So Goddamn Close

This weekend, at the Northeastern championships, Yale rugby fell one match short of qualifying for nationals. We lost 10-0 to Middlebury, which has been until this year an almost uncontested regional power, and whom we had beaten in the New England tournament by a similar score. (I know the system is fucked up. Teams can qualify out of both New England and the New York Metro area for the Northeasterns, and even though we beat them the first time, their win is the one that ultimately counts). In our second match of the tournament, we vented our frustration and beat St. Bonaventure 60-0.

I bring all this up partly because I'm a chauvinist about my own interests, but mainly to point out that a team that gets regularly dissed by the school's administration has been by far its most successful this fall. I expect (though anyone can hope irrationally) that this weekend, Harvard will embarrass Yale football, completing the first four-year sweep in the history of the Yale-Harvard rivalry. We've reached a stage---I've confirmed this by talking to my despondent friends on the football team---where any kid who's reasonably competent at Madden NFL video games would be an improvement over our current offensive playcalling situation.

Something needs to be done. We need a new AD and new coaches across the board. Remember how F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed Buchanan as just another asshole Yale jock? That's because Yale used have the proudest and broadest tradition of athletic excellence in the country. To paraphrase someone (I can't remember who), Yale can do better. Is help on the way?

As for the rugby team, we just barely missed out on the big show, and my triumphant and sure-to-be injury-free return to the pitch will sadly not include national championship glory. But this team has so much to look forward to in the Ivy League tournament in the spring. And we have the very relevant task of dispatching Harvard on Saturday (the Match is at least as old as the Game).