Moses Lake native takes time for rugby

PULLMAN — Why not?

So it’s not quite like riding a horse or anything like most sports Michelle Roseburg ever watched while a student at Moses Lake High School, but there was no reason why she couldn’t try…

Rugby.

Yes, rugby, the parent sport to American football would become Roseburg’s sport-away-from-home.

Now a senior at Washington State, the 2006 Moses Lake graduate is captain and president of a national power club team with designs on a possible championship run.

Currently the Lady Cougars are 5-0 and hoping to improve on last year’s third-place tie at the National Championships in Palo Alto, Calif.

Not bad for a former equestrian.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of time for high school sports but when I got to WSU I couldn’t bring my horse down here so I was looking for a sport to play,” Roseburg said. “My twin brother Michael played at the Air Force Academy and he told me how fun it was to play so I decided to try it here at Washington State.”

Roseburg joined the club during her sophomore year and played for the next two seasons before becoming pulling out of on-field participation.

“My parents asked me not to since I am still on their insurance,” Roseburg said. “It’s frustrating but it’s still a lot of fun to watch my team and give them tips.”

Despite her official playing days being seemingly over, the future medical student hopes to stay involved next season when she begins her course work toward her future goal of being a veterinarian.

But it doesn’t mean she won’t miss the action.

“I really enjoyed playing,” Roseburg said. “It was a really great way to let up a lot of pent up energy from studying or what not. I wasn’t working on the farm and had no job outside of school so I really enjoyed the participation.”

She also was introduced to one of the more physical sports to play and one of the more technical.

“It was surprising watching girls tackle each other,” she said. “You get bruised up pretty easily but honestly it felt kind of natural since maybe because I  didn’t play other sports to have expectations. But you have to be playing 100 percent in order not to get hurt because if you don’t it can happen.”

Rugby consists of 15-players per side and consists of rules such as, no forward passes, kick forwards are legal and can be advanced upon reception, no blocking, and only being able to tackle the ballhandler.

Roseburg said it takes a special breed of athlete to play a sport like rugby.

“There aren’t any timeouts like in football and my favorite part is probably tackling,” Roseburg said. “I’d say it’s pretty hard to play with 40 minute halves, no timeouts, and you have to be moving the whole time. It’s a lot like soccer but a lot tougher because you don’t have any real padding. You definitely can’t be scared of the tackle.”

Next up Roseburg and her team will travel to Western Washington University in a match which will determine the Pacific Northwest Champion and who will go on to the Pacific Coast Championships.

The national finals are at Stanford University in Palo Alto from April 30 - May. 1.

After that, Roseburg will graduate with a B.S. in Animal Science/Pre Veterinary.

More information on the WSU women’s rugby team can be found at www.womensrugby.wsu.edu.