Know Your Madisonian: Drew Briski’s life on the rugby pitch
Drew Briski grew up in Chippewa Falls playing a wide range of sports, including baseball, football, basketball and soccer.
When he began his freshman year at UW-Eau Claire, he was asked to join a rugby team. He quickly and flatly declined.
He finally took the leap into the sport in 2015 thanks to a friend. And that’s how Briski, who came out his junior year of college, found himself on the Madison Minotaurs, a member of International Gay Rugby. The team, founded in 2007, consists of 20 to 25 players from the greater Madison area, plays its home matches at the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex in Cottage Grove and travels to away games around the country, primarily in the Midwest.
Briski, 31, who works in geospatial information services at Ayres Associates in Madison, ended up falling in love with sport.
“The strategy and flow of the game is so unique from other American sports that it was easy for me to get hooked,” Briski said. “My prior sports background gave me a solid base to work from when learning the game. It took me a few seasons to really understand how to play, and it has been my favorite sport ever since then.”
One of the highlights of the season will be held next weekend on May 6, when the Minotaurs host the Madtown Scrumdown, a rugby tournament that will bring in four other teams from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, all of which are members of IGR, founded in 1995 in London, England.
The Madtown Scrumdown was started in 2018 and held in 2019 before pausing for two years due to COVID-19.
For Briski, his rugby playing days are over after tearing the ACL in his right knee three times. He now serves as an assistant coach for the team that in early April announced that it is submitting a bid to host the 2025 IGR North American Cup, the organization’s biennial continental tournament.
What’s it like having one of the few gay rugby tournaments in the country?
We think it’s great to keep it an inclusive tournament for the inclusive teams and so far it hasn’t been an issue for filling out the sides. Tournaments for the IGR community are pretty hard to maintain. Some clubs will do it for a few years and then management or whoever is leading the club decides it’s too stressful or they’re not making enough profit or even breaking even so they put a pause on it. The IGR has two or three tournaments but from what I can tell the Madtown Scrumdown is one of maybe one of two or three smaller tournaments that happen outside of those three IGR-sponsored ones.
For the regular season, whom do you play?
We’re not in a league with the Wisconsin Rugby Club and the schedule is not set by USA Rugby. We set our own schedule where we’re more on the casual side of division four rugby in the U.S. We can decide to play whomever we want but it’s typically the IGR clubs that we reach out to. But every so often we reach out to some non-IRG clubs as well.
Is there a difference in games played against IGR teams compared to non-IGR teams?
No, there’s really no difference. The difference we see is outside of the games. It’s more social. There’s a meet and greet before the games for us and then after the games there’s a third-half social that happens at any rugby match you go to and then later that evening we’ll out go out in whatever city is hosting and we’ll just really get to know the other team’s players. So it’s a very social environment because we know we spend more time not playing rugby when we’re on a rugby team. And we’re going to play these teams a lot because there’s not a whole lot of IGR teams.
What’s it like to have this kind of facility?
Having the clubhouse here in the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex is fantastic. It’s super unique. We are one of the only clubs to be part of an organization that owns the pitches in the U.S. It’s very rare to see, especially at the Minotours’ level, to have pitches that we can consistently play on that are consistently in top-tier condition and well maintained throughout the year. It’s definitely a luxury.
Do you need much rugby experience to play on the Minotaurs?
It’s a full-team sport more so than any other team I’ve been on. It’s been awesome to see players who have no rugby experience come in to the team and develop into pretty good players. It’s not uncommon. I came in with no rugby experience and when I came in it was much more niche than it is now. The thing I love most about the game is the social aspect. Being on the Minotaurs playing other IGR clubs has been such a special time in my life. I’ve met a wonderful person I call my boyfriend through the Minotaurs and I’ve been able to travel across the Midwest and to Europe for rugby.
What kind of athlete do you need to be to play rugby?
We know this sport isn’t for everyone. You can be any body shape and size and you can play this sport. But you have to have the right mentality to play the sport. You have to have the ability to get up after being hit.
How important is it to publicize your team and the upcoming tournament amid what many perceive as Republican attacks on the LGBTQ community?
The tournament was never supposed to be a political thing and we’re not trying to make it be a political thing. We just want other queer people to know that you can come here and be loved and play this sport with us. We won’t judge you. You can be yourself around us. It’s definitely an escape for a lot of people. Especially when you’re playing. You’re not focusing on anything else that’s going on in the world. All you’re focusing on is who has the ball. It’s an area of queer culture that isn’t publicized much because there’s still a stigma about sports being just for straight jocks. We’re really trying to break down that stigma with the Minotaurs to show that we’re here.
https://madison.com/news/local/know-your-madisonian-drew-briskis-life-on-the-rugby-pitch/article_113fbfce-4a42-5dcd-9971-a895cc747a9a.html
Wisconsin’s first gay rugby team hosts tournament – 2018
COTTAGE GROVE (WKOW) — Wisconsin’s first international gay rugby team is hosting its first-ever tournament this weekend.
The Madison Minotaurs Rugby Club kicked off its tournament The Madtown Scrumdown in Cottage Grove on Saturday. Other gay rugby teams from across the country were competing in our area this weekend.
The Minotaurs wanted to host their own tournament at the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex to cut down on travel.
“I decided that we can’t always make these away tournaments, so let’s bring one here. Let’s host our own tournament. Let’s have our players show off what they can do, let’s have our facilities look beautiful for it. Let’s put together a good tournament and have a good time,” said Drew Briski, tournament director. “Hopefully this year goes well, which so far it has been, we’ll try to do something again next year.”
The club organizers say they’re dedicated to promoting diversity in the sport of rugby.
Third annual Madtown Scrumdown comes to Cottage Grove -2022
COTTAGE GROVE (WKOW) — The Madison Minotaurs Rugby Club hosted their third annual Inclusive Rugby Tournament Saturday.
The Madtown Scrumdown took place at the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex in Cottage Grove.
“The Madtown Scrumdown is quickly becoming one of the premiere events in the Madison area for amateur sports and we’re very happy to keep that tradition going,” Drew Briski, Executive Director of the Madtown Scrumdown said.
According to Briski, a total of six teams participated. He said the goal was to encourage people of all identities and walks of life to participate.
“With Rugby, there’s 15 positions on each side. Positions are made for people of all shapes and sizes and one thing that’s great about we as people is that we come in all shapes and sizes and so we try to promote that a lot,” Briski said.
The top three teams received trophies and the number one team will get their name engraved on a plaque that will remain at the complex for years to come.
Rage for rugby
Madtown Scrumdown is the first major tournament hosted by the Madison Minotaurs
Members of the Madison Minotaurs Rugby Football Club, the city’s International Gay Rugby team, often don’t have the resources to travel to tournaments out East or in Canada. So they created their own.
“IGR has a lot of regional tournaments, and they’re all pretty far from Madison,” says Drew Briski, the 26-year-old geospatial analyst and cartographer who also is director of the Madtown Scrumdown, the first-ever major tournament hosted by the Minotaurs. “I wanted to create a tournament that appealed to Midwest teams.”
The inaugural event is scheduled for Saturday, May 12, at the two-pitch Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex, 4064 Vilas Road in Cottage Grove, home of Madison United Rugby. Members from six IGR teams — Columbus (Ohio) Coyotes, Columbus (Ohio) Kodiaks, Milwaukee Beer Barons, Minneapolis Mayhem, St. Louis Crusaders and the Minotaurs — will participate. Some teams aren’t able to field full 15-man teams because of travel conflicts or injuries, so the Coyotes and Crusaders will merge for tournament play, as will the Beer Barons and Kodiaks.
The tournament follows a four-team round-robin format, and competition begins at 10 a.m. Admission for spectators is free, and pre-tournament and post-tournament festivities will be hosted at FIVE Nightclub, 5 Applegate Court. “Part of what makes IGR different from other rugby clubs is that we try to do more social activities,” Briski says.
The Minotaurs were established in 2007 as the first IGR team in Wisconsin, and the club has participated in tournaments all over the world. Briski says membership is about 70% gay or bisexual men and 30% straight or non-gay-identifying men. The club participates in spring and fall seasons and likely will post a call for new members this summer on Facebook.
Madison’s 32-man roster is down to 25 for the Madtown Scrumdown, thanks to injuries. Briski — who played several sports but never gave rugby a try until he joined the Minotaurs in 2015 — has been out since last fall when he tore his ACL.
The Minotaurs are among the 10 members of Madison United Rugby, and Madison is one of the few rugby communities in the country with its own dedicated rugby fields.
Briski hopes to make the Madtown Scrumdown an annual event and possibly host other IGR tournaments. First, though, he needs to get through the inaugural year. “This is definitely an experiment for us,” Briski says. “Other teams in different parts of the country have great tournaments with a lot of fun. Why not us?”
Credit: https://isthmus.com/arts/sports/minotaurs-rugby-football-club/
Madtown Scrumdown 2023
Madtown Scrumdown 2023 date set!
The date has been set for the Madtown Scrumdown 2023! May 6th at the Wisconsin Rugby Complex outside Madison in Cottage Grove will host the 4th iteration of the Midwest 15s Rugby tournament.
Add to your calendars now so you don’t miss out on the festivities.
More details coming soon!