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By Sade Hurst / Opinions editor
By Sade Hurst / Opinions editor
There are no tears in rugby, just prayer, if you play on the Brigham Young University women’s rugby team.
Separating God and sport was the issue that the Cougars of BYU had to deal with on their journey during the women’s rugby championships.
BYU’s women’s rugby team were well on its way to a national championship.
That championship road trip was cut short due to a Sunday game.
For those who don’t understand why this forfeit will hurt the Cougars don’t realize that BYU is a school that is primarily for Latter-Day Saints.
Basically the majority of the students are Mormons at BYU, meaning Sunday for them is the Sabbath.
Like most good practicing Mormons the team decided to forfeit the game and instead they went on a mission rather than playing their long awaited opponent Penn State.
Even though the NCAA tries to work around BYU’s wishes to not play on Sundays, it still did not matter for the women’s Rugby team because they are an “emerging sport.”
If the team is not playing a so-called American sport like baseball, football, basketball, or if it’s not a men’s sport then they don’t care.
In other words, it means that it’s too bad the rugby team raised $10,000 dollars on non-refundable plane tickets, and for their opponents who also lost out on money for making non-refundable flights and hotel reservations as well.
Thankfully the team seems like its having a level head about this situation and have a bigger goal than winning.
Yet it’s hard to place your feet in their cleats and imagine having to hand over a game because sports don’t stop for religion.
They are an example of the few young adults left that have any sense of value, because mom and dad raised them right.
It must be hard for some athletes to fight the internal battle of church versus sports. It’s not like a job where a person can threaten supervisor if they are impeding on their religious values.
Sports are just seen as recreational and in this case no one is getting paid, well at least the athletes aren’t.
A Sunday has never stopped the Lakers or any other professional sports team from winning a championship.
Most people will never have to face a decision pitting them between a championship and church.
It is safe to assume that everyone has had to decide for themselves as to what is truly important in their life.
Therefore the game will go on no matter if you decide to go to church or the game on a Sunday.
In the end BYU knew that their religious values were more important than some game, which the fans and opponents respect them for.
The majority of the BYU rugby team may have had to face situations like this before since the same thing happens in any other sport no matter what league they may have played in high school or private.
So dealing with this situation most of the girls probably did not have to think twice about what is more important.
Most likely none of these ladies will have the thoughts of should of, would of, could of, or if only.
It may have been a super sweet victory if they would have beaten their opponents at Penn State, a team that they have been faithful rivals with, but they knew what was more important in the end, giving their day up to the man upstairs.
So don’t feel sorry for them, be proud of them that they know what they stand for.
The man upstairs is most likely pleased with their decision.
