Every college rugby team wants to improve, but improvement doesn’t always come on a coach’s timetable.

In the 2013-2014 season, the University of Washington ended the season perhaps good enough to be the second-best team in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference. But an early-season, and very close, loss to Oregon, a team they later tied, consigned the Huskies to second in the NCRC West, meaning they faced up with Central Washington in the semis. That wasn’t easy, and they lost convincingly.

But UW got a competitive lifeline when they entered the Varsity Cup's new DIAA invitational bracket. They won out and took the title, beating Weber State, Idaho State, and Utah Valley in the process.

Now, with Head Coach Brian Schoener taking time away for family and Kevin Swiryn as Head Coach, the Huskies are looking to battle with Oregon and WSU for a spot in the NCRC final, and maybe more.

“We’re going to be young,” said Swiryn. “We graduated seven starters and 17 seniors in total. So we’ll be young, but this is going to be a developing year for us.”

That may be coach-speak to lower expectations (Swiryn is, after all, a former player for Tim O’Brien at St. Mary’s), Certainly UW is welcoming some impressive freshman players, including three impressive, athletic second rows who could form the backbone of the Husky tight five for several years.

“We might have eight starters who are freshmen or sophomores,” said Swiryn. “We are building on the experience we have.”

Swiryn is building on his experience as a coach. When he played in college he played for something of a high-flying St. Mary’s team. Swiryn said it’s an easy trap to fall into - trying to force your team into some image of what you want it to be.

“You have to adapt,” said Swiryn. “You cannot force kids to fit into your system. I learned that. Last year I tried to implement some things and they wouldn’t go, so we brought it way back - how you pass, what a ruck is. We got them to think on the little things. The first half of the year we were really tight, barely getting the ball outside of the flyhalf. Then at the end of the year we were scoring tries with the outside backs and had some nice moments. I think every year we are looking to building from the basics, and work with what we have.”