Photo By Cpl. Logan Snyder | Sgt. Aeryk Church plays for the All-Marine Men's Seven team in the tournament held in...... read more read more
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NORFOLK, Va. – Fourteen are invited to camp but only 12 will make the team.
Tryouts and training for the All-Marine Men’s Sevens Rugby team will be held from Aug. 5-14, and the Armed Forces Men’s Rugby Sevens Championship tournament will take place Aug. 14-16.
For Sgt. Aeryk Church, this will be the second year in a row trying out for the team.
Last year’s tryouts and training took place at the Olympic training facility in San Diego, Calif. And then the team traveled to Glendale, Colo. to compete in the tournament. This year the team is training in Glendale, and Church said he feels that the team will be better prepared because of it.
“This year we’re going straight to Colorado, training at that altitude and then getting ready for the tournament. I think we’ll be much better prepared for the tournament this year,” said Church.
The other teams competing in the tournament include the All-Army, All-Air Force, All-Navy, the Coast Guard, the USA Eagles, the USA Flacons and some collegiate AAU teams. Glendale also has a rugby team, the Glendale Raptors, whom Church said his team will be able to watch between practices.
To prepare for the tryouts, Church said he has been getting his body right by eating healthy, going to the gym, conditioning, teaching the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, teaching corporals course, and running.
“It’s going to be a lot of running,” said Church. Rugby is played on a football field but with just 14 players instead of the 22 that would be on a field in a football game. “So there’s a lot of space for a lot of running.”
Church, a U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command G4 surface systems embarkation chief, started playing rugby two and a half years ago.
“I was in Cherry Point, and one of my staff sergeants had me come out to the practices,” said Church.
That practice turned out to be an actual game. Church was put in at the fullback position, the last line of defense, and said to be run over by the other team’s players about five different times.
After all that, there had to be a reason for Church to keep playing.
“The one thing they don’t tell you is the social afterwards. After all of that, taking a couple of knees to the face, we all met up and it was a blast,” said Church.
Now Church plays the wing position to take advantage of his size and speed but will still come around to the fullback position when the ball is on the other side of the field, acting as a sort of “guardian angel.”
“After the match is over, whether you had attitudes out on the field, you host the other team and you all come together,” said Church. “It’s an amazing experience.”
That kind of comradery is what has kept Church playing for the last two and a half years, and now he wants to get more Marines involved with the sport.
“We’re trying to get more people out there during chow time, get them introduced to rugby,” said Church. “I think in the next couple months or so we’re going to see a bigger mindset and a lot more people turned on to it.”
Church said that after the Marines learn the rules and after have their first taste of the sport, they are hooked and that’s the goal.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2015 12:22 |
| Story ID: | 172469 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 205 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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