Marian sees hard-hitting flanker JD Farrell graduate but return Zivan Mynhardt, Tommaso Lorenzetti, Clay Peters, Sebastian Conley, Blake Fincher, Eric Reed, Billy Reiter, Lucas Pacheco, and Zach White. Also coming back is big, jovial prop Alex Hernandez who declared for the MLR draft but will be able to finish off the fall season.

“We are excited for all incoming players,” enthused Head Coach John Harley. “We had several recruits who played with the Midwest Thunderbirds in June and then also participated in NAI 7s. I expect our upcoming rugby season to be very promising with several key players returning to provide strong leadership and experience. Additionally, the influx of new talent should bring fresh energy and dynamics to the team. Together, I believe, we can build on our strengths and enhance our overall performance, aiming for a successful season both on and off the field.”

The big wild card is probably Iowa Central CC, which is a two-year school and so has to reload on a faster schedule than most. Witness McGargill above finishing up his two years and transferring to a four-year institution. They do returnTakudzwa Musingwini, Koen Webb, Gavin Oleson, Tyler Gast, Devyn Farrell, and Jonah Goetsch, while Head Coach Brent Nelson is careful about his recruiting class. 

But, added Nelson, “very excited about the upcoming season. We are looking to build off the momentum from the 4th place finish at the CRCs. We also return a significant amount of forwards who have been training in the offseason. The leadership role is going to be a collective effort from our returners and this is a strength for us. There is a very good culture going here and the newcomers have a lot to look forward to as they settle into their roles.”

The Big Rivers has expanded this year to eight teams with Trine moving in as a full member (as opposed to playing a development schedule last year). As a result the Big Rivers has been split into two halves, with the East including Rio Grande, Thomas More, Trine, and Wheeling and the West being populated by Marian, Principia, Iowa Central, and Aquinas. Each team will play three league games before their conference playoffs and then, they hope, more playoff games within the NCR postseason.

Several of the teams, then, will need warmup games to build toward the conference games. Those warmup games will be crucial in getting them polished enough to succeed in conference play

Marian has Purdue, Notre Dame, Kentucky, and Rio Grande on the warmup schedule. Wheeling will play Davenport, Thomas More takes on Ohio State, Walsh, and Tennessee. Rio Grande plays Tennessee and Indiana, as well as Marian, while Iowa Central warmups with Iowa State, Southern Nazarene, and Arkansas State. Principia plays Lindenwood, Aquinas plays Purdue, and Trine plays Benedictine, Michigan, and Adrian.

Fall 2024 Big Rivers regular season schedule: