The Sacramento State Men’s Rugby team is more than just a group of guys who get together to participate in a club sport.

“We’re all brothers out here on and off the field,” said Nick Cavallaro, who is currently playing in his fifth season and serves as team captain. “So we all hang out together. We do everything together. We do community service together. We do everything together as a team, because we’re all family. Once you join our team, you are family member for life.”

Cavallaro said every player on the team has to be versatile in each aspect of the game.

“It’s a thinking man’s sport for sure, and everyone has to be able to run, tackle, pass, think and communicate,” Cavallaro said. “Truly, I’ve played football and basketball before. Rugby is the ultimate team sport in the sense that you have 15 guys on one field and you don’t have one set position and job like in football. On a rugby field, you are going at it for 80 minutes, running, tackling and passing.”

He said players have to be committed to the rugby team as if it were a job.

“During the fall, we’re out here five days a week. In the spring it’s almost a seven-day commitment because there are games on Saturdays, and Sundays we watch film. So it’s like any other college Division I program,” Cavallaro said.

Players on the team are not allowed early registration in order to get classes that work around practices and games like other athletes on campus.

“Guys just work around their schedules, and make that commitment. We just have to bite the bullet, everyone makes due…we like to pride ourselves on the fact that we work really hard and have to deal with stuff other teams don’t have to deal with,” Cavallaro said.

The team won the National Division II title in 2000 and moved up to Division I the next season. Since then, the team went through a roller coaster ride getting back to the success it once had.

Chris Miller is in his fourth season as the coach of the team. He said the team was in disarray when he took over in 2003, because the previous coach had left unexpectedly.

“When I came on board there was no organization. It’s getting better. It’s baby steps to where we want to be. We want to mimic Division I college sports, where guys are training five days a week and in the classroom five days a week, and that’s what their whole focus is,” Miller said.

Miller said the team will host the Capitol City Invitational on Nov. 16-17 at O’Neal Park in downtown Sacramento. Competing alongside Sac State will be Humboldt State, San Jose State and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Miller said the invitational tournament will give players something to work toward during the fall semester because league play does not start until January.

“(Last year) we didn’t do too great (in league play),” said Dan Gutierrez, who is in his third year playing for the team. “We finished with a record of 4-7. We kind of had a breakdown. We didn’t have enough players. We had a lot of injuries and we had to play injured guys towards the end of the season.”

Gutierrez said he is confident in the team’s future because of the youth on the team.

“We started like, 10 freshmen at some of the games. I remember against Cal last year, we started 10 freshmen and they’re the No. 1 team in the nation and we didn’t do too bad, so we have a good future coming up,” he said.

The Hornets play in a league with teams such as the University of California Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford University, Chico State and Saint Mary’s.

Cal won the national title last year and the competition in the league is the best in the country, Gutierrez said.

“It’s always between us, Saint Mary’s, Davis and sometimes Chico State for the second spot,” Cavallaro said. “Cal is always going to be No. 1. That’s just the way it is.”

Miller said his team is a close-knit group which is making strides toward improving the time they are on the field together.

“I think that anytime you get a team together and they’re training everyday together for at least an hour and a half, it’s hard not to share some moments and bond a little bit. When you put yourself through the grind, constantly competing and constantly challenging each other and constantly pushing each other, it just builds. It’s completely a brotherhood,” Miller said. “I think at the end of the day, each guy comes here to work hard and that rubs off on the guys next to him.”

Andrew Eggers can be reached at [email protected]