After a few delays, missed flights and plane changes, Maria Syas finally made it to Wayne around 1:30 a.m. last Saturday morning.
Syas, a freshman at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma, paid for a flight to Sioux City, IA from Dallas out of her own pocket to visit Wayne State College as the first recruit for the six-time National Championship winning Wayne State College women’s rugby club.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have been formidable forces on the pitch for the last few years and have gained the attention of prospects, much like Syas, from across the nation.
Syas first started playing rugby last year as a senior at Broken Arrow High school in Oklahoma. The girls of the Broken Arrow Rugby Club went on to win the State Championship in May of 2016 after beating the other two rugby clubs in Oklahoma.
The team qualified for the Girls High School Single-School Nationals in St. Charles, MO that was hosted by Lindenwood University and won third place when she was approached by Darrin Barner, the WSC rugby coach.
“We had a chat and she took WSC pamphlets, information and rugby-oriented literature with my card. I said ‘keep in touch’ and that’s basically how that process started,” Barner said.
She now plays for the Tulsa Rugby Club where they travel to tournaments in places such as Texas and Louisiana.
After her long journey to visit WSC, she met with members of the women’s team for breakfast and she went to church with some of them.
“It’s a nice little school with cheap tuition and I don’t really want to go to a big rugby college,” Syas said.
Syas is big on family, church and the small town atmosphere that Wayne and WSC provide. While WSC isn’t the only college she is looking at, it’s high on her list.
“She window shopped and was looking at other schools and all things pointed to come to Wayne and that’s why we’re getting such success with interest of us being a club and now moving forward, we’re getting a lot of eyes,” Barner said.
She received a full tour of the college and the admissions crew helped break down what the paper work and class schedule would be like as a chemistry/pre-med major.
While in high school, Syas competed in basketball and track before her friend brought her to rugby practice one day and she ended up liking the sport. She prefers the fast-paced 7s games over 15s, but still likes it anyway,
“With the success of our backline, she will be an excellent filler for some of those seniors that are moving on,” Barner said, “She misses the game and that’s what a lot of the people can’t fathom that competitiveness and camaraderie of a rugby team----it’s second to none of any sport.”
A newly funded program from WSC has helped Barner make a national recruiting a priority this last year. He has been contacted by a few recruits who have their eyes on the rugby program here.
“When they [recruits] start hearing about her, they’re going to want to say, ‘I’m going there too,’” Barner said. “For a small school and defeating teams such as Colgate, Notre Dame and Ohio State, we play a bigtime rugby with a small tuition rate, an incredible program and fantastic facilities.’”
