Five years ago, a group of Madison Rugby alumni decided that showing up on Alumni Weekend wasn't enough. They wanted to build something that lasted: a financial foundation that would fund the program's future the same way the program had shaped theirs. Since 2021, that commitment has totaled more than $280,000 invested directly into JMU Men's Rugby through the Alumni Association and the John Carr Memorial Rugby Fund.

That number, more than a quarter million dollars and counting, doesn't live in a spreadsheet. It lives on John Carr Field. It lives in the players who received scholarships, the coaches who flew in from Wales, and the matches that alumni around the world watched live on their phones. It shows up every August when Coach Andy Edwards makes the journey from Carmarthen, Wales to Harrisonburg for preseason, his trip funded by the same community of alumni who once ran those same drills on that same pitch.

The single largest piece of that investment is the John Carr Field endowment, which has now received more than $150,000 in alumni contributions over five years. The field is the program's permanent home, the place where every match is played, every new player takes the pitch for the first time, and every senior plays his last. Funding its endowment isn't glamorous work, but it's the kind of work that keeps a program standing for the next fifty years.

Beyond the field, alumni dollars do the everyday work of keeping a competitive rugby program competitive. That means covering MARC conference dues, post-season travel costs, and general club operations that don't make headlines but make the season possible. It means funding VEO camera equipment that lets coaches break down film and lets alumni in Seattle or London or Charlotte watch their Dukes play on a Thursday afternoon. It means supporting the Bloomerang donor management system and the communications infrastructure that keeps the alumni community connected and engaged long after graduation.

And it means scholarships. The Hank Mozingo Captain's Rugby Scholarship and the Luis De Souza Pinto '02 Memorial Scholarship are among the most direct expressions of what this alumni association is actually about: older players investing in younger ones, passing something forward. The Luis De Souza Pinto Scholarship carries added weight: every dollar contributed is matched dollar-for-dollar by the John Carr Memorial Rugby Fund, doubling the impact of every gift.

Then there's the community itself. From the Annual Alumni September Weekend to the MOB Rally in Baltimore, alumni have shown up year after year, in the stands, on the sidelines, and on the pitch during alumni matches, to remind current players that Madison Rugby doesn't end at graduation. The network they're joining is active, invested, and paying attention.

None of this happened by accident. It happened because a community of people who played this game together decided they weren't done yet. They decided that what they built as players was worth protecting and growing as alumni. More than $280,000 later, the results speak for themselves.

If you're ready to add your name to that list, we'd love to have you.