Denver may well be the final DII swoop from the Notre Dame College Falcons, as the men’s program is slated to move up to DI after the 7s championships, and the women’s team is expected to move up to DI after this coming Saturday’s DII spring final against UC Riverside.

The moves come after a somewhat tumultuous spring, with Men’s Head Coach Brian McCue leaving over what he saw as a lack of financial commitment by the school to the rugby teams. Inaction at the top led McCue to leave, but since his leaving, the school has made moves to address some of McCue’s concerns - for example, the men’s and women’s teams had, in the past, practiced at the same time on the same field; in the future they will be treated like other sports and have separate practice times. In addition, more funding has been put into the program to pay assistants, as the men's and women's programs have been separated, a la other sports (you don't have a Director of Volleyball at most schools).

And while NDC hasn’t jumped on McCue’s push for a Center for Rugby Excellence, Director of Athletics Scott Swain said that rugby, bolstered by recent successes for both teams, has a place on campus.

“NDC is completely committed to Men’s and Women’s Rugby and their success,” Swain told Goff Rugby Report. “I am excited for the upcoming trips to Denver and Atlanta for our teams.  I am confident that Jason Fox and Mark Andrade will bring Rugby success to NDC for years to come.”

Andrade continues to coach the women’s team, while Fox, who was an assistant coach for the men’s team, was moved into an interim head coach position, and is now the long-term head coach.

“I think things were moving slower than Brian wanted,” Andrade said of the coaching change. “But we’re changing things to be on a part with other sports, like soccer. The college recognizes that as a growing program we need some support for that growth.”

Will we see more of this in the future? St. Joseph's v NDC in Las Vegas. Notre Dame could join St. Joe's in the Keystone. David Barpal photo.

“The school really stepped up,” added Fox, who is likely to bring on a paid assistant. “We’re building a staff, and we’ve got over 40 high school teams in the area. We have kids coming out of high school with eight years of rugby experience. We have so much opportunity for growth.”

It won’t be easy. It’s possible Notre Dame College didn’t realize that the programs would compete on the national stage so quickly. Certainly travel budgets are stretched - the women’s team will play in the DII final, but not the women’s 7s championships. The men’s 7s team, having qualified for the DII bracket, will take a winding road trip through Lamont, Ill., where they will scrimmage the Chicago Blaze, and Omaha, Neb., where again they will scrimmage local clubs, before making it to the Mile High City. Bonding experience or hard slog - or both - the value of that trip will be seen in Denver.

“We were really clicking,” said Fox of his team’s victory at the Mid-Atlantic 7s, which qualified the Falcons for Denver. “The kids understood what we were trying to do. Ronan Forestall was our MVP, but the real MVP was the team - they played seven-man rugby across the board.”

Having played in the CRC qualifier in Las Vegas, where they surprised many by making the quarterfinals before losing in the Plate Final, and playing in their own NDC Falcons 7s DI qualifier, the team has learned a lot, said Fox. It’s fair to say that the school is learning a lot about rugby, too.

What conference Notre Dame’s men’s team will play in remains to be confirmed. It seems as if the Keystone is a good fit, having lost WVU to Rugby East, they could stand to have an 8th team. But we might see something different.

The women could well be in a conference of all NCAA varsity programs, if that concept has the legs some hope it does.

How it all shakes out, though, is dependent on how the Notre Dame College administration continues its support of the program. Maybe Brian McCue didn’t get what he wanted for the program, but maybe the program will get what it needs.