Inaugural Rugby Game for Trine this Weekend
Inaugural Rugby Game for Trine this Weekend
New varsity program Trine University opens up its account this coming weekend with a warmup game against Purdue.
Both Indiana-based teams have big goals for this season. Purdue has been gently pushing within the Big 10 to finish higher and have a good shot at shaking up what is fast becoming a very competitive conference from top to bottom. This will be a good test for a more experienced Boilermaker side.
For Trine, this is their first runout, ever. The program was put together last year with the support of USA 7s star Joe Schroeder, who went to Trine but was a cheerleader, not a rugby player (he played rugby in high school for Royal Irish).
Trine played no games but brought in Danny Breda as Head Coach and got started putting together a roster.
What Breda has put together we will see on Saturday.
"Things are looking good," Breda told Goff Rugby Report. "We a have mix of experienced young players, experienced upper classmen, and inexperienced upper classmen who left other sports spread pretty evenly in our group of about 25. Excited to see how everyone reacts to a live game."
It's a project for sure and there is nothing like a live game to give players an idea of what the game is about. The past experience of some of the players will be key, especially in the early going.
"I’m sure some lightbulbs will go off after the first 20 minutes," said Breda. "The goal for this fall for me personally was to get a 15s team on the field this fall and we will do that Saturday."
It wil be a short turnaround for Trine after this game as they play their Great Lakes Conference opener against a tough Central Michigan side on Friday, September 9. Trine is a varsity program, but in its opening year will be in a D2 conference, playing a full slate of Great Lakes games.
Kickoff is 5PM at Trine University's Aurora, Ind. campus.
