It was an open subs pre-season game, but still one worth noting, as Olympus HS defeated TC Fusion 66-33 in Utah.

For many, Olympus, just in their second year of rugby, is at the very least a dark horse in the Beehive State, and could well be one of the main contenders.

“We’re getting there,” said Head Coach Blake Burdette, who was captain of the Olympus High School football team when he was a student before going on to play football and rugby at Utah. Those football contacts remain and it means the Olympus football team has provided many athletes to the rugby program - 14 of this past weekend’s 15 starters played varsity football for Olympus. 

“We have a chance to contend,” Burdette added, cautiously, and it seems so as Olympus led 44-7 against the Fusion before the subs ran in. Burdette said he needs to build depth, feeling that his front line team is solid, but the next level has work to do.

“Last year as our first year,” said the coach. “Now we have 65 kids coming out and we’re really excited about it. The school has bought in and the boys have bought in. We were able to make some strides in building our depth, and we wanted to see who could step up and play. We got some positives from the JV guys. They scored three tries, but they also gave up four, so I like what we’ve started, and we are still trying to get up to that elite level.”

Mason Draper, a 6-4 flanker who needs to up it to five or six meals a day to put meat on his 210-pound frame, is an all-region tight end and a solid flanker. Tyler Ringwood is a prop with much potential who is leading from the front, while center Quinn Meier is a talented center, and a junior.

It’s all still at the beginning, but Olympus has a shot, and has started well enough.

“There are some really good teams in this state and we’re just trying to play at tat level,” said Burdette. “The conference championship is the goal, and then we will see what we can do in the playoffs. We’ll see,”