Collegiate Times

You may look at last season and see that through the first five games, the Virginia Tech men's rugby team failed to win one of those games, but there are reasons to believe that this upcoming season will be much different.

Although the men's rugby team had a tough season this past year, they will still look to last season as a building block and a learning experience.  

The players and coaches all have very good reason to be excited about the new season as the team will return all but one of its players from last season.        Team captain Frank Gohl discussed the expectations of the team heading into the upcoming season.  

"The expectations are always pretty high.  We are just out here to win; we've had a couple rough seasons and we are just looking to put some W's on the board," Gohl said.

Gohl also felt that team growth had been a big focus over the last couple years and growing as a team will play a large put in the team's success for this coming season.

"It's really been the last couple years that we've been working on having our team grow and having some manpower" Gohl said.  "Now that we have a big squad which is used to playing rugby together, we think that will help a lot."  

Having all but one player return to the rugby squad should aid tremendously in this growing process and should allow people to see the chemistry that has developed throughout the team.

Gohl believes that the team's stubbornness and work ethic will make the difference.

 "I think resilience, especially after the past couple seasons. Rugby is a tough sport and it's even tougher when you're losing, so I think the people that have stuck around are really committed, and we're better for it," Gohl said.

Gohl commented that in order to ensure success for this coming season, it would be imperative that they come together and play as a team.

 "I think it's important we come together as a squad, play as 15 people, but we need to make sure everyone knows their job and that they can trust anyone else who is on the field," Gohl said.

The men's rugby team has also been gaining notoriety among the mid-Atlantic region.  From North Carolina to Pennsylvania, people are becoming more and more interested in the Virginia Tech rugby program and want to be a part of it.  

 "Our exposure to a lot of the local high school teams here, in Pennsylvania, and North Carolina is pretty much unprecedented.  We are getting a record number of recruits with experience in North Carolina and Pennsylvania," said head coach Jon Conrad.

The fact that more and more people are becoming interested should be a sign that Tech's rugby program is growing at a fast pace and the future looks bright.

"A program that shows itself as being motivated will attract people and last year, in particular, was an indicator of that.  The more seriously we take the program, the better we will perform as a program," Conrad said.  

The rugby program, by many people's standards, may not have performed as well as they would have liked this past season.  

However, when you take a close look at their season you may realize that there was a turning point in which the team began to show glimpses of what they were capable of.  

"I think it was our last engagement in the spring," Conrad said.  "We had the Atlantic Coast Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., in which all but three ACC schools send their rugby teams to compete, and we performed very well.  We really clicked and kind of set the precedent for what we are going to see in the fall."  

The men will host their first home match against Delaware on Sept. 13, at noon.