Before college, Lucas Fleming had never picked up a rugby ball in his life.
“Sophomore year, a kid in my math class mentioned offhand trying it to me,” Fleming said. "I thought, ‘You know what? Why not?’”
Now in his fourth year, rugby has turned into one of the defining aspects of Fleming’s time as a Husker. The University of Nebraska Men’s Rugby Team president has just led the team through its fourth consecutive championship-qualifying season, building on their success by competing at nationals in Washington, D.C., last weekend.
“We’re fortunate to have a lot of guys who want to take this seriously and get us into these tournaments,” Fleming said. “We’re all here to have fun and enjoy it, but it’s still a sacrifice for a lot of people.”
A football player in high school, Fleming found similar skillsets between the two sports that made him fall for the game.
“Rugby has weird similarities to a lot of sports,” Fleming said. "I drew from playing football and soccer growing up, but it has similarities to wrestling, basketball and lots more — a couple of our best players have backgrounds in tennis.”
Just as important, rugby helped Fleming achieve a balance between school and athletics that he’d been craving since coming to college.
“In high school, when you finish your sports season, you’d get home and realize you have so much more time,” Fleming said. “Coming to college has a similar feeling—there’s so much time to fill, and I think sports can help you grow and learn through that process.”
Even when Fleming pursued opportunities far away from campus, the rugby community followed him.
“When I was in New York for an architecture internship over the summer, our coach reached out to some contacts and got me playing in a semi-pro men’s club,” Fleming said. Lucas has since played for a second men’s club in Los Angeles last summer, again through a Husker Rugby connection.
“The network I've been able to build playing rugby is really unique. Playing with guys 10, 15 years older than me around the country has helped me realize this is one of the best things I could do for myself.”
