Emily Baugus (H.M. King, 2009), right, and Gabriela Balboa (Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco, 2008) are pictured after a game of rugby. Local High School alumnus Emily Baugus (H.M. King, 2009) and Gabriela Balboa (Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco, 2008) are star players on the Norwich University Cadet rugby team, a squad which almost went all the way recently. Baugus (who plays the fly-back position) and Balboa (tight head prop) are corps members at the oldest military institute in the United States (Northfield Vermont) where the Kingsvillite is majoring in Engineering Construction Marketing and the Ben Bolt native is majoring in Political Science Pre-Law.

The Cadets - led by Coach Austin Hall - went 32-1 overall this season losing to eventual national champion Washington University at the Division II Final Four championship held at Stanford University in California back on April 30 and May 1.

Baugus offered a brief lesson in Rugby 101.

“My coach says that soccer is a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans and that rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen,” Baugus said. “You just try to knock the lights out of the opposing player carrying the ball, but it is all done with respect. Some people think rugby has no rules, that players just hit each other and run. But when I tackle an opponent, as soon as I hit them - while trying to take the ball - I will quickly protect them and not just turn them over and slam their head into the ground.”

Scoring points in rugby is somewhat similar to American football.

“The way you score is with a downward force inside the try-zone, which is like the end zone in football, and you have to touch the ball down on the ground inside the try-zone,” Baugus said. “You don’t have to be in the try-zone, you could be diving and reaching or even down on the ground and just push the ball inside the try-zone.”

Originally recruited by Norwich to play soccer, things didn’t pan out for Baugus after a new head coach took the reins. So Baugus, a fierce competitor in high school, switched to rugby.

“My first day at practice, coach asked me if I had ever played football before and I told him, ‘Yeah, I’m from Texas, everybody plays football over in Texas’,” Baugus said. “So he says ‘Okay tackle me’, and I went ‘What’, and he said ‘Just tackle me’, I was like ‘Are you kidding me’, and he said ‘No, just lay me out’ and I did. I guess Norwich just attracts that kind of girl, the kind that wants to hit somebody.”

Balboa and Baugus learned the details of each position thanks to their coach and helpful teammates. The Ben Bolt native compares her hometown to her collegiate setting.

“Is has been a very good experience especially because Ben Bolt is a small high school and Norwich is a small university so I really felt that connection with all of the girls on the team,” Balboa said. “When I was in Ben Bolt I played basketball and volleyball. I had seen a couple of rugby videos on You-Tube before I went to Norwich, so I knew it was a contact sport with a lot of tackling and hitting.”

Only five seniors depart from this season’s team of 42 players, meaning Norwich is ready to collect plenty more W’s next year.

“We’re going to go to nationals and win it this time,” Balboa said. “Both me and Emily were starters this year on a team that was expected to win it all, by some rugby magazines, so it was a really big shock when we didn’t.”