CORAOPOLIS — Football was no longer an option.

Staying involved as an athlete at the collegiate level? Different story.

Former Butler High School football players Vince and Zach Seger, along with Jake Hays, have found a home with the Robert Morris University rugby team. They wound up there courtesy of fellow Butler grad T.J. Hays.

T.J. Hays graduated from RMU last year.

“T.J. was one of our first four-year rugby players here,” RMU coach Shawn Crago said. “He helped elevate the program to another level.

“We became a really good team when guys like him started sticking around and playing for four years instead of just one or two.”

A club team, Robert Morris competes in the 3 Rivers Conference. The Colonials (10-1) defeated Fairmont State 41-5 in the conference semifinals last weekend and take on Franciscan University for the league title at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Joe Walton Stadium.

A win there puts the team in the regional tournament in Indiana and among the top 16 teams in the country.

“T.J. talked to me about the rugby team and I had planned on playing,” said Vince Seger, a former fullback-linebacker at Butler and a senior at RMU. “I’ve played rugby here all four years and it’s been a blast.

“I prefer rugby over football now. The play never stops, so there’s an attrition factor that kicks in. I’ve stated in great shape because of this sport.”

Crago said Seger is “one of the biggest players on the field and has done diligent work on his cardio the past few years.”

Including this season, the Colonials are 28-7 over the past three years and have been ranked among the top 20 the past three seasons.

Zach Seger was a guard-defensive end at Butler and is a freshman at RMU. He starts as a “lock,” a position in the second row that’s responsible for creating space as the team moves forward with the ball.

“It gets pretty physical in there,” Zach said. “I took a knee to the face and got my cheekbone bruised last week. I’ve gotten a cut above an eye ... It’s all part of the game.”

His older brother’s had his share of injuries as well. Vince has suffered a broken nose, separated shoulder — and had part of an ear ripped off.

“That happened last year. It got sewn back on,” he said.

Jake Hays, a defensive end-guard in football at Butler, doesn’t favor one sporty over the other.

“They’re just different,” Hays said. “I love rugby now because it gives me a chance to still compete on the field.

“We’re very team-oriented. We’re together all the time. We all have different backgrounds and have played different sports.”

RMU has 27 players on its rugby roster. The team practices from 4 to 6 p.m. twice a week and usually plays games on weekends.

“We car-pool a lot for road games,” Zach Seger said. “We work together to get wherever we have to be.”

Crago said he has no problem attracting players to the program. Winning has a lot to do with that.

“It’s the most successful club sport on campus and I’m in my seventh year as coach, so there’s stability there,”Crago said. “We don’t just get former football players.

“There are former soccer players on our team, volleyball, basketball, baseball ... Former high school athletes who discover they still want to play a sport usually come to us.”

The Seger brothers and Hays are all engineering majors at Robert Morris.

“There’s a lot of individual intelligence that goes into rugby,” Vince Seger said. “It’s a complex game. We’ve got a great coach in that we’re always working on mastering the little things.

“He makes us want to play and we’re as technically sound as anybody.”