St. Bonaventure’s run to the NCR D1 title was weeks, months, and years in the making, but the trophy is less important, really, than the lessons the program can provide for others.
Success for St. Bonaventure is more about what the players get out of it. It’s more than just about accumulating players; it’s more than just about one coach; it’s about a sustainable plan.
Since NCR launched its D1 competition, St. Bonaventure has won the championship twice, in 2021 and 2025, finished 2nd in 2023, made the semifinals the other two times. That’s pretty sustainable. During that time they produced the Major League Rugby #1 pick in Rick Rose, the 2025 Prusmack Award winner Manu Taula, and were still a NCR D1 contender event after Rose graduated and their coach moved on.
It all started 24 years ago when the alumni came together after teammate and friend Rob Peraza was killed in the 9-11 terrorist attacks. A scholarship fund was set up to honor Peraza, and with that scholarship fund, the alumni began to find ways to recruit players and build a successful program.
The alumni continued to be involved in the program, and then in 2015 Bill Kelly, who heads up the alumni and was a close friend of Peraza, approached the University about elevating from club status to varsity status.
Kelly and alumnus Jim Canty (who passed away in 2017) worked closely with the St. Bonaventure President to get that done.
“The easiest thing for the University to do was say ‘No’,” said Kelly. “But they didn’t. They kept an open mind,”
The key was mapping out what being varsity meant, because it means different things to different people. Important to everyone involved was academics. Rugby would not take precedence over academics. Training schedules would work around academic schedules. Player welfare, and student welfare, was paramount.
Working for the Long Term
That attitude allowed the program to turn the corner and become Varsity in the fall of 2016, with Tui Osborne brought in as Head Coach and Danny Neighbour as Assistant Coach. Of course, things didn’t happen overnight. That was part of the plan. They weren’t going to parachute in players and they weren’t going to play in a lower division to pile up wins. Instead they played in the Rugby East, one of the toughest conferences in the college game.
So over the next four years Bonnies had a losing record overall. That might seem not so great but the losses were to teams such as Army, Navy, Notre Dame College, Kutztown, and Penn State. Those tough games every week were honing a team and coaching staff to more success.
Meanwhile, they were developing how it all would operate. The University provided athletic trainers and strength & conditioning support, and the players had mandatory study hall. They paid for coaches, but others came in as volunteers to help the program. But what the University doesn’t do is provide scholarships. Any aid the players get is the same merit or need aid that other students get; there is the actual alumni scholarship program, which isn't school funded, and there are some partial athletic scholarships, but everyone pays to attend.
“That is the only was to make it sustainable,” said Kelly. “Our student-athletes pay tuition and our University recognizes that our program generates revenue. I’ve seen schools give free rides to students who never give back or never come back. Our goal is to create well-rounded student-athletes who have a great college experience.”
St. Bonaventure is a heavily-USA team, but not exclusively so. Players can come from all over, and this year’s team comes from 13 different states and eight different countries. The expectation is the same for all—be a great student first. Many of the overseas students, Manu Taula is an example, came to the USA as high-schoolers, not just for college.
Now a Contender
Following the 2019 fall season Bonnies was idle for the following year thanks to COVID.
The next year was the first season in which the entire team was made up of players recruited by Osborne, Neighbour, and Kelly. There was no mixing of club and varsity; everyone there had bought into what the coaching staff was doing, and it showed. Bonnies went 4-0 in preseason matches before losing to Navy by only four points. They lost the next week, too, to a West Point team that would go on to be D1A champs in the spring.
After that St. Bonaventure reeled off wins over Penn State, Notre Dame College, Kutztown, Mary Washington, Kutztown again, and Penn State again, this time in the inaugural NCR D1 final.
