Rugby Texas DII Boys HS has a new cowboy in town as Timber Creek has begun to roll through that competition.

The new school team, coached by Shon Husband, has powered past its initial DII opposition, and even beat ranked DI team St. Pius X (albeit, not the Pius 1st team).

“We started with two players who had played rugby before,” said Husban. “They’d practiced with another team in the area, and wanted to start a team at Timber Creak.”

Those players contacted Husband, who was known in the area as a good rugby coach, and Husband put it back on the players.

“I told them ‘if you put forth the effort I will replicate that effort,’” Husband told Goff Rugby Report. “They convinced me they were serious in putting in the effort. We had 41 kids at the first meeting and we started touch rugby in October, and began with ten players and ended with 20. Once the football season was over we started regular rugby practices, we grew from there.”

They haven’t lost a game yet.

“I understand why we needed to start in the 2nd division,” said Husband, “but we’ve got some tremendous athletes. Their athleticism compensates for their lack of rugby knowledge.”

Husband is a former football, track, and lifting coach, and so knows how to speak to non-rugby athletes. He has tailored his approach as a result, simplifying the game for the players. For example, understanding that reading when to kick and when not to kick is a learned skill, and offsides on a kick is a common problem for new players, Timber Creek doesn’t kick - ever. 

“We make a lot of mistakes,” said Husband. “We’re giving up penalties at a four-to-one ration. But we’re making tremendous progress every week and I would like to see how we stack up against some of the DI teams.”

The Timber Creek players who are showing well including prop Brady Jackson, who is 6-1, 260 and as fast as some of the backs. He is also just about perfect on conversion kicks, and scored a 75-meter try against Strake Jesuit. Landon Hensarling is a physical and fast flanker. Joel Serralde is an excellent passer at flyhalf and is among the team-leaders in tries, scoring more than two a game.

It’s a start for this single-school program. They are senior-heavy, but the initial success is getting notice at the school, and HUsband seems to have hit on a way to get players unfamiliar with the game playing good rugby quickly.