When senior flanker Katie Taake came to Eastern she didn’t know how to play rugby, but she learned and has two team most valuable player awards to her credit.

Taake said a girl on her floor in Carman Hall convinced her to come to practice one day during her freshman year.

Taake’s father, Randy, said he was the one who first suggested playing rugby to his second oldest child.

“It was my idea (Katie playing rugby),” Randy Taake said. “We were up there when we dropped (Taake’s older sister) Courtney off for school, and I told Katie that she should try out for that next year.”

Eastern head coach Frank Graziano remembers when Taake first asked him about playing rugby.

“She showed up for a meeting and said, ‘I can do that kind of stuff,’ and sure enough she could,” Graziano said. “It’s not that very often when you can find a kid like that, that just walks into your office.”

Graziano said Taake, who competed in four sports at Jerseyville Communty High School, was clearly a gifted athlete, and she had the skill necessary to succeed in rugby.

“She has a pretty nice high school resume,” Graziano said. “She was one of those girls or guys that was good enough to stand out on her team but didn’t stand out enough to be recruited by colleges.”

While Taake might have had the talent to play rugby, she still had to learn how to play a new sport.

“It took me a long time,” Taake said. “I’m still learning the rules. I’m definitely still maturing as a player.”

Part of learning how to play was learning how to play the demanding flanker position.

Graziano said flanker is comparable to a midfielder in soccer because that player has to play defense and offense at the same time.

“She is what we would call the perfect flanker,” Graziano said. “She’s strong , she’s very athletic and she’s very fit.”

Despite being “the perfect flanker,” Taake struggled with the position at the beginning of her career at Eastern.

“Before she figured out how to play the position, before her sophomore year, she would wear herself out,” Graziano said. “Now she understands the game so well.”

“It would be frustrating because no one really knows what rugby is,” Taake said. “I was still learning, especially my freshman year.”

One thing Taake didn’t worry about when she started playing rugby was the game’s reputation for being extremely physical.

“It didn’t really scare me and I thought it would be pretty neat,” Taake said.

Taake has developed a reputation for playing so hard she actually hurts her own teammates.

“Katie is more known for hurting her own teammates, so I was more worried about the other kids,” Taake’s mother Terri said. “She was kind of famous for hurting the other girls on her high school basketball team.”

Graziano said it is not a matter of Taake trying to hurt other players, but a matter of her always playing at full speed.

“The best way to describe Kate is she has only one speed and she only plays at full speed at all times,” Graziano said. “The problem is Kate doesn’t know her own strength.”

Graziano said Taake hurts her teammates in practice because they are not prepared for her when they are going at half speed and Taake is at full speed.

Despite her propensity for injuring others, Taake has been able to avoid any major injuries herself.

Graziano said Taake has played in every minute of every game since her sophomore year in the fall of 2000.

“I don’t think there is probably anybody on the team that can actually take claim to that (not missing a minute in three years),” Graziano said.

On April 6, in a match against the University of Illinois, Taake felt some of the pain she normally dishes out when somebody cleated her in the face. Taake stayed in the game even though her eye was swollen shut.

“My parents were at the game when I got cleated,” Taake said. “After the game, instead of saying, ‘hey check that out,” they took a picture so they could show it to people.

Being tough was just part of growing up in a family of six children all of whom actively participate in sports.

“Growing up we had a no blood – no sympathy rule,” Terri Taake said.

It seems that the only thing capable of stopping Taake from playing rugby is graduation, but lucky for Graziano Taake has another year of eligibility remaining after she missed the rugby season her freshman year.

Taake said she doesn’t know what she plans on doing after she graduates. She is a social science major with a minor in chemistry, but she is also working toward getting certified in physical fitness training.

“I really like school,” Taake said. “I might very well stay in school after I get my bachelors.”