They’re Making Ends Meet

It’s obvious, after brief inspection, that this isn’t USC football or Duke basketball.

These athletes stay at roadside motels when they play away games, pooling their money to buy bagels, gas and everything else the school’s annual $14,000 allocation doesn’t cover.

Money is definitely an issue for the women’s rugby club at Princeton, so much so that athletes have sold magazine subscriptions, credit-card applications and coupon books, all in the name of paying for travel and avoiding a 10-game schedule filled primarily with the College of New Jersey, conveniently located 10 miles down the road.

Rugby is not sanctioned by the NCAA. It always has existed far below the radar of big-time campus athletics, surviving, from year to year, because of aggressive fund-raising by athletes, and generous team parents who are willing to pick up a few dinner bills. Alumni donations, though unpredictable and scant in comparison to the money raked in by big-money sports, are also critical.

Having a coach is important as well, as Princeton found out less than two weeks before the season began in March. When Dan Williams stepped down from a job that paid about $6,000 a year to take a position at a start-up hedge-fund company, the four Princeton captains, already in charge of planning team travel, knew they had one option -- to coach the team themselves.

“We realized it was going to be even more time-consuming,” said junior Ruth Bryson, one of several Princeton players who went to high school in Southern California. “Trying to run the club was hard enough, but trying to coach it was tough as well.”

It’s not uncommon for a club to be without a coach, but as Princeton discovered, most successful programs have one.

“The hardest part is the actual coaching itself, deciding who was going to play,” said Bryson, who went to Pasadena Poly High. “As a player, you shouldn’t have the authority to tell one of your teammates you should not be starting in a game. We don’t know enough to tell who should and shouldn’t be playing.”

Princeton went, without a coach, to an ultra-competitive late-March tournament in Virginia, losing to Navy and Penn State and failing to gain much-needed respect. Princeton tumbled in the sport’s poll and was seeded 15th in the 16-team national tournament that began April 17.

But Princeton upset No. 2 Illinois, 19-10, and No. 8 Massachusetts, 18-16, and will play Virginia in a national semifinal today at Stanford. The team was stabilized by the recent addition of volunteer Emil Signes, who has successfully coached rugby in various capacities for 30 years.

“The girls have had a really tough year, as far as their coach resigning,” said Cristine McCarthy, Princeton’s club sports coordinator.

“They have really been self-coached through this spring. We’ve had some guest coaches come, but a majority of what they’ve done they’ve done on their own.”

Their successful existence on a shoestring budget stands out more than anything before their national-tournament march.

On home game days, Princeton players are in charge of properly lining the field, making sure there are emergency medical technicians on hand and picking up trash afterward, among other responsibilities.

In planning trips, they seem to spend almost as much time navigating through discount websites as they do writing 80-page theses.

“Being a club sport, the girls on the team always have a lot more responsibilities than they would if it were a varsity sport,” said senior captain Kim Nortman, who went to North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake High. “Our jobs are obviously taken up a level, as far as what we need to do to make it function.”

Functioned they have, though, with or without a coach. A victory today puts them in Saturday’s final against Navy or Penn State.

“No one thought we would be here,” Bryson said. “A lot of people don’t count us as contenders because we didn’t play so well when we played these teams last time. I think we’re 10 times better now.”

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The Facts

College Club Rugby at Stanford

TODAY

* Women’s Division I semifinals: Princeton vs. Virginia, 10 a.m.; Penn State vs. Navy, noon.

* Men’s Division I semifinals: California vs. Navy, 2 p.m.; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo vs. Air Force, 4 p.m.

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SATURDAY

* Women’s Division I final, noon

* Men’s Division I final, 4 p.m.