From the sky to the pitch Published May 4, 2012 By Airman 1st Class Cory D. Payne 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England -- Capt. Jeremiah Carlson, 494th Fighter Squadron weapons system officer, and 1st Lt. Sean O'Keefe, 492nd Fighter Squadron weapon systems officer, have taken their fight from the sky to the pitch. These 48th Fighter Wing WSOs made the U.S. Air Force Rugby Team after trying out and then winning the 34th Annual St. Patrick's Day Rugby tournament held in Savannah, Ga. The U.S. Air Force Rugby Team is made up of players from active-duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Airmen of all ranks and career fields. The annual St. Patrick's Day Rugby tournament is used by the Air Force and other branches of the Armed Services as try outs and a chance to prepare for the Armed Forces Rugby Championship. Nearly 80 people from across the Air Force came down to try out for the team at the tournament. O'Keefe was selected for the third time in a row and Carlson was selected for the first time to the 15-man squad. Both Carlson and O'Keefe are no strangers to the sport of rugby. Although neither one of them grew up playing the sport, both discovered it in college. O'Keefe was searching for a conditioning program for football, when a rugby player at his college told him to give the rugby team a chance. "I was on a scholarship for football, but it was a division two team so they didn't have the money to fund an offseason workout, and it just so happened the first part of the rugby season fell into our [football] offseason," O'Keefe said. "I had a buddy from the team who said to come out, so I did and the rest is history." "Coach wasn't happy about it, but it all worked out," he added. Carlson fell into the sport after joining the Air Force Academy Rugby Team and quickly grew attached. "I started playing at the academy, and then got into it seriously when I first moved to Lakenheath four years ago," said Carlson. Rugby's popularity in England has given Carlson and O'Keefe a chance to see how the British practice and play. "I play here in England with Capt. Carlson in Cambridge with a team called Shelford," said O'Keefe. "I'm playing with guys who have been playing since they were four or five years old, so the learning curve really stepped it up a notch, which is good because it made me better for it." "It's interesting to see the different style of rugby between what we, the Air Force play, and what we play down in Shelford," Carlson said. Not only has their practice with Shelford improved Carlson's and O'Keefe's rugby talent, but it gives them a chance to meet new people and experience the local culture. "It gets you out into the community and out of the standard insular communities we tend to get stuck in," said Carlson. "There was a huge camaraderie as soon as I stepped on the pitch here," O'Keefe echoed. Rugby has not just given Carlson and O'Keefe a chance to make friends and build partnerships with the local community, but with members from the Air Force and all military branches that participate in the Armed Forces Rugby Tournament, which the Air Force has won 8 years in a row. The Armed Forces tournament includes one team from each branch of the military as well as the Coast Guard and is held at the end of every year in Fort Benning, Ga. Although the competition is heated, there is still a sense of family. "Afterwards it's nothing but high fives and handshakes," said O'Keefe. "We are all in the same military, so throughout the year we all get to hang out for a few weeks." According to Carlson the sense of family is a common theme among players and is one of the best reasons to play rugby. "The Air Force Rugby is a huge family. It's cool because it's across the board - officer, enlisted, active, guard, reserve-and you build relationships with these people from all around the Air Force and all around the world. It's a very close knit community, but open to everyone," said Carlson. "Rugby is my favorite sport in the whole world. I wish I had been playing it earlier."