(20060430) Bill Zedaker:
After more than 30 years away from the game, I returned
to playing rugby a short while back. I got in with
a reasonably good organization --- the Albany (NY)
Knicks --- and have had varying degrees of success
geting back into the game.
Getting to the point: last August, I got tangled up
with the Air Force Select Rugby organization while they
were up this way for a local tournament they were
using as a screening venue. I was totally impressed! More than half of the organization and players are
grads.
...and I started to learn about the great things that
had been going on at USAFA in rugby while I hadn't been
paying attention. Now, I knew the USAFA Rugby club began on our watch; I was there, I saw it begin. What I
didn't know, though, was that one of us (one of our classmates)
contributed so much to the Academy's Rugby program that
he's THE venerable Grand Uncle of Rugby not only for
USAFA, but also for the Air Force at large...
--but that's someone else's tale for another time.
In any event, after several months of email exchange,
I learned more and more about AF rugby, and even made
it down to Savannah, GA, this past March for their St Patty's Day Tournament, where I
- Reconnected with the AF Select organization (they
won the tournament)
- Played for the Battock's Bombers, a brand new AF
'Old Boys' team
- and I met the current coaching staff for the
USAFA Men's Rugby Club.
They've promised me there'll be an
alumni game the week-end of our reunion... anyone else
up for a run while we're there?
The 2006 Battock's Bombers
...and here I am getting in the way with the Select Side
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