Georgetown University Rugby Football Club

Georgetown Hoyas
Full name Georgetown University Rugby Football Club
Union USA Rugby
Nickname(s) Hoya Ruggers
Founded 1967
Region Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union
Ground(s) Multi-Sport Field (Capacity: 2,500)
President Carter Rise
Coach(es)

Head Coach
Scott Zavrel

Assistant Coaches
Arno van der Spek
Jack Sheridan

Conor Shea
Captain(s) Chen Han
League(s) Chesapeake Collegiate Rugby Conference
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.georgetownrugby.org

The Georgetown University Rugby Football Club is the intercollegiate men's rugby union team that represents Georgetown University in the USA Rugby league. They have twice reached the USA Rugby National Tournament Final Four, in 2005 and 2009.

Early history

The Georgetown Rugby Football Club (GURFC) was founded in the spring semester of 1967 by former members of the Washington D.C. Rugby Football Club. The founder was a Georgetown University Law student Michael Murphy. In the early history of the club, GURFC fielded both an “A” and “B” sides, while occasionally mustering the numbers for a “C” side. The team played a variety of teams in its early years including UVA, the Washington RFC, the Baltimore RFC and the Quantico Marines RFC. The team also the University of Notre Dame as well as a visiting university team from Chile. In the fall of 1968, GURFC hired its first coach to the program, which only lasted until the Spring. During this time, John Clisham worked as the club president and Kevin Sullivan acted as Social Secretary.

In the Fall of 1985, Georgetown Rugby set on a self-directed course in the PRU. Under the coaching / playing leadership of Dave Pegno (and his housemates), the team rallied through a building season that was to be foundational for the long list of championships and accolades to come post 1985. The leadership torch was passed to up and coming underclassman - Jim Thompson from New Zealand, Doug Brown from New Jersey and Tom Gletner from Maryland to guide the team through a rough transitional period. It was known as the protectorate period. Completing a .500 season in 1986 - the team began to gel as a true unit in 1987. After monumental victories over all PRU challengers - GU secured the regular season PRU championship in 1987 and dropped a 13-10 decision to Salisbury State in the league challenge match championship. Building on success - the team began to roll with undefeated season play in 1989 under the guidance of president / captain Doug Brown and PRU all-star Dan Kirk. The 1990 team featured 5 PRU all-stars and took advantage of Springbok coaching expertise from Heyn van Rooyen and Theo van Wyk.

Georgetown graduate students have played on the Georgetown Law Rugby Football Club since 2005. Current USA Rugby rules prevent graduate students from playing on the official university teams, despite the fact that most collegiate rugby clubs in the nation were started by graduate students. Despite its name, the Georgetown Law RFC is open to all Georgetown graduate programs.

Evolution of the Officers

In the early days of the club, the “officers” consisted of a scrum captain, a backs captain, a president, a VP/Treasurer, and a secretary. The 5 "officers" would determine the A, B, and C side rosters each week. In 1970-1971, John Kelly was president, Jack Schmidt was the (Match) Secretary, Joe Pulosi and Mike (Last Name Unknown) were the captains, and Leonard Natoli, Jr. served as the Vice President/Treasurer. At the time, the Vice President/Treasurer had the best job of all, which was to set up the weekly party. The officers have remained relatively unchanged over time except for the division of the duties of Vice President and Treasurer into the three posts of Treasurer, Vice President, and Social Chair. Along the way, it was deemed necessary to separate the Social activities from the Financial responsibilities.

The Rugby Ball End of the Year Party has been a tradition since the beginning of the club, and remains today as the primary means for selecting Team Officers. Each season, one player would vie for the coveted torch award granted for exceptional performance at away game road trips.

Recent Seasons

The 2001 fall season marked Georgetown's last year in Division I. The 2001 season was a building year for the team. The spring and fall 2002 seasons marked a new start for Georgetown that began with a last minute victory over Catholic University in the Capitol Cup tournament.

During the fall of 2002, Georgetown moved from Division I to Division II. They subsequently won the Potomac Rugby Union's Division II championship.

Since 2004, the Club has been a sponsor of the annual Run For Rigby to raise money for off-campus housing safety awareness.[1]

That same season, Georgetown shut out Salisbury University in the PRU championship, avenging their last minute loss to Salisbury in 2003.

The spring 2005 season marked Georgetown's championship run into Final Four of the USA Rugby National Tournament.

During the Spring 2009 season, Georgetown did not participate in the annual Capitol Cup tournament due to a scheduling conflict with the National D2 Playoffs.

Georgetown in 2009 by defeated #1 seed Cal Maritime, 20-17, in the quarterfinals to advance to the National D2 semifinals. This marks the second time in school history that the Hoya Ruggers have reached the Final Four of the USA Rugby National Tournament.

In 2013, the club formally organized a competitive Rugby Sevens side which placed 11th out of 24 teams in the Las Vegas Invitational. In 2014 the sevens team won the annual James River Christmas Sevens tournament in Richmond, VA in December. In February 2015, the side went on to win the Bowl Championship at the Las Vegas Invitational with a record of four wins and two losses.

1st XV 2016-2017

Position Name Nationality High School
1 Carter Rise United States St. Christopher's School
2 DJ Angelini United States Fenwick High School
3 Will Wrotniak United States Fordham Preparatory School
4 Ganzorig Batbold Mongolia HB Woodlawn
5 Marc Akinbi United States Wyoming High School
6 Andrew Van Hoek United States Fordham Preparatory School
7 James Kraunelis United States Boston College High School
8 Michael Ficca United States Gonzaga College High School
9 Julian Graham United Kingdom Wellington College
10 Charlie Sullivan United States Fordham Preparatory School
11 Cal Mullan United States Regis High School
12 Chen Han (C) China Thomas S. Wootton High School
13 Stephen Tigani United States Georgetown Preperatory School
14 Ryan Toomey United States Pingry School
15 Jake Figg United Kingdom Harrow School

Championships and Titles




Tournament Championships

References

  1. ↑ http://www.runforrigby.org/Run_for_Rigby/Sponsors.html
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.