This year has been anything but ordinary, and the University of Arizona’s homecoming was no exception. The decades-old traditions were scuttled, replaced with a virtual bonfire and online celebration.
It’s fitting, then, that this year’s homecoming queen would also break from tradition. Nikita Ganesh is a rugby-playing, triple-majoring, 5-foot-5-inch dynamo who’s just as comfortable in Shanghai as she is at Sitton Field.
UA rugby player Nikita Ganesh, carrying the ball, has impressed her coach with her ability to play multiple positions.
“What I love about rugby is that no matter what shape or size you are or skill level, it’s kind of a sport made for everyone,” said Ganesh, 21. “When I came on the team, I was 110 pounds and by far the smallest member. And I still am one of them, but over time, I’ve seen girls even smaller than me attempt to play and succeed.”
The Gilbert native has always been athletic. She began studying Indian classical dance as a 4-year-old.
By the time she hit middle school, her father’s job in automotive sales and marketing took them away from the Phoenix area.
“We kind of got transferred as expats when I was in sixth grade,” Ganesh said. “Since then, we kind of just moved around until I came to college at the UA.”
Ganesh first played competitive sports in high school. By then, her family was living in Shanghai. Ganesh went all in on athletics, playing basketball, volleyball and soccer.
Shanghai schools played rugby, too. Ganesh gave it a try and instantly loved it.
“My favorite thing is definitely the teammates,” Ganesh said. “Everyone always says the hitting (is the best part), which I agree with, but my teammates are definitely the best part of it. Out of all the sports I played, it’s been the one where no matter what, you have your teammates’ backs out there. Because you need to. There’s no way around it or you won’t be a unit.”
Ganesh didn’t intend to play rugby at the UA, but stumbled onto the team’s table during the university’s club fair.
The rest is history.
Rusty Wortman, Arizona’s longtime coach, says Ganesh’s versatility makes her great.
“She plays several different positions, just because she can fit into different game (schemes,)” Wortman said. “When we’re running different patterns or scenarios in a match, she can fit in a number of positions.”
Those positions include full back, centers, wing and on occasion, scrum half — “when I’m down a few players for injury or one reason or another,” Wortman said.
“Part of it is her optimism and her confidence in her play. She’s just willing to jump in and try any position. She’s very good at defense. She excels in anticipating where she needs to be for the tackle, but on the offense, she’s also an extremely good evasive runner and understands where she needs to be on the field and anticipate where the play is going to go.”
Ganesh was one of 30 nominees to this year’s homecoming court, with her nomination coming from the UA’s business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi.
“I accepted the nomination because I wanted to represent my business fraternity and all the other organizations I’m in,” she said, adding that she’s also involved in the UA’s honorary system and works as an inbound student counselor at the office of admissions. “I also thought it would be amazing to represent my South Asian (Indian) community up there.”
The nominees were pared down to the final five for homecoming week, which took place Nov. 12-14. Homecoming court members had photos taken and took part in pre-recorded videos where they were all crowned homecoming queen.
Ganesh found out she’d been selected as queen when the video of her being crowned was played during a virtual bonfire on Nov. 13.
“Since then, it’s been cool because they put up my picture up in the rec (center,)” Ganesh said. “So it’s good advertising for club sports as well.”
This isn’t the first time or even the first time recently that a UA rugby player has been homecoming royalty: last year, blindside flanker Bronson Teles of the men’s team was named king.
Teles has since taken his rugby career to the professional level, but Ganesh has a different path in mind: Law school.
The pre-law, Chinese and psychological sciences major has sent off applications to Northwestern, the University of Chicago, the University of Texas and even Arizona State. She says the Chicago-area schools are at the top of her list.
Ganesh is leaning toward pursuing criminal law after becoming inspired during an internship at an immigration law firm during her junior year.
“That was kind of what solidified it for me, because I realized I enjoyed just doing the paperwork and everything,” she said.
“To me, the law is problem-solving. You have all this information and you have to find a way to almost get that loophole or use the knowledge you have to solve your way out of the puzzle.”
Ganesh says she’d like to play on an adult club team in the future, saying the sport is her favorite way to get exercise.
But that’s later. For now, Ganesh is hoping for one final season with the Wildcats.
Arizona’s rugby schedule will be different, with a late start to the season and new opponents.
Thanks to a return-to-play plan created by both Wortman and rugby director and men’s coach Sean Duffy, the Wildcats have been practicing since October. Ganesh calls it “rugby, but with no contact."
Social distancing, weekly COVID-19 testing and obsessive use of hand sanitizer — the team tells their players to “gel in, gel out” when it comes to drills — are the new normal for the team.
“We didn’t get into any contact,” Ganesh said.
“It was kind of hard to run actual game play and stuff, because for example, only two people could share a ball. But we still go the opportunity to practice, which was awesome.”
Arizona’s rugby players will quarantine for 10 days when they return to campus in January; after that, they’ll hold full-contact practices with face masks. With only about six weeks to prepare for the season’s late-February start, Wortman says there’s no time to waste.
Wortman said he hopes to give Ganesh some sort of on-field recognition during one of the team’s matches. Because of the pandemic, she was not honored during the Wildcats’ Nov. 14 football game.
While nothing is guaranteed, Ganesh and her fellow ruby players plan to take on their new normal as a team.
“I just feel like we all look so different and are different, but we are all playing the same sport and that’s what unites us together,” she said.
