Photo by: Clare King
The Pioneer club rugby team closed out their first season at the Division I level with mixed emotions.
The season concluded with a bitter sweet victory over in-state rival Colorado college, following a long season full of poor results due to inexperience.
“This year was tough, we started six freshman out of fifteen players, so we lacked the size and experience at the beginning of the season,” head coach Allan Wilson said.
Rugby is a sport that has an unique challenge, because there is a serious learning curve for athletes that are new to playing rugby, and often have had no exposure to the sport in any way.
Sophomore captain Johno Oberly emphasized this point, noting that the effort put forth by the team triumphed the results on the scoreboard, especially those early in the season.
“The scores and results early in the season did not reflect the effort and hard work that we were putting in, we were a hairsbreadth away from being serious contenders at the division I level. However, now I am absolutely proud of how our freshman have developed,” said Oberly.
The Pioneers have focused on progression of the club, making the final 43 – 30 win over bitter rival Colorado College a sweet victory, following their struggles.
“It sure felt great to put points on the board,” said Oberly.
Wilson echoed similarly positive sentiments, “we proved ourselves, we scored over one hundred points combined in our final two games against Colorado School of Mines and Colorado College. We are obviously a young team that has a lot of upside, in our spring season we started to believe that we can win – as we became more confident and got more game experience. We finished strongly and now are looking forward to a strong incoming class next year, with three to five premiere high school players.”
Oberly also voiced his excitement for next season.
“I have no fear leaving the team in our young player’s hands as I study abroad in the fall, and I am pumped to see what we can do next spring season,” he said.
