All = 1

Continue Reading Issue 42

Eastern’s men’s rugby team has an ulterior motive. On the surface, it is a competitive and popular club sports team, known for its grit and sportsmanship. However, as committed as it is to the game, the team may be even more visible out in the community. Players and alumni can be seen around Willimantic collecting donations at Stop & Shop on a freezing winter day, serving meals at the Covenant Soup Kitchen, or cleaning community gardens during the fall. 

This is no coincidence — a culture of community service has been engrained in the team for generations. Many alumni continue to support the team long after their time on the field, assisting the local community in a variety of events year after year.

“Willimantic is an exceptional community, a community that has an awful lot of heart,” said Ray Aramini, a prominent figure in town and Eastern rugby coach for 21 years. Growing up in West Virginia and witnessing poverty firsthand, Aramini’s coaching and community service are rooted in a commitment to helping others. As such, service has become central to the rugby team’s identity.

Among Aramini’s proudest accomplishments with Eastern rugby is the annual Olga Ezis Plunge for Hunger, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Covenant Soup Kitchen over 14 years. Other initiatives include leading rugby clinics with the local Special Olympics, providing manpower at local cleanup events, and more. 

“It’s about reacting to the need, as opposed to creating an event and then seeing if it fits,” he said of the team’s community involvement. 

Aramini aims to help his players develop into balanced adults who can be defined beyond the sport they play. “Rugby is what draws these students in. They may not become professional rugby players, but they’re all going to be professionals,” he said. “It’s about developing the totality of the student.” 

One of those balanced adults is Demetri Voukounas ’14, a former player of Aramini’s who has served as the team’s head coach for nine years. Like many of the students who find their way to the club, Voukounas wasn’t aware of the sport before Eastern. “No pads, full contact tackling ... rugby is a crazy game,” said Voukounas. “Looking back, joining the team is one of the best decisions I ever made ... the fun, the work ethic it taught me, the giving back.”

He says the club is very inclusive, welcoming everyone of any skill level, without the barriers of a varsity college sport. “It’s an outlet for so many students looking for a community ... for guys with an athletic drive and an itch to be on a team.” 

As for the club’s community engagement, Voukounas said, “Why wouldn’t we? As students, we live in town, go to school in town, utilize the town’s resources. The least we can do is give back.” 

On top of that, he says working in the community is fun: “You’re hanging out with the guys you’re going to battle with. ... It builds camaraderie and brings you closer as a team.” 

Patrick Scully ’12 was the student leader who helped launch what would become the Plunge for Hunger. Scully and friend Nick Fitzner ’13 organized a fundraising bike ride from Willimantic to Washington, D.C. With the support of Aramini, raising donations/taking pledges and jumping into the icy Natchaug River, the Plunge was born. 

Now a fourth-grade teacher in Glastonbury, Scully recalls joining the rugby team out of interest in his Irish heritage. “We were never going professional in rugby,” he said of his teammates’ motivations to have fun and build camaraderie. 

As a student, he noticed the University’s efforts to connect with the local community, but volunteering through rugby made it personal. “Now, I’m face to face with the community,” he said, reflecting on his experiences at Covenant peeling eggs and tending the property. 

Scully continues to return to Willimantic and to the team: “It’s about being part of a community.” 

Brad Marston ’19 was unsure of his path through higher education before landing at Eastern, the third college he attended. “Rugby is what kept me at Eastern,” he said. “It changed my life.”

Marston began to see himself not just as a student, but as a member of the local community. “It was always family, school, work, rugby,” he said. “Community was in our free time.” 

As an alumnus, Marston continues to return to Willimantic to help out with the team, especially for the Plunge. “It’s miserably cold, so seeing the way everyone comes out and supports the soup kitchen is really cool,” he said. 

This past holiday season, Marston also helped the team give Christmas presents to children at the soup kitchen. “That was the most fun and rewarding [event] for me,” he said. 

A former baseball and hockey player, Anthony Amato ’12 joined the rugby team the spring semester of his first year. He heard about the team from two residents in his hall who seemed to always talk about how much fun the games were. 

Naturally, Amato began hearing Aramini talk about the community service opportunities available to the team. “Ray never forced us to do anything,” he said. “It didn’t feel like work to us.” 

One of Amato’s earliest volunteer events was the annual Day of Caring, a townwide cleanup organized by Eastern’s Center for Community Engagement in partnership with United Way. “We had buckets and grabbers and were picking stuff up off the street,” he recalled. 

Amato still makes time to volunteer at the Shaboo Stage concerts and participate in the Plunge for Hunger. “I like being able to go back to Willimantic and give something back to the community,” he said. 

Amato also keeps the rugby team in his life outside of the community events. “Eight of my best friends are from the rugby team,” he said. “Our children now play together.”

A former rugby player at Vermont State University-Johnson Campus, Kam Chaudhry ’19 transferred to Eastern after hearing friends talk about the strength of its rugby team: “If you want to play rugby, that’s where you go.” 

Describing himself as someone who was “self-centered,” Chaudhry began to change through team interactions — especially during a bus ride when teammate Sam Tharp sat next to him and “just wouldn’t stop talking.” Despite trying to tune him out, their friendship grew, as did Chaudhry’s bonds with the rest of the team. 

In June 2018, Tharp died in a motorcycle accident — a loss that deeply impacted Chaudhry. “I went into Eastern super hard-headed and self-centered, and then when that event happened with Sam, I was completely broken down.” 

The team’s response left a lasting impression. “If we needed a friend, Coach would get another teammate to talk to us. That was a level of support I wasn’t used to,” Chaudhry said. “There were days we’d cry and days we’d forget the world existed.” 

Chaudhry ramped up his community efforts with the team following Tharp’s passing. “We’re serving more than just ourselves,” he said. “Ray taught us that ALL=1. You see someone who needs something, and you give back.”  

Continue Reading Issue 42