Syracuse’s club rugby team plays its games on a field tucked deep in a neighborhood on South Campus at the end of Dodge Drive. With no scoreboard, stands for spectators, or actual benches for players and coaches, it could come off as a facility for a recreational league, not a Division-I club team.

But for rugby captain Prem Hirubalan, it’s all just fine.

“I wish the program had more money to spend,” Hirubalan said. “But at the end of the day it’s still rugby, and rugby is something I am passionate about.”

Hirubalan, a junior enrolled in both the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is the farthest thing from your typical college student. He is a 30-year-old Singaporean who was a stockbroker, soldier and international rugby player, all before coming to America to attend Syracuse University last fall.

When asked why he chose Syracuse of all schools, he laughed and said, “Obviously the weather.” Then he went on to outline the educational opportunities that both Maxwell and Whitman have offered him as an international student.

From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Hirubalan is working in Whitman’s Ballentine Investment Institute as an analyst for the Orange Value Fund. It’s a two-year program that selects students to conduct intensive research surrounding potential investments. With his background as a stockbroker, Hirubalan was an obvious choice.

For the rugby team, making Hirubalan captain as a junior was a simple decision as well.

“Last December we held our annual team elections and Prem was the runaway favorite for captain,” senior John Lechner said. “Not many of us knew him coming in, but he’s played rugby for 19 years, and that’s longer than some of the freshmen have been alive.”

And in those 19 years, Hirubalan has compiled quite the list of rugby credentials.

In Singapore, he was a semi-professional player and a part of the U-18 and U-21 squads before eventually joining the country’s national team. In Syracuse, he is taking his experience and shedding it on the younger members of the rugby program.

“There are a lot of guys with not much experience and I’m having a lot of fun teaching them,” Hirubalan said. “I learned a lot about how to lead teams and groups in the military, and I am able to use that on these guys.”

In practice he’s an extension of the coaching staff and is given a group of players to drill and mentor. In games he operates with a calm intensity, managing his team while patiently waiting to engage in the action.

“Prem’s knowledge on the field is unparalleled,” Lechner said. “He’s incredibly intelligent when it comes to rugby matters, and he’s really good at keeping his head above petty squabbles.”

When any of his younger teammates engage in skirmishes on the field, Hirubalan calms them down and ensures the ref that he has his team under control. It is the 30-year-old in him that is always able to remain even-keeled.

Head coach and faculty advisor Bob Wilson spoke highly of the work that Hirubalan has done as captain thus far this season.

“Prem has been outstanding,” Wilson said. “He knows what kind of culture we need and he is working very hard to get there. Working with younger guys isn’t easy, but you have to work at it, and that’s what he is doing.”

As far as the team’s season goes, Wilson credits much of its renewed success to Hirubalan. The Hammerheads are 3-2 and have completely transformed themselves after a tough 1-7 campaign last year.

“It’s been a revelation for this team with Prem,” Wilson said. “We’ve jumped from bottom of the league to top half right now, and a lot of that is him.”

Published on October 17, 2012 at 2:55 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse