Photo By Terrance Bell | First Lieutenant Benjamin Smith sits in his office at the 111th Quartermaster Company...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. (Aug. 11, 2016) -- Transitioning from one sport to another is often a difficult undertaking – an endeavor that takes time, effort, a crawl-walk-run mindset and the understanding dramatic results should not be expected.
None of this seemingly applied to 1st Lt. Benjamin Smith. The 111th Quartermaster Company Soldier not only switched from baseball to rugby in 2011 as a freshmen in college but helped lead his team to the 2011 NCAA Division III crown the same year.
Not surprisingly, he was dubbed the tournament’s most valuable player. More recently, the Chesterfield County native earned an invitation to the All Army Rugby Sevens trial camp that starts Saturday at Camp Williams, Utah.
The 24-year-old Smith is somewhat nonchalant about his switchover achievement, brushing it off as a combination of skill and athleticism he picked up as a participant in several high school sports – the hand-eye coordination he learned as a baseball player, the quickness he developed in football and the tackling he honed in football and wrestling.
“All of those things culminated into effective game play for rugby,” said the Matoaca High School graduate.
Smith’s improbable road to rugby began when a desire to play baseball for Longwood University failed to materialize.
“It didn’t work out, so I was kind of looking around for something new,” he said. “I love sports and the challenges they bring.”
Some Longwood team ruggers who lived in his dorm saw him play football and invited him to come out and watch them compete.
“I thought it was pretty crazy,” he recalled. “I didn’t know anything about it and thought I’d give it a shot.”
Smith said his openness toward learning made him receptive toward the English-born fringe sport that could be described as an edgy mix of football and soccer. His mentality to continue learning opened the door for success.
“I have a growth mindset,” he said. “It’s never about proving myself. It’s about improving, and any obstacle I come up against is something I can learn from.”
In addition to mindset and athleticism, conditioning has been a key factor in his game and vital for anyone desiring success in sevens, a faster-paced game than traditional rugby, said Smith. The kinesiology major keeps himself ready with a daily routine of air-assault physical training with his unit and additional workouts during the evenings.
“I will normally travel up to Richmond at night and do some rugby-specific drills,” he said.
All of it is needed in his pursuit of a spot on the All Army team. It is the reigning three-time Armed Forces champion.
“I’ve looked at the roster and every single one of them are All-American or Olympic players,” he said. “They’re studs. I’ve got a lot to learn. Athletically, I think I have a good shot, but knowing the game and knowing their system is everything in sevens.”
Smith received a glimpse of the system after accepting invitations to play with the team on three occasions within the past year. Though traveling by air to different states does indicate a sense of commitment, airplanes don’t score goals or make tackles. Smith knows his play will be the deciding factor, and he is enthusiastic about the opportunity.
“I’m just excited because this is something I really wanted to do since I got into the Army,” he said.
Rugby sevens is a more exciting, albeit shorter, game than traditional rugby. It gets the name “sevens” from the number of players on each side rather than the 15-member squads needed to play the traditional game. Furthermore, the sevens games consist of 7-minute rather than 40-minute halves.
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2016 08:31 |
| Story ID: | 206784 |
| Location: | CHESTERFIELD VILLAGE, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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