Green Bay defeated Pulaski 44-17 win the Wisconsin Youth Rugby boys final Saturday, capping off another undefeated season.
This is the third straight state final for the Leprechauns. However, the games have become more and more competitive over the years. Gone are the major blowouts as more clubs have clawed their way out of COVID disruptions and bolstered heir numbers.
"The Wisconsin league is improving," said Green Bay coaching staff member Matt Goetsch. "The number of players on each team is up; many of the teams were still pretty young but developing. There were more B-side games this year than I can remember in the last 10 years. Wisconsin’s middle school tackle league continues to grow and develop kids to move into high school and help raise the level of play and most of the better high school teams have a youth program associated with them. This will be the difference in the years to come and I expect next year to be very competitive."
With new teams coming on, the teams that invest in youth will continue to improve.
This is the blueprint followed by Green Bay; this year's team featured nine players that won the middle school championship in 2019.
Captains James Rose (flyhalf) and Jonah Goetsch (inside center) were excellent leaders. Rose has an impressive scoring rate with tries and kicking for goals—his 24 points in the final capped his season at 157 points in total, just three points short of a perfect 20 points per game. Goetsch, meanwhile, was the team's defensive leader as well as logging eight tries.
Sophomore Mo Martinez was outstanding at scrumhalf while wing Austin Blevins and center DJ Van Lanen each scored five tries this season. Several players new to the game also contribued, including Isaac Powell who was scoring more than a try per game before injury sidelines him. The smallest player on the team, Gavin Glime, was fearless and hugely effective in his open-field tackles from the fullback position.
