Snorkel purchase in a dive shop sparked creation of the Tallahassee Tarpon Underwater Rugby Club.
Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, lies far from Miami and the Everglades. It is home to Florida State University, where Michael “Mischa” Steurer works as a researcher, modeling energy systems for all-electric ships and future terrestrial power systems. While a student in his home country of Austria he loved playing underwater rugby. He also played in Zurich when he studied for his PhD. His wife Maria, who moved with him, also enjoyed playing from time to time.
In 2001, the then 35-year-old Steurer had organized a meeting to see if he could introduce the sport to the area. However, he fell ill at the time and had to cancel. Rugby went into dormancy. In 2019, he stopped in a dive shop to buy a snorkel. He told the sales clerk he wanted an old fashioned one, of the simple sort that he had when playing underwater rugby nearly two decades ago in Austria.
The clerk responded that he knew about rugby. A German cave diver who lived in the area had mentioned the sport to him. Steurer Mischa had no idea who it was, though he had lived in Tallahassee continuously. The clerk offered to put the two in contact.
“After I received Mischa’s contact information,” recalled Joerg Hess (the diver), “I immediately called him, rather than putting it off for another day, and I met them [Mischa and Maria] the same evening.”
Hess and the Steurers discovered that they had both thought about introducing rugby for years. They even lived in the same town, Crawfordville, population around 5,000.
“It was quite literally the right moment, for us, to decide to start our own club,” said Hess. “We each had crucial contributions to make. I believe it would have been harder if not impossible without each of us three.”
Underwater rugby clubs have sprung up overnight before. When Australian Bobby “Simonsson” Chen moved to Iceland in 2011, he declared:
“I am ostensibly here to study on exchange, but my real goal and ambition is to start an underwater rugby team in Iceland and spread awareness about the sport.”
Chen bootstrapped an underwater rugby club into existence but when he left Iceland, the sport collapsed. Without recruitment, coaching and administration a club can hardly survive beyond a year. Tallahassee received all three elements from Hess and the Steurers. Even the untimely pandemic could not stop them.
As soon as Covid restrictions allowed pool training again, the Tarpon made up lost ground. Currently, there are about 20 members. On average 8 to 10 regularly show up to practice twice a week. They have begun to compete. In 2021, Denver hosted the US National Championships and Tallahassee managed to participate for the first time.
There was a bit of luck involved since the Florida club had never really competed. Steurer Mischa knew little of what was happening in the rest of the country. However, while traveling to DC on business in September of 2021 he sought a fix of rugby endorphin.
“I wondered if there was a club I could play with, just to get a workout,” he said to explain how he connected with the DC Devil Rays.
Afterwards the Rays’ coach, Juan Sevillano invited the Tarpon to combine with his club to compete. As a combination of two clubs they were ineligible for the title but they could compete for a place in the ranking. The Florida club convinced 7 players to make the trip across the country. Simultaneously, for the first time they took on the shock of altitude and unfamiliar opposition all at once.
“We had no expectations but in our first match against New Jersey, the top team, we only lost 9-0,” recalled Steurer. “We beat San Francisco 3-2, and that rookie team [of DC and us] played San Francisco again in the final placement game. We tied in regular time and, thanks to the strong players from DC, won in a penalty shootout.”
In the space of two months the club went from never having played matches to crossing the country to test itself.
Growth potential
Roaming underwater rugby players, whether they are students, couch surfers or business travelers, often provide stimulation to clubs. The Tarpon welcome visitors from Europe or South America but with the university town and diving base, they are confident they can find and develop local talent in Tallahassee.
“I never thought that we would end up here in Florida,” recounted Maria Steurer. “During a vacation I told Mischa that I thought Florida is either big cities, or swamp. I had no idea how people live here.”
In 2000, the couple lived in Portland, Oregon for three months. When her husband got invited to a job interview in Tallahassee, they stayed three days.
“During that time I was driving around looking up horse stables and the housing market. I fell in love with this area!” she said.
A year later, in March 2001, they moved to Tallahassee. A year later they bought a home. Maria Steurer, who got work as a surgical assistant at a veterinary clinic, found the move bittersweet.
“The hardest part was to leave family and friends behind. At this time we also had two horses, three cats and two dogs. All, except one dog, stayed with our family. Our dog, Joey, flew with us and lived to the ripe age of 13 years.”
Maria Steurer competed in equestrian sports in Austria, mostly jumping. The couple actually met at her stable when they were 12 and 13 years old.
“Horses are still and will always be a big part of my life,” she added. “Actually, Mischa and I got married on our horses in the garden of my hometown’s castle.”
They currently own 4 horses. Two are retired and the other two are mounts for trail riding.
Maria Steurer has two roles in the club. She is the treasurer and “mother” to the new players. She did the critical research to determine how to incorporate the club as a non-profit sports association.
Cave diving in Florida
Joerg Hess, 49, tried underwater rugby once while a student and was “hooked” from day one. His father, an open water diver, allowed him to breathe from tanks in a swimming pool in Aachen. At the age of 12 he gained his CMAS junior diving certificate. Diving then went on hold but in 1998, a year after he started playing rugby, he resumed scuba with the same club.
“[Although] I was a diver first, I believe it was rugby that started my diving ambitions,” said Hess.
In the end of the same year he took an internship in the Southern US. Local diver friends took him to the Florida Keys. He remembered rinsing his gear in a freshwater spring and wanting more.
“For the next few months I would make the 12-hour drive (each way) every other weekend,” he said.
He signed up for cave training. On New Year’s Eve 1999, he descended into a cave to emerge in the year 2000.
“We opened a bottle of Champagne during decompression.”
Hess, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry and microbiology, became a Floridian because of the cave diving opportunities. He settled near Wakulla Springs, one of the world’s most spectacular fresh water springs. The state has many underwater caves in which divers can view manatees, alligators, etc. often through crystal clear waters. Hess considers himself to be just one of many divers drawn to Florida.
He gave up trying to explain to friends and family back in Germany why he immigrated. Instead he invited them to visit.
“I showed them, rather than telling, what I do,” he said. “How do you explain to someone that I just emerged from a twelve-hour dive squeezing through tiny crevices while experiencing several major life support equipment malfunctions, coming out grinning from ear to ear?”
Visitors to Hess’s world are energized by the experience.
“When you tell this to someone, they think you are boasting and lying, and simply don’t believe it,” he explained. “It is not just this spectacular place here, but the people who surround me. They are all very grounded, open minded and curious, to say very real.”
After Mischa Steurer convinced various swimming pools and institutions, such as the university’s diving club, to accept rugby as an activity, they decided to give the coaching responsibility to Hess. Although he only had two years to pick up the sport in Germany, with his experience as an advanced diving instructor he is a systematic and effective teacher.
Lacking a long experience in rugby, Hess found that he was teaching what he himself needed to improve at.
“During the year of covid, Mischa and I would talk on the phone once in a while, and it was he who turned our attention to team play, rather than individual skill. Afterwards our coaching strategy changed, and team play became more important, and better.”
Maria is certain that underwater rugby will grow in Tallahassee. In the short term they plan to take part in the Coral Springs Cup on the other end of Florida, 740 kilometers from their home. They have ordered uniforms.
The next step is to market and recruit more at universities and colleges.
“The future is bright!” exclaimed Maria Steurer. “We have so many enthusiastic team members that I can say for sure that we will grow.”