Three victories, three blowouts for Spring Hill in the Deep South, with the latest being a dominate 51-3 decision over ranked South Alabama.

For Head Coach Justin Goonan, it’s just the beginning. Spring Hill College is is a Catholic college in Alabama and has spent some time chasing the likes of Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana Tech. But elevation to Club status, which at Spring Hill is an elevated status higher than rec sports and under the aegis of the athletic department, has started to attract some rugby players, and given the program a boost.

“These are exciting times,” said Goonan. “The players are motivated and they’re full of positive energy. We still have some kinks to work out but we’re making adjustments and getting better.”

With 11 freshmen in the squad, the Badgers have to bring the newbies along slowly, but not so slowly that they don’t contribute. And in fact, the Spring Hill program is fairly freshman-heavy. Part of that has been the shift to Club status; it means being less of a social team, and because of that some players had to pull away. The new players know what’s expected.

“As the program has become more competitive we are asking more from the guys,” said Goonan. “The players are learning what that means.”

Spring Hill still has some important senior leadership. Halfback Eric Miniclier is in his fourth year and has taken on a leadership role not only on the field, but off as well in terms of being an administrator. Center Ryan Flynn out of Brother Rice in Chicago is a junior with plenty of rugby experience whose rugby intelligence rubs off on the younger players. High-scoring No. 8 Jacob Campos is a power at the back of the scrum.

Among the freshmen, Wesley Grace out of Memphis has switched to rugby this year and done it fairly easily. Prop Nick Balante, out of St Edward in Ohio, is a freshman with tons of promise.

All of it is fitting together nicely. Spring Hill is 3-0 with 145 points scored and only 47 given up. And while they still have tough opposition in Tulane and Southern Mississippi coming up, they look to be in very good shape to claim one of the two spots in the Deep South final.

“We’re not thinking about that yet,” said Goonan. “Of course we’d like to be in the playoffs. But right now we’re taking it week-by-week, and we’ll keep on doing that.”

Like he said, these are exciting times. 

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