Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Leaders are not born, they are made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”

If there is someone on the 2008-09 BG rugby team who perhaps most accurately embodies this quote, it’s Rich Hines. The senior No. 8 man has risen from freshman obscurity to All-American prominence, evolving along the way into an indispensable leader for head coach Tony Mazzarella.

“Rich is a tremendous asset for us,” Mazzarella said, “For someone who did not come from a rugby background he has worked very hard to learn the game to the point where he is like having another coach on the field.”

Hines is certainly no stranger to hard work. As a child growing up in Lancaster, Ohio, he learned the value of a strong work ethic from his parents. His father sometimes worked three jobs in order to provide for the family while his mother stayed home to care for Rich and his three siblings.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect and love for my parents and what they did to make sure that my brothers, my sister and I were provided for,” Hines said.

As a youth Hines was active in a number of sports, competing in football, wrestling, swimming, and basketball, among others.

“I think as a kid, sports were just a way for me to get out of the house and run around all day rather than sit inside and do nothing,” Hines said.

Upon entering high school, Hines was able to sift through his myriad of athletic endeavors and zero in on cross-country and track as the ones he wished to concentrate on. In track and field, Hines was an all-purpose man, doing everything from pole vault to the 4X4 relay during his four years, while in cross country he distinguished himself as a state qualifier.

“I found running to be very relaxing,” Hines said. “Once you get going your mind just kind of phases out, you are in your own little world.”

Throughout his childhood, Hines always coupled his vigor in athletics with a diligence in the classroom which earned him a 4.1 GPA, enough to elicit academic scholarship offers from Bowling Green, Ohio State, and Ohio.

Hines eventually chose Bowling Green because he said he was drawn to their education program.

It was during his freshman orientation at BG that Hines first considered playing rugby.

“During my orientation I roomed right across from [current teammate] Dan Brandenstein who played rugby in high school and had already decided to play on the team here,” Hines said. “We immediately hit it off and he encouraged me to come out for the team. I thought about it for a while and decided to give it a try.”

Hines went to practice and soon found the game’s non-stop pace and emphasis on mental agility to his liking.

“Coming from cross-country I was used to running all the time so I was used to that part of rugby,” Hines said. “I also liked how it requires you to think on your feet more so than football where you go back and huddle up after every play,” Hines said. “In rugby you sort of have to operate on the fly sometimes.”

Despite having no previous exposure to the game, Hines proved to be a quick study. His ability to quickly process large volumes of information allowed him to master the core concepts of rugby at an early stage.

“As a freshman Rich did not really stand out that much,” Mazzarella said. “However, as he began to pick up the game he just blossomed.”

“My first semester, all I did was pretty much go out and try and hit as many people as I could,” Hines said. “This allowed me to get a feel for the pace of the game; my next step was to try and set plays and throw some passes.”

“Once he started playing A-side during sophomore year we knew he would be a mainstay,” Mazzarella said. “He plays with such a high intelligence level and has tremendous on-field presence you rarely, if ever, see him make a crucial mistake.”

As Hines became more experienced he found himself being given more and more responsibility by the coaches, evidenced when Mazzarella put Hines in charge of the team’s training regimen.

“Rich works very well with the other players,” Mazzarella said. “He is not an in your face type of player but he leads by example and you can see that rub off on the other players.”

To credit Hines solely for his work-ethic and leadership ability however, would be to overlook the tremendous athletic ability he also brings to the team.

After a 2007-08 season in which he scored 65 points, Hines was rewarded with both All-Midwest and honorary All-American honors.

“It was a thrill to be recognized as an honorary All-American,” Hines said. “However this year hopefully I can take it up a notch and actually make the team.”

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Contact sports reporter Chris Rambo at [email protected].