Mary Mason seems like an average 20-year old who enjoys her fair share of outdoor activities. But this psychology sophomore also loves playing rugby.
"I think rugby is a great sport," said Mason, who is one of the backs and the captain of the UT Women's Rugby Club. "The best thing about it is that it is an excellent stress reliever."
The women's rugby club is affiliated with the Texas Rugby Union Collegiate Division I. It is also certified by the Western Rugby Football Union and USA Rugby and plays divisional games against seven other schools from around Texas.
Mason took to rugby about a year and half ago and has since become one of the key members of the Texas squad. The nuances of rugby were unknown to Mason until she came to UT and tried it out firsthand. She got involved in rugby due to a friend's insistence.
"A couple of years back, UT did not have a women's rugby team," Mason said, "A friend of mine from high school, Abbie Radar, who was a year above me, came here to Austin and was in the first women's rugby team. She told me that when I graduated from high school, I had to come play for her. Today, I am playing with her for UT."
Despite her comfort level with the sport, currently, Mason was fairly oblivious to it when she first started out.
"I had no idea what it was. I knew it had something to do with football in a way that it kinda resembled it, and so I came out to some practices," Mason as said she reminisced how she got hooked on to the sport. "Our coach taught us what the game was about and even made me look at some videos to understand it."
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