It's probably natural that the Midnight Blues Club in Waterville is a sponsor for the Central Maine Stripers Rugby Club. This way, the Stripers have a place to carry on a rugby tradition.

"After a rugby game, a big part of rugby is the social part," said Jesse Jacobs, the founder of the Stripers. "It's kind of unique about rugby, especially in American sports, after the game, you don't hate each other. Both teams get together, you have a social, and you make friends for life from the other teams."

Jacobs, who grew up in Rangeley and started playing rugby at UMaine-Farmington, started the club in 1999 out of Augusta.

If you've never heard of the team, that's part of why they moved to Waterville last year.

"Over six years of being in Augusta, we never had one guy who lived in Augusta," Jacobs said. "We had four or five guys who lived in Waterville (so) we said, 'You know, let's just try Waterville. Maybe we can get better community integration up there.' It's our second year here. So far it's been great."

The Stripers need 15 players for a match, and they have about 50 on their sign-up sheet. While most of the longtime players have rugby experience from college, Jacobs said they encourage everyone to play.

"Anybody who wants to come play with us, we'll teach 'em the game," Jacobs said. "That's the way we've always done it. We've turned a lot of just regular guys into rugby players, and everybody seems to love it."

The Stripers have a Web site at http://www.centralmainerugby.com, but they don't yet have a home field. Jacobs said the Stripers are looking to play in the central Maine area, and they are scheduled to host two teams from New Hampshire in a June 2 tournament.

The Stripers are also scheduled to travel to Canada for a tournament this season, and they have an eclectic group of players, ranging in age from about 20 to 45-year-old Mike Kelley from New Hampshire. One of the players is Dan Shaw of Whitefield, who played rugby while living in Australia and still has the accent.

"It's all about the guy next to you," Shaw said. "It's not individualism. It's not 'I'm the best.' It's 'We play as a team.' I always liked that."

While rugby matches are not co-ed, Sara Lovitz, a three-sport athlete at Lawrence High School and four-year soccer player at Colby College, was out practicing with the Stripers on Thursday.

"It's something new to do other than just go out running every day," Lovitz said.

Lovitz, who stands about 5 foot 2, was one of two women at Thursday's practice.

"Last weekend was nice," Lovitz said. "Jesse almost knocked out my front teeth, and I got stomped on by one of the larger players with sharp cleats. But this is fun. I'm used to being one of the smallest people on the soccer field or the basketball court or whatever it may be."

Despite Lovitz's experiences, Jacobs and team manager/player Kris Dubois of Norridgewock say the sport is really more hazardous than it looks.

"Rugby, most of the injuries are just kind of like surface (injuries), like a black eye or a cut or whatever. It heals up and it's not a big deal," Jacobs said. "You do have your serious injuries that happen, but it's really not that frequent."

"I've played for 10 years and I haven't seen any super major injuries," Dubois said. "People get worried about rugby, think it's a very dangerous sport because you don't wear pads. But that concept of 'You can only hit as hard as you can take' kind of sets it up so that people don't get hurt too bad."

On the Stripers' Web site, rugby is described as "about 90 percent football and 10 percent soccer." Contrary to more traditional American sports, the ball is tossed backward or laterally.

While it looks complicated at first, Dubois says the sport is actually pretty easy to pick up if you can watch or play with someone who has a rugby background -- and these guys are confident that those who take the time to learn rugby will very much enjoy the sport.

"You get the same sort of people no matter what sport you play -- people who take it really seriously, win at all costs, aggression to the max," Shaw said. "These guys, and a lot of people who play sports, it's for the fun, for the love of the game. That's what these guys have."

Matt DiFilippo -- 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com