When Valor Christian said it would enter a team in the new Colorado Interscholastic Rugby Association, heads turned.

Valor has a long history of winning state championships in many sports; it's a school people in Colorado know of well. So the presence of Valor was a boost to the league in its inaugural season, and even more so as Valor competed well. They didn't win games, but they weren't steamrolled, either. The development of the program was also good news to Guy Mumford, a rugby-playing and -coaching dad of two Valor Christian daughters who had been making the case for rugby at the school for some years.

Mumford, finally, got his wish and is coaching the team now. All that remains is to recruit more players and ... to win. Well they got the latter last week.

Valor Christian played Monarch last week and the game ended tied 33-33. Coaches Chris Hanson and Mumford got together and said, yes, overtime would be nice. Perhaps surprisingly, it was Valor that scored the winning try, and took home its first victory 40-33.

"We got a very good response from the school and with the Headmaster and Athletic Director behind the team, I think we can really build something," Mumford told Goff Rugby Report. "We finally cracked it this year and this last game we put in a really good team effort. The players are young but they have the hunger and they are learning quickly."

Parents are starting to understand the game and more and more kids are getting interested, and at Valor, winning means something.

Tucker Lane, one of the older players on the team, scored 25 points for Valor, including the game-winner. Reece Macewan scored three tries on the day. Captain Jack Zillian has been another senior leader who has been crucial on a squad of mostly freshmen and sophomores. Junior and Vice Captain Rylan Palmer, who plays flanker and hooker, was another important part of the team, leading the forward pack that had plenty of work to do against a heavier Monarch pack.

All of them contributed to that first Valor win.

"If felt my boys had the momentum," said Mumford. He could have been talking about something bigger than just one game. They have work to do for sure—recruiting especially—but Valor Christian has taken a step.