenberg in the Division III semifinals. Though the Rhinos won most of the scrum downs and rucks, Wittenberg’s Mudpigs had several advantages over the Rhinos: They practice five days a week, have two head coaches and regularly play against their men’s team.

The Rhinos have always prided themselves on being self-coached, which allows for a degree of autonomy that varsity sports lack. Over the past few years, the Rhinos have always beaten teams like Ohio Wesleyan and Ashland that do have coaches. Wittenberg is the only DIII team in Ohio that presents a challenge to the Rhinos, but despite its gain, Oberlin remains intent on staying self-coached.

The Rhinos’ final record is 3-2 on the fall season. Although the team lost much of its starting line-up from last semester, it gained 26 rookies. Many of the team’s rookies did not have a lot of playing time this semester, but with at least three scheduled tournaments for next semester, these rookies will be all-stars by next fall. The Rhinos are excited about the possibility of hosting a tournament in the spring and hope to invite teams from other small liberal-arts colleges who do not usually get to play each other.

The team has been up to many other exciting upcoming projects. This past weekend, many of the vets as well as alumnae from all over the country came out for a film shoot. Film professor Rian Brown-Orso is working on an installation about the rugby team opening in January at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art. She is also working on a full-length documentary film to be released sometime next year.

The Ruggers are also planning to release a 2007 calendar, thanks to the overwhelming success of last year’s calendar. This year’s theme will be “Rugby 101” and will feature photos illustrating the basic aspects of rugby, such as rucking, tackling and, of course, the social. Although the season is over, the team still plans to make use of practice time by having photo shoots and an occasional “wacky practice.”