Will St Thomas Upset the D1AA Apple Cart?

“We already knew we fell behind because of a lot of penalties so we just needed to take care of the ball and not do a lot of stuff inside our 22,” said lock Maxi Testero after the game. “So just manage the ball and kick out, and it worked. We managed to get in front the first half.”

This was, of course, a preseason game for St. Thomas. They have the Florida D1AA season coming up. So while they have played a couple of warmup games beforehand, the match with Ohio State was still a buildup game for the season.

“It was a really big statement to us. As we’re looking to move up to D1A in [fall] 2025, we wanted to show that we are here and we’re a serious team,” added hooker Daniel Crawford.

There are still things to fix. With such a dynamic team with so much team speed, they can smooth over issues. Against a savvy forward pack like Ohio State’s, St. Thomas struggled with penalties around the ruck and, added flanker Jobe Knapton, “we crowded around the ruck too much.”

That was because they had to work a little harder to win ball there. That was a lesson they learned well in the game against the Buckeyes, as they spread out better and organized better in the second half and the tries started to flow. 

All of that led to them using Charumbira, Tshepany Matubatuba, and player of the game Noku Mukumba, among others, to exploit gaps.

“It’s ridiculous,” said flanker Owen Phillips. “Everyone’s got different coaching from different parts of the world and we’re all bringing it together to make it special. They really, really are.”

It’s easy to point out that a number of the St. Thomas players are from overseas. And that’s true. The team that beat Ohio State had 15 players from outside the USA: Five from Argentina, four from Zimbabwe, and players also from New Zealand, England, Namibia, Serbia, and South Africa. But it’s worth pointing out that one of those Argentinians played for the main feeder HS program for St. Thomas, the Okapi Wanderers in South Florida.

And they do recruit heavily from Florida, so it’s an international program with a distinctly local flavor.

And it’s a team that expects to do well this year, and could be, when all is said and done, in that “who’s the best?” conversation.

“We want a challenge,” said Phillips. “We are trying to challenge ourselves and push ourselves every day. This game against Ohio State was a challenge, but we want bigger challenges.”