By Stephen Smoot, The Shinnston News and Harrison County Journal
When it comes to the sport of rugby, says John Snider of Doddridge County Parks and Recreation, “West Virginia is a big black hole.”
Snider and a group of coaches, athletes, and parents, however, have committed to change that.
Much like the origin of baseball, the formation of rugby remains clouded by a web of facts and legend. According to tradition, William Webb Ellis, a student at the Rugby School in England, broke rules of one game and, in the process of doing so, invented another.
Students at Rugby had formed a style of football where one could advance the ball backward by various means, but only forward by kicking it. Ellis defied the rules in 1823 and simply picked up the ball and ran forward for a score.
Two centuries later, rugby has staked its claim as one of the world’s most popular sports. Millions, mostly in the states of the former British Empire, watch the sport. Teams of 15 or 13, depending on the league compete in a sport that eschews protective gear, but permits tackling, grappling, and many rules and practices completely unique to it.
And for the last four years the sport has attracted increasing numbers of players, many highly accomplished, from Shinnston and elsewhere in western Harrison, as well as Doddridge, counties.
