Pros at Practice

The Lancer rugby team circles up and shifts side to side.

“Alligator alligator

tooth like a saw

Ruck me ruck me

Rah rah rah!”

The group of boys breaks up, lingering smiles shifting into game faces after they scream, getting ready for the game. With each step they take and game they win, they’re working to improve. Under these game faces, there’s a main goal to win state, and perhaps go beyond that.

Last year, their dreams of continuing further on were cut short when they finished third in state. This year,with Kansas City Blues player Pat Foley taking over as head coach, they’re looking to be better than they ever have. He’s been an assistant coach at East for the past two years.

The Kansas City Blues is Kansas City’s home rugby team. Foley is one of their newest players, having joined last year.  He played as a back (like a wide-receiver in football) for the 11 years he played rugby. He knows how to coach both the backs and the other main rugby position, forwards(who drive the ball up the field), but lacks expertise in actually playing as a forward.

Foley decided it would only be fair to have someone more experienced at playing the forwards coaching them. He contacted teammate John Hoover, a respected forward who got his own start in rugby freshman year at East.

“I’ve actually helped in various ways with the Lancers since I graduated high school,” Hoover said. “It’s important to me that we keep the tradition of a rugby team at SME. I only wish that I had more time to help.”

Hoover and another KC Blue teammate, John Knutsen, have been stopping by practices whenever they can make it. They’ve been teaching the rugby players about scrums (fighting for possession), lineouts (like a jump-ball in basketball), rucks (fighting for the possession with your feet) along with kicking and passing techniques. While Hoover concentrates on the more-experienced backs, Knutsen helps teach some of the newer players, who are often forwards.

“They are just both really nice guys that are fun to be around and to be coached by,” senior Jack Anderson said. “This is my first year playing. I have so much to learn personally from all of the coaches so whatever advice they have I will take it because it will only make me better.”

Hoover has been playing rugby for roughly 14 years. After his senior year at East, he joined the Blues, and has been playing with them ever since. Many of the drills and techniques he runs are practiced by most international teams. He also watches a large amount of professional rugby to stay up-to-date on what other teams are doing.

“They have brought up our confidence immensely,” Anderson said. “Playing with them makes the whole team better, because we start to work as a unit more, and in turn we are able to try and repeat what they have showed us.”

Senior Devin Price was skeptical about the team’s prospects this season. but with the change in coaching, he’s eagerly looking to the future. Along with bettering their rugby skills, the team is attempting to change their mindset. The coaches have been engraining it into the players’ minds that they’ll be a good team and a contender for a state champion.

Hoover is excited to see the team improve this season, even if the everyday changes seem unnoticeable to the team.

“Every player I have ever seen gets exponentially better their second season,” Hoover said, “So it’s always great to see a freshman out playing because you know by his senior year, he’ll be a major contributor.”

To accomplish their goal of winning state this year, the lancer rugby team is hoping to get the the level of rugby powerhouse schools like Rockhurst and St. Thomas Aquinas, which are both  ranked in the top 25 teams  nationally. Foley believes that if the team works hard enough with their new techniques and playing styles, they’ll be fit to go to nationals themselves in years to come.

“Our senior forwards are getting more and more excited, more and more vocal about instilling this new culture on our team,” Foley said.  “We’re trying to take it to a completely new level.”