Tar Heels find competition, community on women’s rugby team
十几名“焦油高跟鞋”球员不仅在校园建立了自己的社区，而且还在球场上代表学校参加高水平的比赛. Since forming in 1993, 女子橄榄球队赢得了四次州冠军，六次进入全国锦标赛.
当A ' ja Abron第一次偶然太阳城娱乐卡罗来纳州女子橄榄球队时, she had no idea what she was getting into. She didn’t know anything about the game, 没有必要对铲球感到兴奋，也没有解围.
她只知道她想成为俱乐部的一员，保持活跃，结识新朋友.
虽然当她第一次踏上球场时，她可能并不知道会发生什么, Abron found exactly what she was looking for in the team.
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
“I stayed for the people. Really, 我回来的唯一原因是我们训练的每一天都有人给我发短信,” says Abron, a junior studying psychology and human development. “The rugby community, in general, is very accepting. After all the games, we socialize with the other team. It doesn’t really matter what happened on the pitch. You bond over this common thing.”
Abron和其他十几个Tar Heels已经找到了自己的校园社区，同时也代表大学参加了高水平的女子橄榄球队.
The team is one of Campus Recreation’s 48 Sport Clubs 并与弗吉尼亚理工大学一起参加美国橄榄球第一级蓝岭会议, East Carolina University, the University of Virginia, NC State and James Madison University. Since forming in 1993, 柏油高跟鞋队赢得了四次州冠军，六次进入全国锦标赛. They even have an Olympian as an alumna.
这支球队最引以为傲的是教给那些对这项运动一无所知的球员——他们中的大多数人都是这样——并培养了他们对这项运动的热情.
“我得说，我们90%到95%的球员以前从未拿过橄榄球, much less played rugby,” says Rebecca Lee, a junior and the team’s president.
球队在赛季开始前花了一个多月的时间来教球员比赛和如何安全比赛. For many of the players, including Abron, 最大的障碍是轻松地处理——当然, being tackled. Though from the sidelines it can seem a bit overwhelming, fullback Sophia Sherman says the game is for everybody.
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
That message is at the core of the team.
“每个人都是橄榄球运动员，”生物学专业的大四学生谢尔曼说. “你有很多位置，你需要不同的身体类型在场上做不同的事情. Rugby seems a lot scarier than it actually is. Once you get into it, it’s a lot more fun than it looks.”
Launching Olympians
16岁的纳亚·塔珀是参加女子橄榄球比赛的零经验选手之一, who joined the club as a first-year student in 2012. Though she first heard about rugby in high school, 她没有机会尝试这项运动，直到她成为一个焦油脚跟.
As a former high school All-American in track, Tapper had an immediate edge on the field, 但她在和队友一起学习的过程中学会了基本的运动技巧.
“这很难，因为我从来没有做过手眼协调运动，”她说. “Learning how to catch the ball took a while. You don’t get hand-eye coordination overnight. 但一旦我习惯了接球，跑步就成了最容易的部分. After getting over the learning curve, it was pretty easy.”
And once she figured it out, she was dominant. Since graduating, 塔珀作为一名职业橄榄球运动员有着成功的职业生涯，并在美国橄榄球队赢得了一席之地.S. women’s rugby sevens team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I fell in love with the sport as I got better as a player. 我也爱上了这里的文化和周围的人. They’ve taught me a lot of things,” she says. “I didn’t know that this is where it would take me, 现在我可以和很多有同样梦想的人分享我的梦想.”
尽管最初是与卡罗来纳州女子橄榄球队的训练和比赛让塔珀对这项运动产生了热情，并开启了她的职业生涯, 她认为她最美好的回忆是团队的社交方面.
“It’s a fun experience, 它能让你遇到很棒的人，找到一群能让你享受大学生活的女孩,” she says.
More than competition
这种社会环境是现在的焦油高跟鞋继续致力于今天. 虽然该团队专注于教授这项运动并努力比赛，但这只是等式的一部分. Abron considers the team 60% social, 40% competition.
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
谢尔曼说:“你来这里是为了尝试新事物，你会因为我们围绕它建立的社区而留下来。. “如果你碰巧从这里出来喜欢这项运动，那就太好了. That’s what we want. 但我们也想建立一个强大的社区，让人们愿意回来, even if you don’t think rugby is for you. Eventually, it will be for you.
这些密切的关系不仅对大学生活很重要. They’re also critical for the pitch.
“Being such good friends with them, I feel a lot more comfortable tackling them, 你们在一起会变得更好，这样当你们在球场上与其他球队竞争时, you all work as one unit because you’re so close,” Lee says.
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
在整个大流行期间，团队领导人通过在安全时继续练习，努力保持社区的紧密联系, competing in tournaments and holding two-hand touch scrimmages. After 20 months off the pitch, 新赛季的首场比赛将于9月9日对阵阿巴拉契亚州立大学. 25 at Hooker Fields.
For Abron, Lee and Sherman, 这场比赛将是他们期待已久的回归，他们已经爱上了这项运动, 但他们最期待的是向刚开始学习的大二学生和一年级学生开放橄榄球的世界.
“Your first game is so special,” Lee says. “It’s when you realize what rugby is.”
