Written By: Alex Tostado 

The VSU rugby team is headed to Milledgeville, Georgia to play in the Dirty Deep Roots Tournament.

It will be a round-robin style tournament including three other teams.

Georgia College and State University will combine with Macon Men’s team to make Macon Love. G.R.I.T.Z. and Gwinnett will also be in the tourney.

The tournament begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Max Mundel, a member of the VSU rugby team, is eager to get on the field this weekend to help his team redeem their last tournament appearance.

The team is coming off of a second-place finish at the Black Rose Tournament in Savannah, Georgia last month.

“The competition is not going to be as stiff as in Georgia Southern,” Mundel said. “There were a lot of men’s teams there (that are bigger and have more experience. In the college brackets, we are definitely the best college in Georgia.”

VSU has had a coach come in and offer his help to the young team.

Dr. Renaldo Arroyo has volunteered his time to help the Blazers live up to their full potential.

According to Mundel, Arroyo came to a VSU scrimmage at the beginning of the semester and helped referee. The ABAC professor, and former Mississippi State coach, drives down from Tifton, Georgia once a week.

“I don’t think (anybody on the team) contacted him,” Mundel said. “He just recently moved to Tifton and heard about us through the national championship (last semester).”

Arroyo has more than 20 years of rugby experience.

“(Having an experienced coach) is the factor that we have been missing to get into that top level team,” Mundel said. “You can teach yourself only so much. We can look up everything on the internet, but having that authority figure and that coach with that much experience, is just a huge benefit to us.”

Some of the new things that Arroyo has helped the team with is introducing new ideologies to their game plan.

“(He came and talked to us after that first scrimmage) and he was like, ‘I have been coaching rugby for a while and been playing for 20 years.’ We convinced to come out and help us.

“He is committed and he wants to help us. That’s the rugby mentality. You just want to help new people.”