BOTH FEET PLANTED: THE GAP BETWEEN RUGBY AND SCIENCE REALLY ISN'T THAT FAR

HAMILTON, Ont. - It seems impossible, the life of a student athlete. Rushing between class and practice, exams and film review, labs and playoffs, trying to balance, to succeed, to improve, and sometimes just to breathe. It seems impossible, until you live it.

For Kyle Goldstein, a first year McMaster medical student and rugby player, striking a balance between the two is essential to mentally surviving the rigor of such an intense field of study. "Being active helps," says Goldstein. "It's nice when I'm working or studying all day, it kind of forces me to get outside and run around."

Though classes have been cancelled and Kyle has returned home to Saskatoon, McMaster's rugby coaches are committed to maintaining routine for their athletes, sending them home workout videos to keep active and complete at their own pace.

Pace is the common theme in Goldstein's success both in the classroom and on the pitch, crediting McMaster's self-directed learning as a deciding factor in choosing to attend medical school and in not burning out as a student or as an athlete.

Though Goldstein was able to self-direct himself into a harmonious relationship between rugby and study in his first year, his teammate, Megh Rathod admits to struggling in the beginning to juggle so many plates. Perhaps it was his chosen field, Honours Integrated Science, a program that only accepts 60 students per year, but Megh acknowledges that he felt he had bitten off more than he could chew as both a student in a highly competitive and fast paced program, and an athlete.

Despite playing rugby throughout high school and for his hometown of Brampton, pursuing rugby at the higher level was a chance Rathod took, and he earned a spot on the McMaster team as a walk-on. He jokes that during his early years he was "a subpar student and subpar athlete" due to the demands of school and sports, and while the second year of Honours Integrated Science was the most challenging, it was also the year he began to develop a sense of normalcy as he was forced to figure it out.

In the classroom, Megh was studying Plant and Animal Interactions, Neuroscience, Drug Discovery, Thermodynamics, History of the Earth, Genetics, Animal Physiology, Organic Chemistry, and Sensory Processes. On the field, he was also competing in the University National Rugby Championships, where the Marauders would win the bronze medal.

Where the medical program applied the self-directed learning that allowed Kyle Goldstein his balance, the Honours Integrated Science program, a fairly new program that just celebrated its 10th anniversary, takes on it's own spin. The basis for the program, Rathod says, is to take concepts learned in lecture and apply them to real world problems. "It's a revolutionary new university program and I think a lot of universities will be following that model" he praises, despite the burnout he initially felt. McMaster Mens Rugby Team

"I think a lot of times (in other programs) you would go to class and wonder the relevance of the material," says Megh. "It doesn't really allow for a lot of growth and independent learning but this program asks you to tackle global challenges with an interdisciplinary research foundation, and by connecting everything to real world problems, it inspired myself and my peers to go above and beyond the course curriculum. It challenged you to ask critical and creative questions, and understand how science works in and for society".

With the motto "teamwork makes the dream work", it was the perfect fit, an undergrad focused on collaborating with your peers, and playing a team sport, with parallels of working 60 guys on the team, and 60 students in the program. With his sights set on applying to McMaster's medical program in the future, and four years of rugby and science in the rearview, Rathod's combined experience in both has taught him the importance of working as a collective.

"One thing that stands out is the ability to work with others. Rugby is 15 people against 15 people, the most of any sport, so if you don't know how to work as a team, you're definitely going to struggle." says Rathod, applying the same mentality to labs and experiments.

"Playing rugby, everyone has such different skill sets and I think that's really applicable to the real world." Being where your feet are, to Megh, is the most important factor in both rugby and science. "While you have a lot to do, be in the moment, and take it one task at a time. In rugby especially you always have to be ever-present, and completely dialed in for 80 minutes regardless of whatever the game throws at you, and that's something I hope to take with me in a future career in science".

The focus that both Megh and Kyle express on the rugby pitch will provide a level of confidence, an ability to tune out the noise around them, and a perspective that others in their field who have not signed up for this chaotic double-life, may not possess. The hits they take in rugby, their only choice being to get right back up and continue playing, is an essential trait for a scientist or doctor to have. To be present, and to continue on, with both feet planted.

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Players Mentioned

Megh Rathod: Fourth Year; 4

Kyle Goldstein: 1

Players Mentioned

Megh Rathod
: Fourth Year; 4

Kyle Goldstein
: 1