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SPORTS
Rugby teams ready
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
@trumanathletics
Men’s and women’s rugby
prep for spring seasons
against regional schools
BY SARAH HICKS
Staff Reporter
Out on the field, Bullets will be flying
and Bulls will be running as the men’s and
women’s rugby teams are in full swing
with their spring season. The Bullets, the
women’s team, and the Bulls, the men’s
team, practice and compete year-round in
league and tournament play.
The spring season means league play
for the men as they compete against
schools like Missouri State University,
Iowa State University and University of
Missouri-Kansas City in their conference.
Bulls president junior Alec Graham said
the team is rebuilding after losing many
seniors who were starting players.
“We graduated a lot of seniors last
spring, so a lot of new guys have had to step
up into bigger roles,” Graham said. “Last
semester we learned a lot, and we hope to
continue that this semester and improve.”
During the fall, the men ended with a
2-5 record, but played three NCAA Div. I
schools with a young team, Graham said.
He said this spring, the Bulls are focusing on strengthening the fundamentals of
rugby taught to the rookies during the fall.
However, recruitment is difficult every
year, as many students mistakenly think
you have to know the rules already to play
the game, he said.
Junior Josh Sander said he wants the
campus to know rugby is an inclusive sport.
“Many people have a picture in mind that
you have to be a really big guy to play rugby,
but it couldn’t be any less true,” Sander said.
“There is room for all types of players, regardless of your size or athletic ability.”
Sander said students are hesitant
to join because rugby is a less popular
sport, but most people who join have no
prior experience.
Bulls co-captain senior Ben Wehner
said he wants the campus to view the
Bulls as a varsity sports team.
11
tmn.truman.edu
What to
know to
be a pro
Courtney Strait
Claire Nipper/Index
Members of the women’s rugby team, the Bullets, practice for the upcoming
season. The Bullets will travel across Missouri and to Tennessee this season.
“I realize we don’t practice quite as
much, and are not paid for scholarships
and the like, but we do work very hard
throughout the year,” Wehner said. “Rugby isn’t a sport that many schools sponsor. So the fact that we have a team, and
one that has been competitive for quite a
while, is really special.”
Wehner said he joined the Bulls because he wanted to participate in a competitive college activity, and he said he has
found the Bulls to be a great fit.
Bullets president senior Ellen Burken said
she regretted not joining until her sophomore
year. Having played varsity sports during high
school, she said she was looking for a competitive club team and said she felt at home playing rugby. She said her only friends who are
not rugby players are her roommates.
This spring the Bullets will compete in
Nashville, Tennessee, St. Louis and Kansas
City, Missouri. Burken said the players are
looking forward to this season, because they
had a difficult time playing competitively
in the fall because of low numbers. Burken
says the team is young, but that does not
hinder the team.
See RUGBY, page 13
Have you ever wanted to know what
it’s like to be a professional athlete?
Well, I had the chance to catch up
with alumnus Mike Carlson, a twotime All-American who currently is
playing professional basketball for
CB Clavijo in Logroño, Spain. He
shared some reflections about his
experiences so far and told me some
basics of being a pro.
The first thing professional athletes
need to know is how to maintain a
solid routine.
“I wake up at about 8:45, and I head
to the gym at 9:30 to shoot and lift,”
Carlson said. “I go back around 4:15 to
practice and get home around 8:00.”
Carlson said he has been playing nonstop after his Bulldog career
ended last season, playing professionally in Australia this past summer and signing with CB Clavijo at
the end of his season Down Under.
He said playing with so many different teams has taught him to keep a
consistent schedule.
He said the next basic to being a
pro is to get used to the locals. Being
6-foot-9-inches doesn’t exactly fit the
mold of a typical Spaniard, so Carlson
See STRAIT, page 13
Spring ball starts at Stokes
BY HENRY JANSSEN
Staff Reporter
The Truman Bulldogs’ spring
football practices are underway
as of last week, marking the beginning of the team’s preparation
for the 2015 football season.
The ‘Dogs went 6-4 — 5-3 in
conference play — during their
2014 season with Div. II losses
coming to William Jewell College,
University of Indianapolis and St.
Joseph’s College. The Bulldogs
lost the 2014 season opener to
Div. IAA Drake University during
overtime.
Head coach Gregg Nesbitt said
the youth of his ball club should
be the spark to making improvements from 2014.
Nesbitt said the Bulldogs will
return 93 players from last year’s
roster of 112. He said the offensive and defensive lines are the
two areas with the most depth,
as well as substantial amounts
of returners with playing experience. Nesbitt said the team will
get back to the basics this spring.
“We’re not assuming anything,”
Nesbitt said. “We’re relearning
how to practice, working on the
sound fundamentals while trying
to stir up some competition and
trying to stay healthy.”
The Bulldogs’ three Div. II
losses were the only competitions during which the Bulldogs
allowed more than 20 points.
Austin Zoda, returning redshirt sophomore free safety, said
he thinks the squad is taking the
right steps toward correcting
its defensive faults during those
match-ups, especially in defending the passing game.
“This year in spring ball, we’ve
started working on things that
might have been lacking last year,
such as zone coverage,” Zoda said.
“We feel like we’re pretty good
with our man covers, but we’ve
got to improve every bit on our
zones.”
Zoda was a second team allGLVC selection during 2014, and
one of only two players from the
secondary to represent the Bulldogs on the list. He said he has
“It’s ... impressive
to see how these
younger guys have
really committed to
the program.”
— redshirt sophomore free
safety Austin Zoda
enjoyed seeing the coming-of-age
of first year players.
“The freshman [defensive
backs] have all shared the load
and picked up slack where it’s
needed, it’s just really impressive
to see how these younger guys
have really committed to the program at a young age,” Zoda said.
Nesbitt said he wants to improve the offensive attack of the
‘Dogs this spring season. He said
right now, the battle to replace
star senior running back Garrett
White is fairly wide open, but
he said junior running back A.J.
Hartfield leads the pack. For the
quarterback position, however,
Nesbitt said he was excited about
the return of sophomore Devonte
Black, who struggled with inju-
Trevor Stark/Index
Wide receivers and tight ends receive instruction from coach Thomas Kearney during practice last
week. The ‘Dogs began spring practice last Tuesday and will host a spring scrimmage game April 11.
ries during the latter half of the
2014 campaign.
“Offensively, [Black] had a
good, solid first year as a starter
Ashley Murphy
Freshman first baseman Ashley Murphy secured
the Bulldogs’ game one victory last weekend
against the University of Illinois-Springfield with a
double to bring in three runs in extra innings. The
win extended the team’s win streak to 11 before the
Prairie Stars took game two.
VOLUME 106
ISSUE 23
tmn.truman.edu
at 62 percent completion with
only three picks,” Nesbitt said. “He
was No. 2 in the country and the
best all-time in our school’s his-
tory. We have to work on getting
the ball a little bit further down
the yard more consistently.”
See FOOTBALL, page 13
PLAYER
of the
WEEK
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