Sherman to Coach Army
WEST POINT, N.Y. (USMMA Release) – The Army West Point men's rugby program has hired Matt Sherman as Men's Rugby Coach, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Boo Corrigan announced today.
Notre Dame College Moves Up, Goes Independent in DIAA
The Notre Dame College men’s rugby program has left DII after finishing in the top four in the nation last season, and moved into DIAA, pursuing an independent schedule with the goal of earning an at-larger DIAA playoff spot.
While DIAA hasn’t given independent teams playoff spots before, they have in DII and DIA, so there’s precedence, and Notre Dame is in talks with USA Rugby to get just such consideration. The Falcons have a recruiting class of over 25 players, boosting their roster to about 60, with their first senior class - that is, the first time the now four-year-old program will have players who have been with the program throughout their college tenure.
The new recruits are coming from all over the country, but Head Coach Jason Fox said that the state of Ohio still provides the most players.
College, HS Talent Fuels Club 7s Nationals
Keep an eye out for the breakout players at the national club 7s championships.
New Additions for ECRC Season
The East Coast Rugby Conference (ECRC) kicks off September 11 with the defending champion AIC Yellowjackets taking on 2014-15 Small-College champion New England College.
NEC has moved up to the DIAA ECRC, and will be welcomed with a tough opening game against an AIC team that went 7-1, including 6-0 in conference play and a win over Bowling Green in the ACRC Bowl Series. Their only loss was to Kutztown University.
MAC Kicks Off Sept. 12
The Mid-Americans Conference returns for another round in the fall of 2015 with one change.
Northern Illinois will not participate in conference play this fall due to disciplinary issues on-campus. The NIU rugby program is under suspension until May, 2016 because of a party that violated school policy. The program expects to be back on the field as soon as possible, and expects to return to the MAC in 2016. Meanwhile, Kent State, which ran to a 3-2-1 record in the DII Great Lakes Conference in 2014, will take NIU's place.
Capital Conference - Towson and Salisbury Again?
The Capital Men's DII college conference will open up its season on September 12 with the same seven teams in the competition.
Perennial contenders Salisbury and Towson will clash in the big game of the fall on October 17, But both will do well to watch out for Georgetown - Towson visits Georgetown on October 3 and Salisbury hosts Georgetown on the final weekend of play.
Last season, Towson defeated Salisbury in the regular season but Salisbury followed that up with a close win in the playoffs. Towson went on to the national quarterfinals, where they were upended by James Madison. Salisbury was edged in the quarterfinals by Notre Dame College 18-15.
USA Rugby Men's Collegiate All Americans Named
BOULDER, Colo. (USA Rugby Release) – USA Rugby has selected the 2014-15 Men’s Collegiate All-American and Honorable Mention All-American teams for the 15s and sevens codes of the game, honoring deserving college rugby players from more than 40 institutions.
Forty-four of the 102 student-athletes attended the USA Rugby Men’s Junior and Collegiate Stars and Stripes Camp presented by Welldog at Cal Maritime Academy last month, including 12 in the first team list. Six Bears from University of California were selected to the first team, the most of any institution.
Ivy League - Who's Chasing Dartmouth?
The 2015 Men's Ivy League season starts on September 19 with the upstart Yale Bulldogs hosting Penn and Cornell hosting Columbia.
For Cornell it's another year in a competition the players and coaches love, but which test the Big Red mightily. While the other Ivy League schools are within easily manageable driving distance of at least a couple of schools, Cornell is no closer than four hours to any of their conference opponents. Long drives or not, Cornell has done well in the Ivy League, and finished 5-2 in the regular season in 2014.
Rivalries Renewed in Southern DII
Twelve teams will compete for the Southern Rugby Conference in Men's DII college rugby, with the season kicking off with all six playing on September 12.
Each team will play five games, with Furman University leading the way after winning the conference last year. Furman went on to the DII national quarterfinals, where they were edged by Notre Dame College 17-15. It's pretty close in the South. Last year Furman actualy finished 2nd in the South division of the Southern Conference, behind UNC-Wilmington, but edged UNC-W in a wild final. East Carolina won the North division, and looks to repeat.
7s Begins NCRC 15-16 Season
The Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference will begin its season in late September with the first of four 7s tournaments.
Despite the national championships of college 7s being moved to the spring, the NCRC will keep its 7s season in the fall. After that is concluded, teams have about a month before the 15s season gets started, although the majority of teams won't play league games until 2016.
Last year's champion, Central Washington, has moved on to an independent schedule, which makes sense for everyone given that CWU won all games by considerable, and sometimes massive, margins. To even out the conference to eight teams, Gonzaga has moved up. The remaining eight-team conference is extremelt competitive, as evidenced by some of the extremely close scores in 2014-15. In the end, last season, three teams were deadlocked with 5-2 records behind the 7-0 CWU.
Stony Brook Heads Empire
The Empire Rugby Conference returns with no changes in the teams involved or the format.
All seven 2014 participants - Binghamton, Brockport, Colgate, Fordham, Stony Brook, Syracuse, and the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point - return. Stony Brook ran the table in the regular season 6-0, and while normally there would be a playoff between #1 and #2, USMMA is hampered by the fact that they lose about half of their roster in the late fall for a trimester at sea.
Kings Point, however, got some players back for the spring, and since Stony Brook concentrated on 7s in the spring, it was Kings Point that took a spot in the DIAA playoffs, ultimately losing to Central Florida in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Stony Brook looks in good shape for 2015.
Keystone Loses 1, Adds 3
The Keystone Rugby Conference has expanded its roster of teams even as the conference loses its defending champion.
With West Virginia off to the Rugby East in DIA, the DIAA Keystone welcomes James Madison, Lock Haven, and Villanova to the competition. JMU was a top-four DII program last year, and won USA Rugby’s DII College 7s Championship. The move up to DIAA was clearly a rugby/competitive decision. The addition of the other two teams was a little more about geography than it was about looking for tougher competition. Lock Haven was 2-4 in the DII MARC last year, while Villanova was 0-5.
Still, they bolster a conference that was reduced to seven after the news that WVU would move up. Now Keystone has ten teams.
Rugby East Readies for Fall
The Rugby East DIA conference has finalized its schedule, with two-time Keystone Conference champion West Virginia joining the now eight-team conference.
Army, the top team from the fall of 2014 returns with several challenges ahead - West Point is set to announce a new Head Coach, and in addition, the senior leaders on the squad have moved on. But wiht Wheeling Jesuit coming off a very strong spring, and Kutztown and Penn State very close in 2014 anyway, this promises to be a hugely competitive conference.
"The Rugby East is the most enjoyable collection of coaches I have had the opportunity to work with," said St. Bonavanture Head Coach Clarence Picard, who is also the league commissioner. "All of the programs take it seriously. And we all know we're going to have to play very well, every game, every week."
Clemson Tabs Lynch for Coaching Job
The Clemson University Rugby Club has announced that it has hired Steve Lynch formerly of the Glendale Raptors program, as the team's new Head Coach.
Lynch has coached in a variety of places, from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the All-Navy select team, and most recently in Colorado.
“We were humbled by the quality of the coaches interested in the position, and it was no easy task, but Coach Lynch stood out as the best fit to lead the students in reaching their goals,” said Robert Bortins, a member of the search committee, in a statement. Lynch will be relocating to Clemson, SC following his coaching commitment to the All Navy Select team’s competition at the Armed Forces Championships in mid-August.
Changes Mark MARC 2015 Season
The Mid-Atlantic Men's DII Rugby Conference has set its schedule amid significant changes for the league.
Fourteen teams played in two separate tiers in 2014, with Notre Dame College winning Tier I, the playoffs, and getting to the national final four. This year, there are ten teams in one single tier. Notre Dame has opted for an independent DI schedule. Villanova and Lock Haven have joined the Keystone DIAA conference, and California of Pennsylvania has moved on also.
There's plenty of competition, though, as IUP, Rowan, York, and East Stroudsburg, all teams that pushed for their tier's top spot, return.
