Here at North Harford High School, sports teams take the court or the field every week to represent the school. Athletes are given the option to play a wide variety of sports, but some take their talents to a different setting. In one case, some students at North Harford take their talents to the rugby field.

Rugby is a sport known to be a combination of football and soccer. Unlike both football and soccer, rugby is played with fifteen players on the field for each team at a time. The game is played in two halves, just as soccer, each lasting forty minutes. In rugby, points come from a try instead of a touchdown or a goal. A try is worth a total of five points. Points can also come from a team kicking a conversion; a kick through the goal posts that adds another two points to the score. Another difference is that when a player is tackled during a rugby play, the ball remains in play. This then leads to a ruck where players begin to push to be able to kick the ball back to their scrum-half. Players may also take part in a scrum, which is one giant ruck that usually takes place after a penalty. A basic forward pass in the game of football is one that is illegal in the game of rugby. Instead, rugby players either pass backwards or kick the ball downfield to their teammates. The defensive team though in both sports have a goal of tackling the opponent to slow down or end the forward push of the other team. One last difference would be the lack of equipment as compared to football.

Junior Maddy McKinney is one student who takes herself to the field. McKinney is a part of a girls North Bay Rugby girls varsity high school team. McKinney plays scrum-half for her team, which is closely related to a quarterback, and also wing. “Wing is technically like an outside mid in soccer where you run the side and are the last resort for getting a try,” states McKinney.

Mckinney began playing her freshman year with her friend junior Sam Brooks. “It’s different than soccer. It’s like a combination of soccer and football combined and is really fun.” When she first started playing, McKinney was afraid due to the lack of equipment and risk of injury. “You get used to it, and you learn.” McKinney has learned a lot in her two years of play. One thing she found challenging was learning the correct way to tackle. “The girls are usually bigger than me, and it’s hard to get my arms completely around their legs to tackle them.”