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Published on January 23, 2025
Eastern’s men’s rugby has an ulterior motive. On the surface, it is a competitive and popular club sports team, known for its grit and good sportsmanship. However, as committed as it is to the game, it may be even more visible out in the community. Players and alumni can be seen around Willimantic collecting donations at Stop & Shop on a freezing winter day, serving meals at the Covenant Soup Kitchen, or cleaning community gardens during the fall.
This is no coincidence — assistant coach Ray Aramini has always encouraged his players to volunteer. Many alumni continue to support the team long after their time on the field, assisting the local community in a variety of events each year.
Tom Valencis ’17: finding his “second family” and “giving back”
Tom Valencis ’17 joined the team after hearing about it from a friend in Burnap Hall during his first year. “The rugby team quickly became a second family to me,” he said, referred to Aramini as a “father figure.”
Valencis recalled volunteering at Covenant Soup Kitchen and participating in the Olga Ezis Plunge for Hunger, a yearly fundraiser for Covenant involving a freezing-cold dash into the Natchaug River in February.
Valencis also volunteered at summer concerts at Shaboo Stage and participated in Eastern’s second annual rugby clinic during the Willimantic Special Olympics in August 2024.
“Ray and I keep a pretty open line,” said Valencis. Aramini’s continued presence in his life serves as a “reminder to give back,” and his experience on the rugby team — both on and off the field — “put me in the position I'm in today.”
Brad Marston ’19: finding a support network on and off campus
Brad Marston ’19 was unsure of his path through higher education before landing at Eastern — the third college he had attended — and joining the rugby team. “Rugby is what kept me at Eastern,” he said. “It changed my life.”
Marston began to understand his status as a member of the local community with the ability to help. Aramini taught players to prioritize without pressure on service. “It was always family, school, work, rugby,” said Marston. “Community was in our free time.”
Eventually, Marston and his teammates began to make time for community service, even as alumni. “I work in Massachusetts, so I come back for the alumni game and whatever Ray needs help with,” he said.
The Plunge for Hunger is one of Marston’s favorite community events. “It’s miserably cold, so seeing the way everyone comes out and supports the soup kitchen is really cool,” he said.
Marston also recently helped Aramini give Christmas presents to children at Covenant Soup Kitchen. “That was the most fun and rewarding (event) for me,” he said.
Kam Chaudhry ’19: honoring the memory of a friend
A former rugby player at Vermont State University-Johnson Campus, Kam Chaudhry ’19 heard about Eastern from a “random guy” at a party and decided to transfer. “If you want to play rugby, that’s where you go,” Chaudhry remembered hearing.
Describing his younger self as “self-centered,” Chaudhry learned to break out of his bubble through interactions with teammates. He recalled a bus trip to a winter rugby clinic in Mystic during his second semester:
“Out of nowhere, this kid sits down next to me. I had my headphones in and he just looks right at me, and he just won't stop talking.” That “kid” was teammate Sam Tharp.
Despite Chaudhry’s best attempts to tune Tharp out, he couldn’t avoid their developing friendship and those he’d come to share with the rest of the team. “They were involving us. We’d go eat together for Thanksgiving and we'd go get tacos down the street at Tacos la Rosa.”
In June 2018, Chaudhry and the rugby team received the devastating news that Tharp had passed away in a motorcycle accident.
Chaudhry was forever changed by the tragedy. “It’s why I am the way I am and not this egotistical dude,” he said. “I went into (Eastern) super hard-headed and self-centered, and then when that event happened with Sam, I was completely broken down.”
Aramini and the team responded to the tragedy in a way that transformed Chaudhry’s perspective. “If we were feeling a certain way, we could go talk to somebody and if we needed a friend, he'd get another teammate to come talk to us and be there,” he said.
“That was a level of support I wasn’t used to. … There were days we’d cry and there were days we’d be so happy that we’d forget the world existed.”
Chaudhry had begun volunteering at Covenant with the team before Tharp’s passing but ramped up his efforts after the tragedy. “Ray is always there for us, even off the field,” he said. “It built something in me that I realized I needed that year.”
Chaudhry continues his involvement in events such as the Plunge for Hunger and the Christmas gift event at Covenant. “We’re serving more than just ourselves,” he said. “Ray taught us that all equals one … you see someone who needs something, and you give back.”
Anthony Amato ’12: “it didn’t feel like work to us”
A former baseball and hockey player, Anthony Amato ’12 joined the rugby team the spring semester of his first year. He heard about the team from two residents in his hall who seemed to always be talking about how much fun the games were.
“I had no idea what rugby was,” Amato recalled.
Naturally, Amato began hearing Aramini talk about the community service opportunities available to the team. “Ray never forced us to do anything,” he said. “It didn’t feel like work to us.”
One of Amato’s earliest volunteer events was the annual Day of Caring, a townwide cleanup run by Eastern’s Center for Community Engagement in partnership with United Way. “We had buckets and grabbers and were picking stuff up off the street,” he recalled.
Amato still makes time to volunteer at the Shaboo Stage concerts and participate in the Plunge for Hunger. “I like being able to go back to Willimantic and give something back to the community,” he said.
Amato also credits Aramini for helping him get involved at Camp Harkness, a scenic campsite for people with disabilities and their families, through The Arc New London County. He appreciates “being able to make someone’s life a little better just because you can.”
Amato also keeps the rugby team in his life outside of the community events. “Eight of my best friends are from the rugby team,” he said. “Our children now play together.” Amato also volunteers his time to help at a couple of rugby practices each year.
Patrick Scully ’12: following in Aramini’s footsteps
Patrick Scully ’12, a fourth-grade teacher in Glastonbury, knew that he and his teammates were “never going professional in rugby.” He joined the team because he was “interested in Irish culture, being of Irish heritage.”
As an Eastern student, Scully noticed the University “making an attempt to connect the student body with the community.” Volunteering with the rugby team took this involvement to a new level: “Now, I’m face to face with the community.”
Scully got his first taste of serving the Willimantic community at Covenant. He recalled “peeling hard-boiled eggs” and “tending to the property.”
Scully was inspired by Aramini, who completed a charity bicycle ride from the border of Canada through all New England states in 1996 and a 3,200-mile cross-country ride, called the “Bike for Bread,” in 2000.
Scully and a friend carried on Aramini’s tradition by organizing a charity bike ride from Washington, D.C. to Willimantic. It was from this bike ride that the idea for the Plunge for Hunger was born — Aramini created the Plunge to raise extra money for the bike ride.
Since graduating, Scully has returned to Willimantic to volunteer at events such as the Shaboo concerts: “It’s about being part of a community.”
Written by Noel Teter '24