Men's rugby beefs up team with rookies, staff

By Margo Consul

With approximately 30 new rookies and a veteran squad that has been together for the past four seasons, the men's rugby team is looking for a national championship this season.

"We've never conditioned like this before in terms of preparing for the season," scrumhalf J.P. Goethals said. "We are going into the season a lot different than we ever have."

The goals for this season: to go undefeated, make it to the playoffs and win a national championship.

Two seasons ago, the team went undefeated in the regular season and advanced to the playoffs where they were knocked out by Utah Valley University 24-17.

Last season, the team went 7-6 despite being plagued with injuries.

"Ideally we are going to be at our top point of strength by that time as the season starts," Goethals said. "We are trying to stay away from injury. That's kind of been the story of our past few seasons so we're making sure everyone is in top shape when we get there, by the time seasons starts to get things rolling."

Over the summer the team hired new coaches to add talent to their coaching staff.

Fourth year Head Coach Chris Kron wanted to turn this team into a program and is looking to new coaches Jim Gaines and Gabe Calebotta to help him achieve that goal.

The team brought in Gaines, honored as an All- American in 2004, to work specifically with the rookies to get them to understand the game.

Calebotta played at and coached University of California Santa Barbara, where he earned Southern California Griffin All-Star honors as a Gaucho.

He is leading the conditioning for the veterans. They spend about an hour on fitness with Calebotta and then another 30 to 45 minutes with Kron, Goethals said.

Kron is a two-time collegiate All-American while at University of Arizona and a member of the United States National Team.

He was also a member of the 2001 US National Sevens team that made the semifinal match against Australia in the New Zealand International Sevens Tournament.

Furthermore, he was the head coach of the Sky Hawk All-Stars in 2005 and he is currently the head coach of the Stanford Seahawks Seven's program.

Assistant Coach Scott Rees, also in his fourth year with Santa Clara, began his rugby career at San Jose State as captain for two years and was also recognized as team MVP twice.

After graduation, Rees began playing for the San Jose Seahawks where he was named second side forward MVP five times and was also named the Seahawks team captain.

"We are turning it into a full-blown kind of thing," Goethals said. "We have one guy overlooking everything, and then we have individual coaching, just focusing on their expertise to keep things running smoothly, and that's been working really well with us."

The squad competed in the 12-team Slugfest tournament hosted by UC Santa Cruz on October 24.

Santa Clara went 2-2 on the day, beating regular season opponent Fresno State by a score of 22-8 and shutting out UC Davis 36-0.

"We had a tournament to have (the rookies) see the game and to get used to it and they ended up doing really well," Goethals said. "After one of the first games they played, they looked like they had been together for a year."

Last week, Goethals received of the 2009 Father Coz Award which pays tribute to Fr. Richard A. Coz, S.J., a club supporter for over 40 years. He reflected on his freshman year, remembering the impact the veterans had on him and his fellow first timers.

"I remember my freshman year we were running around and we had no clue what we were doing, and (the veterans) looked like they had a good head on their shoulders and played well," he said.

This year will be no different for a team that is looking to strengthen its abilities as a team as soon as possible.

"We are half and half," Goethals said. "You have us that know what it is all about and help them realize what you need to do to in order to be ready for a game and what types of things work and what types of things don't."

The Broncos are looking forward to combining their experience with their newcomers to make a deadly combination.

"It's their fresh attitude and our veteran aspects on things that come together so I would say we are in one of the best situations we could be in," Goethals said. "We are not just a young team. We are not just an old team. We are a combination of the two which you really need."

Contact Margo Consul at mconsul@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.

href_fmt="mallyjpg_fmt.jpegSanta Clara students roughhouse in the inflatable boxing ring during the festivities.by alan everitt--the santa clarahref_fmt="rugby%202_fmt.jpegSanta Clara looks to quickly integrate their rookies into the team's make-up in 2009.photo by sam juda for the santa clara