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January 13, 2017
Rugby players to clash in Snow Bowl at Winterval By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
January is tough for outdoor athletes, even for the rugged players of the Fort Wayne Rugby Club. But rugby has never been about comfort, according to Sam DiFilippo, the club president and the development officer for Rugby Indiana. The Snow Bowl rugby match returns at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, for the sixth installment of Winterval, a Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation celebration of frosty sights and welcoming shelters. “We’ve actually been pretty lucky,” DiFilippo said of Snow Bowl playing conditions. “We’ve had some that were pretty muddy. We’ve only canceled one in the last 10 years. That was because of really bad weather, like negative 8.” “If it’s good snow, it’s a great game. It it’s mud, it’s a great game,” he said. But there’s something about crunching
through jagged ice in rugby shorts and shortsleeve jerseys that takes the fun out of a midwinter match, even for the fiercest of athletes. The hits just seem harder when the world is frozen. “It’s gonna hurt a little worse than usual, but it’s kind of a tradition,” DiFilippo said. “Some of the older guys are like ‘I’ve had my fair share of Snow Bowls.’ ” “We call it a motley game,” he said. “Since it’s the middle of winter we don’t want to be super-competitive, so we mix the teams up and we get some guys from Taylor University and IPFW that come out and they mix in with the local men’s club.” Spectators are welcome to assemble at Lawton Park, 1900 N. Clinton St., and watch the match. Anyone who is willing to wait in the cold is welcome to see some good, free rugby, DiFilippo said, adding that the match also serves
COURTESY PHOTO
Fort Wayne Rugby Club members and guest athletes clash during a Snow Bowl at Winterval in downtown Fort Wayne.
as a recruiting tool. “January is a time when people are getting their New Year’s resolutions together and they say this looks like fun. But at the end of the day, it’s a community event for us, because we don’t have
many opportunities to put ourselves in front of the city. So it’s a good opportunity for people to understand what rugby is all about.” And what is rugby all about? DiFilippo loves to hear that question.
“Rugby is the meeting in the middle of soccer and American football,” he said. “It was popular here [America] during the Victorian era, but they thought it was just a little too violent, so they started adding
some rules.” And some padding, he added; and football was born. “[Rugby] is the most fun you can have in a contact sport because there are no pads, and it’s a very athletic game. Not only do you have to be the kind of person to sustain the contact, you also have to be able to play the whole game, because we play an 80-minute match.” ‘You have to have really great stamina and be a hard hitter. We’re one of the fastest growing sports in the country. We’re where youth soccer was 10 years ago,” he said. The team plays 18 competitive matches each year, and four competitive tournaments across the Midwest, with the bulk of the games in Indiana. Home matches are played at McMillen Park; for the schedule, follow fwrfc. com. Fort Wayne also See WINTERVAL, Page A13
Fort Wayne effort aids Syrian refugees in Indy By Rod King
For Times Community Publications
PHOTO BY ROD KING
Sarab Horani examines a bag of donated clothing to be provided to Syrian refugees arriving in Indianapolis.
Islamic community for help,” Horani said. “It was humbling and amazing
how people didn’t hesitate See AID, Page A11
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Sarab Horani of Fort Wayne is passionate about helping Syrian refugees coming into Indiana. She spearheaded collections here of clothing, furniture and household necessities to be distributed to more than 50 families who have arrived in Indianapolis. She has helped to send four truckloads of goods since May. Her brother, who lives in Evansville, brought up an 18-wheeler full of goods. Another truck will be heading south from Fort Wayne in the spring. Horani adopted a woman from Chad and her five children and has been helping them to assimilate into life here in Fort Wayne. “Her story of how they existed with practically nothing moved me so much that I reached out to the local
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