 "Photo: THE REVIEW/Samantha Mancuso")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Jim Lewis")
Following a rough 2-5 season last year, the Delaware Men’s Rugby club team set out to “pay back” their rivals as they stepped onto the field to start this year. So far, so good.
The team has played seven games thus far this season and has come out victorious in all of them. They have beaten Kutztown, Penn State and Navy, three of their biggest and most talented rivals in the league. Week by week the team has continued to move up in the Rugbymag.com rankings, bringing them to the No. 2 spot.
Head coach Bjorn Haglid said that the students have come together and created a strong and cohesive team.
“They have learned to trust and believe in each other and they do what needs to be done to secure the win,” Haglid said.
Rugby is quite different from other college sports. Most athletes have been playing their sport for years but when it comes to rugby, many never play until they get to college, Haglid said. This being the case, they have quite a bit of catching up to do from the very beginning.
“We have to try to squeeze 10 years of required experience in any other sport into a couple of months,” Haglid said.
That catching up has come easily to this year’s team. Players and coaches are attributing much of their success to their ability to play together as a team.
“Everybody has a lot of heart,” team captain Jarett Brotz said. “We’ve worked a lot harder outside of practice as individuals and during practice as a team. This is the closest team I have ever been a part of.”
A few years ago, the team had a season similar to the current one. When graduation came in May, however, many of those players who contributed to the team’s achievements left. They had to rebuild themselves and improve together. While it didn’t work out so well last year, this time around has proved quite different.
“We knew we had six months to prepare for this fall and we went out and did just that – and it’s paying off,” Brotz said.
“The team has been practicing harder than I’ve ever seen – four or five days a week instead of just three,” senior 8-man and president Mike “Chief” Levin said. “We didn’t expect to be this good.”
The 20-19 road win over Navy on Oct. 23 was huge for the Hens. The game was critical as neither team had lost a game yet, and it was especially important to Delaware because they had never beaten the Midshipmen. After the sour taste the team had in their mouths from last year, they were on a mission to change that.
“We took this game to be just like any other,” Brotz said. “We knew we had to work hard during that week and we concentrated on the basics.”
In preparation for the game, the team sent one man down to Annapolis for the Navy game the week before. This was done in order to obtain film so Delaware could watch and learn about the Midshipmen's style of play. It is a practice much more common in football and in retrospect, Haglid said that it was a key strategic move.
Delaware came out strong in the first half with a 13-point lead. As the game went on, Navy was able to score 19 points, leaving the Hens at a 6-point deficit. As the time dwindled down to a mere 10 minutes, Delaware was able to score once more, allowing them to jump ahead and ultimately beat out Navy.
Haglid helps to keep the team loose.He can be seen at games in his signature outfit– a suit jacket and short rugby shorts.
“He’s more than just a coach to us. He is a mentor, a friend, someone we can go to in any situation,” Brotz said about Haglid. “He does so much for us as an organization and volunteers so much of his time."
The team is hoping to finish out the season undefeated.
“Our eyes are on the playoffs in March,” Brotz said.
If the team gets there, they will need to win one game to get invited to nationals.
“We’re good but we’re not at the point yet where we can say we’re as good as we can be – there’s always room for improvement," Brotz said.
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