Eligibility to Play : Hurdle, or Roadblock?

So far, I've briefly discussed the physiological issues I have had to contend with, as well as some of the neurological, and neurobehavioral issues I've had to deal with on top of that.  These issues contribute to making my run down the road to rugby fitness a little more difficult in their own ways.  Whether it be my ability to stay motivated and focused, or my tendency to tire out a little easier, these issues are but another speed bump I have to cross if I want to succeed.  There is, however, a separate issue that I will be facing, which provides its own hurdles to jump over.  This issue has less to do with me, than it does with policies that govern eligibility for playing competitively, as part of a college team.  To be a bit more concise, my issue is not so much with these policies, but with the unknown of whether USA Rugby would be flexible enough to take my circumstances into consideration should I need to apply for a waiver just to be able to play. 

In the U.S, competitive rugby falls under the jurisdiction of USA Rugby - irrespective of if the team is a high school team, a college team, or a team that was formed outside of academic circles.  For college teams, USA Rugby models itself similarly to the NCAA with regards to having an "eligibility clock."  Essentially, starting from a point in time, you have only a certain number of semesters within which you are eligible to play.  Specific numbers depend on what sports you play, and what organization's jurisdiction that falls under.  For USA Rugby, "eligibility is a seven-year window that begins in the academic year immediately following a player’s high school graduation date during which a player may not participate more than five seasons."² You can, if circumstances allow, request a waiver, but there are guidelines that determine if an appeal will be successful or not.

Maybe my Google™-fu is failing, but I had trouble finding a specific, official statement as to the purpose of this eligibility clock.  The closest guess I could ascertain, however, was concern about a team having an advantage over others.  This alone seems fair, but can become problematic if the decision making on appeals related to eligibility matters are too rigid, as there is a chance that  Granted, if they are too loose, there could be a host of problems as well, but I feel like there are a lot of people out there who are in positions similar to mine, who could find a passion in rugby and could go try it - even succeed in it - but can't either because the circumstances are not substantial enough to get an exception to the rules, or because the rigidity is off-putting, and viewed as not worth trying to challenge.

I've been in college for a fairly long time, its time becoming dragged out for a multitude of reasons.  I started going to college in the fall of 2007, upon graduating high school.  I enrolled at a state university, as a full time student.¹  3 semesters later, I dropped out due to extremely severe depression stemming from the stresses I was under at the time.  The summer following my departure, I enrolled at Westchester Community College to study computer science.  There, I was a full-time student, taking 9-10 credits per semester.¹  Unfortunately, between academic issues, and continuous "oops, you need these classes to graduate" moments, my time there was stretched out from the 2 years that it should have been, to approximately 4 years.  I graduated in the spring of 2013 with an Associate in Science (A.S.) degree in computer science, then took a couple of years off, during which I tried to explore potential career opportunities.  It wasn't long, however, before I got the yearning to continue on, and finish what I had started.  During the spring semester of 2016, I enrolled at Iona College.  I only took one course, with the intent of easing my way back into an academic lifestyle.  The following semester - this past semester, rather, crippling depression nearly ruined my chances of continuing my education.  Fortunately, my circumstances were such where I was able to appeal being dismissed.  I am now on medication for depression, and feel a sense of motivation, and well being I haven't felt in many, many years.

This seems like quite a bit of rambling, but my point in going through my academic career is to emphasize the complex circumstances that can make what seems like a straightforward path really shows itself as a very windy road.  When you couple this with the physiological, and neurological, issues that I have had to contend with, I (at least) have difficulty seeing how my pushing for eligibility would create an advantage for the Gaels.  Maybe someone can think of a reason as to why my efforts would fail, currently, however, I am drawing blanks.

I hope I can be be optimistic, thinking that maybe USA Rugby is level-headed about extenuating circumstances, I don't know though.  My doubtful, pessimistic outlook comes from seeing changes that one could argue as "common sense" took some time (and negative press) to implement on their end.  For example, did you know that before 2015, those who left college to serve in the military would have had to live with their clock time being completely expired when they returned to college>³  From what research I could gather up, it became an issue in 2013, two years before they realized "oh damn, maybe this sort of rigidity needs some exceptions for those circumstances."  I am by no means comparing myself to those people, by the way, what they do takes more bravery than I can muster.  I was using it only as an example of how slow progress can take.

Enough about me, though.  As I said before, there might be a lot of people who have similar stories to mine, there might be people who have had their own stories that, while very different, all have the same underlying theme in that they want to participate in college sports, were unable to for unique circumstances, and feel like eligibility might become an issue - and I get that we want teams on an even playing field, that is not a bad thing.  There just needs to be more flexibility to it all.  Whether I will need to put in an uphill fight or not, whether my circumstances seem extenuating enough, have yet to be seen - I just hope that this issue of eligibility won't completely shut me out of my dream to play some form of college sport.

Notes:
¹ Full time students at 4 year schools are often students who take 12 or more credits per semester.  In community colleges, the minimum needed to be considered "full time" can be lower.  At Westchester Community College, for instance, 9-12 credits is considered "full time," and 6 or fewer credits is considered "part time."

² USA Rugby College Eligibility FAQ [PDF]

³ USA Rugby Pilots new Military College Eligibility Rule (October 14th, 2015)