Rugby players in their element during Snowball

by Zinta Aistars
Published in Southwest Michigan's Second Wave Media
February 21, 2013

Snowball rugby (Photo by Erik Holladay at erikholladay.com) 

What started as a way to fight winter doldrums has become a draw from across the state and a fundraiser for Kalamazoo's rugby enthusiasts. Zinta Aistars reports on those who refuse to let a little cold weather keep them off the field. 

Snow falling, temperatures dipping, the world outside seemed to have stilled into a deep, white silence. What was a group of rugby players to do? Find a way to play, of course.
 

"We were sitting around in the middle of winter about nineteen years ago, wondering what to do," says Tim Britain. He is the treasurer for the Kalamazoo Rugby Football Club (KRFC), the team established in 1988 and known as the Kalamazoo Dogs.

 

What the rugby players, or ruggers, came up with was Snowball Rugby—and it wasn't long before Tim Britain was nicknamed the Snowball Czar. He would become the director of the annual event.

 

During the warmer seasons of spring and fall, KRFC plays seriously, training, playing in tournaments, and in 2012, becoming Midwest Division III Eastern Conference Northern League Champions. But in winter, in the cold and in the snow, it's time just for ...

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