The Kingfishers rugby team is a relatively new one in the game and has already made a bit of a splash.

Coming out of St. Martin's Academy in Fort Scott, Kan., this boys boarding school is now in its third year of operation. After two years of struggling to get the team going, Kingfishers is starting to get a handle on it all. The young players who started as sophomores are now seniors leading the way, and this is the first year the team has had played from all four classes on the squad.

"We played a few matches each of the first two years, but as you can imagine, it was a pretty steep learning curve," said Head Coach Adam Taylor. With teams like St. Thomas Aquinas in Kansas, they have some work to do to get to that level, but a 73-0 defeat of Liberty on March 13 shows they are doing alright.

"We have just over 40 boys enrolled this year and have been able to field both an A and B side team this year," said Taylor, who took on the coaching role this year. He and assistant Ethan Visser intend to make Kingfishers a competitive team in the Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma-Nebraska region.

It will take work, but the kids at St. Martins are accustomed to hard work—the school even has its own farm that the students work on (and a pasture where the rugby team sometimes practices). 

Coming up for Kingfishers are the Kansas City Junior Blues this week and Aquinas, Cougars, and St. James Academy in the following weeks. Keep an eye on them.