A free rugby camp, sponsored by the indomitable Schoolhouse Rugby Club, is coming to Eastmont Park in East Wenatchee on Feb. 15.

Participants will be divvied up by age. 7- to 10-year-olds play first. Instruction begins at 1:00 p.m. and lasts 90 minutes.

Once this younger crop of kiddos is finished playing, the next group, comprised of 11- to 14-year-olds, will take the field. The camp is overseen by Kelly Campbell, who, at the risk of cliché, is more than a coach. He's a local ambassador for this somewhat exotic and misunderstood sport.

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Read on for an abridged Q&A with Campbell.

KPQ: The mention of rugby piques my interest because it's so seldom talked about. Why rugby? 

Kelly Campbell: We've had a club here - Schoolhouse Rugby Club - since 2009. Six years ago, we started U14 and U12, and then we added high school girls because I wanted my daughter to play.

KPQ: How does she like it? 

KC: She loves it! She's a senior this year, so this will be her last year.

I've been involved for rugby for about 35 years. I started back in high school; we created the first club in the state of Idaho when I was a freshman. My biology teacher was a Hall of Fame rugby player for Idaho State. I went on to play in the Navy, then moved to Spokane, where I played for about 10 years.

When I moved to Wenatchee, there was a guy named Robert Campbell - no relation - who started a club up. I came onboard a month after it started and I've been with it ever since. Now I run the whole club; I coach the high school boys, but I run the whole club. This year, we're doing U10 flag rugby.

KPQ: It's kind of obvious but how does flag rugby differ from, say, traditional rugby? 

KC: Flag rugby is just a passing game - you're just passing the ball, and when they pull your flag, it's kind of like you got tackled. Then you do a restart. There's no tackling, no scrums, no rucks like there are in traditional rugby.

KPQ: When I think of this game, I think Australia or New Zealand. Why has rugby not caught on nationally in the States? 

KC: It actually has! It's one of the fastest-growing youth sports in America - behind soccer.

We also have Major League Rugby; Seattle has a team, the Seawolves, going into its fifth or sixth season. They've won a couple of titles already. And the Rugby World Cup is coming to America in 2031, so that's going to be a big deal.

KPQ: So what makes it such a great sport? 

KC: It's a complete team sport! We get kids who say, "Oh no, I don't want to get hurt playing rugby, because then I can't play football." They don't understand the game. Then they come out their senior year and fall in love with it! Parents fall in love with it.

We're a club, so we're not involved in the school or WIAA or anything like that, but we teach tackling the proper way. In rugby, you have to attempt to wrap a tackle up - you can't do a football tackle where you go and blow somebody's knee out.

KPQ: Is rugby more serious than football about ensuring player safety? 

KC: Yes - I think so. World rugby changes laws every year to protect players from injuries. It seems like every year [laughs].

KPQ: As for this upcoming camp in Eastmont Park, can you talk about Miguel, the other coach? 

KC: He's a younger guy. He went to high school in the Bellingham area and actually played against our club. When he and his wife moved over here, I asked, "Do you remember playing against us in Wenatchee?" He said, "Oh yeah, I remember those games." I asked if he wanted to coach and now he's my youth coach.

The last couple of years, Miguel has been coaching U12. He does a terrific job; the kids love him, the parents love him. Now he's moving up to the next level: U14.

KPQ: And just to reiterate, what is the distinction between U14, U12 and so on? 

U14 is basically your 7th and 8th graders, so you have to be under 14 as of September 1 of that year. There are waivers depending on size, experience and stuff like that, so you can waiver down.

U12 is fifth and sixth graders, and U10 is below that. U19 is high schoolers.

This year, [the Schoolhouse Rugby Club] has grown so much that we're going to play Division I rugby with some West Side teams. We'll have JV and varsity teams for the high school boys. We're actually ranked 44th nationally, the high school boys are.

KPQ: 44th out of how many squads overall? 

KC: Oh, it's probably a couple thousand.

I started my own league in Eastern Washington called the Cascade Rugby Union, which we started right after COVID. Schoolhouse has won the league title every single year!

KPQ: That reflects very nicely, I would say, on your coaching ability and also the kids' dedication. 

KC: We get a lot of help from the Eastmont football staff, who love our rugby program - they actually come to our home games. A lot of football players from Eastmont are actually on our rugby team.

KPQ: Is rugby ultimately superior to football, in your view? 

KC: In my view, rugby is growing faster than football. I think a lot of kids are leaving football because of the head injuries and so on, and I get so many comments from parents who cannot believe how much safer rugby is.

I mean, rugby's my life. When springtime rolls around, my wife actually calls herself the "rugby widow" [laughs].

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