419th recruiter makes Air Force rugby team Published Aug. 23, 2010 By Mary Lou Gorny Hilltop Times HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UTAH -- Tech. Sgt. Dustin Ballingham, line recruiter for the 419th Fighter Wing, said he was excited to hear he had made the Air Force Rugby Team. The Air Force Reserve recruiter who had played rugby at Weber State University for two and a half years and who now plays on a Division I team in Utah, made his first year tryout at an Air Force mini camp in March and he must have made an impression. The Air Force team has taken the tournament trophy from all other U.S. military teams at the November military brackets tournament six years running, and it's a pretty sizeable honor to make the team in competition with all the others trying out Air Force-wide. Before Sergeant Ballingham left for the camp, he had received some direction from former Air Force Rugby Backs Coach Craun Fansler, who showed up to some practices at WSU. Before this, Sergeant Ballingham had never played with an organized team made up of Air Force rugby players or at the Air Force Academy. "Our team took second place (at the mini camp). So we did very well. For a group of guys to come together from all the bases, train together for three days and we go do that --- it's pretty awesome," he said. "It's pretty exciting," Sergeant Ballingham said of getting the news in July that he had made the team and will see play at the flanker position. "We report Oct. 26 to Fort Benning, get together back as a team, start training together, so we actually start getting back in sync with one another and then come Nov. 1 we actually start the tournament that week." Head Coach Lt. Col. Dan Lockert said in an e-mail response to the Hilltop Times that rugby is a sport where players have to be ahead of the action by three moves. "I believe there is no comparison relative to the level of mental and physical preparation necessary to play a match or for a training session," the coach said. "One person cannot carry the other 14 for 80 minutes; it takes all 15 players pulling together to win a match," he said. Sergeant Ballingham, born and raised in the Uintah-South Weber area near Ogden, took up the sport in high school through friends but really got back into it in college. "I enjoy it. Like I tell others, I could go biking, go running, go for a walk. I prefer rugby," he said. Sergeant Ballingham described the intense conditioning he goes through, both at the mini camp and while playing for his Salt Lake Division I team. His two-a-days -- for team practice here or at the mini camp -- typically consist of conditioning in the morning and skills training in the afternoon for drills, ball handling and ball movement. Game play on the large field, 70 meters by 110 meters, carries a high level of intensity as play doesn't stop for much, save injuries or referees' usual role of reviewing calls, making said calls or for such things as retrieving a ball. However, there aren't as many injuries as you might expect to see during such long stretches of non-stop action. As Coach Lockert said, "Typically you see far less injuries in rugby than in American football. For example, there is no line of scrimmage or blocking in rugby. The tackler must make an attempt to wrap up the ball carrier (spearing is illegal) and the tackle must be made from below the shoulder. "Rugby is continuous motion much like soccer and the ball changes possession just as often so you must be able to rapidly transition from offense to defense," the coach said of the sport he highly recommends to others, men and women. "My son played his first rugby season at age 6. Granted, at that age, it was touch rugby, but the principle remained the same -- support, communication, think ahead and teamwork," Lockert added. Sergeant Ballingham describes the fierce level of intensity on the field as a gentlemen's sport where opposing teams play on the field with the ardor of hooligans and yet often go out to dinner with each other afterward leaving all the drama on the field. He points out, that spirit of camaraderie is what drew him to the sport, itself. And he draws parallels to his membership in the Air Force. "Camaraderie is a big thing for me. I've got friends everywhere through the Air Force. You want to make lifelong friends and stay pretty much anywhere in the world -- this is a great way to do that," Sergeant Ballingham said. "It's great peace of mind knowing that even if you aren't at home you've got friends somewhere." Senior Master Sgt. Mark Cooling, a 419th Senior Recruiter and his superior, said, "It's a good opportunity to have the Air Force Reserve showcased in a bigger field with all the active duty members. Dustin's bringing good light to the Reserve program." You can tell his senior recruiter and other recruiters have his back. Three of them were present at his interview and gave warm praise to the usually reserved sergeant who they described as pretty quiet, except when it comes to the sport of rugby. "They get me to go running with them," Sergeant Ballingham said. "And I hate running." After all given a choice of sports, he'd rather be playing rugby.