The first leg of the three-game Commander-in-Chief Trophy kicks off Friday evening at the US Naval Academy as Navy hosts Air Force.

The three major service academies - Navy, Air Force, and Army - will meet each other through the season. Army takes on Air Force in November, and Army and Navy face off in March, and the winner of the series takes the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. Last year, Army swept their games to win the series.

But the games are always close, and Friday’s game is expected to be. Air Force arrives in Annapolis with a new coach in Denny Meredith in charge. 

“We want to take Air Force back to the upper level of the college game,” said Meredith. “In 2003-2004 Air Force was one of the premier teams in college rugby. We want to get back there. Coach Joe Muehlbauer set the foundation for us and now we’re trying to build on it.”

Air Force takes a young team to face Navy, with only four seniors on the squad. They do return James Hanley and Ben Burmester as key leaders, but will miss the playmaking ability of Victor Wu at scrumhalf. 

“We are working our way up to playing at a high level,” said Meredith. “We have the athletes and some impressive young players. I think Navy is really a good test to show how long we can play at that level.”

Navy Head Coach Mike Flanagan, of course, is very pleased to welcome a fellow service academy to his home field. Flanagan’s Navy team is coming off an impressive defeat of Dartmouth.

“As with every inter-service match there are huge bragging rights at stake,” said Flanagan. “They got us out there last year and we got them at the CRC. I’m sure both see this is an opportunity to get even.”

Also at stake in this game is the Shea Cup, named after Lt. Col. Kevin Shea, who was a US Marine but graduated from the Air Force Academy before also coaching rugby at Navy. Shea was killed in action in Iraq in 2004.

That trophy means a lot to both programs.

“We want it back,” said Flanagan.