Today, (9/23) your UT Dallas Men's Rugby Club traveled to Fort Worth to take on Texas Christian University (TCU) in a scrimmage.
     It's been a good number of years since I last saw TCU play rugby, but I've been following their progress through the years.  TCU competed in the Southwest Rugby Conference and now compete in the Red River Rugby Conference in a DIA competition.  But since it was early in the season and the TCU coach was gracious enough to schedule our men to take on his guys for the sake of experience, I was all part of that.
     Originally, the ladies of UT Dallas was also going to play the TCU Women in a scrimmage, but the match had to be cancelled due to the fact that TCU Women's Rugby had folded.  This really hurt the Lady Comets because they are biting at the bit to play a game against someone other than their own teammates.  I'll see if I can find something for them in the upcoming weekend.  I'll keep you posted via this web site.
     The men were at the field, listening to Assistant Coach Pete Santos with pre-match instructions.  Coaches Bear and Daniel had prior family commitment to attend.
     Since the guys are still rather new, I'm still having difficulties remembering who they are.  So upon final role call, I found that we had 37 players ready to either begin their rugby career or think they can roll over anyone that steps on the pitch.  I know players (at least the brand new players) don't think that, but I know a good number of the returning players might have that thought running through their minds.
    But rugby is a game that's played on the field with 15 players from 2 clubs, and the winner will be the club that scores more points.  We had originally agreed to play four 20 minute quarters and that's what we did.
    Everyone got to play at least 1 quarter, some got more time than they imagined, but it was all for the sake of learning the game.
     I will say that I am extremely proud of how this club played today.  Each one of the returning players and the new players who played in high school all played very well, but it was the brand new to the game new players that stepped up. It is these players that will carry on the legacy of UT Dallas after the juniors and seniors leave to UT Dallas to pursue work or maybe continue to play for a men's club. 
     Since this was a friendly match and doesn't mean anything for our standings, we had way too many players that played well, but I will say that each week after our matches.  I get with the coaches and decide on a "Man of the Match" this usually goes to a player who has played above his or her abilities.  Not always does this go to the best player, but this weekend to begin this, our Honorable Mention goes out to Andrew Pallet who played one heck of a game from his Flanker position. 
      But the "Man of the Match" went to a new player who had scored his very first Try of his young collegiate career in playing in his 3rd game, Calvin Lones was the "Man of the Match".  With this award, he gets to wear an old Scotland Rugby Jersey with Man of the Match painted on the front and back.  In other words, he gets to show everyone that he plays rugby and is a force not to be messed with on the pitch.
      Next weeks match is a league opener for the Men, they open their league season playing Prairie View A&M.  The match will kick off between 6:15 and 6:30pm next Saturday, Sept. 30th at UT Dallas.
      I don't know much about Prairie View A&M except that they are mostly ex footballers and while their rugby skills may not be there (at least this was the case last year) they proved to be a formidable due to their athleticism and it could be the same next weekend.  This is a club that could be very dangerous both on the ground and in the air.  So, we shall not take them lightly.  If I find out any more about Prairie View, I'll post it to this web site.

     Saturday, Sept. 16th officially kicked off the men's rugby season, by competing in the Dust your boots off tournament in San Antonio. 
      The UT Dallas Rugby Club began their season with an opening match against Stephen F. Austin (SFA) and it was a very good match.  The guys went out and played very well, and while the final results of the games was not a priority, we did put more Trys on the board than SFA.
      The next 3 matches were against 3 Tier 1 clubs in the Lonestar Conference, Texas State (TxSt), UT San Antonio (UTSA) and Angelo St. (ASU).  These were all good matches and we did score at least a Try in each of the games except the ASU match.
      The results from the 4 matches was that we found a good number of guys that are ready to fill positions on our club and other players need to work a bit more work.  But that is to be expected since the guys had only had 2 weeks of practice learning their positions.
      Those are things that we'll begin and continue to work on as the season begins to take shape. 
      The UT Dallas Women's Rugby Club has been working hard learning the game and I'm very proud of their work habits and how they want to learn the game.
      Next week, the Women take the pitch against TCU in a friendly match to see how what they have learned.  The Men also will be scrimmaging TCU in our last ffriendly match before our league season begins.  I am currently waiting for information from TCU on the address and times the games will be played.  As soon as I get that info I'll post it to this web site.
     Go Comets rugby. 

    Classes started 2 weeks ago and we've completed 2 weeks of practice.  It's been quite interesting, we began with about 45 guys and 8 girls, but Kayla (the women's President) states we have about 15 girls.  That's still waiting to be seen.
     Since we began practice we've been running 4 stations complete with tackling, passing, defensive skills and conditioning and we've been doing pretty good and we're discovering the players that want to play rugby for UT Dallas. 
      With this new season, let me introduce the club officers.  As I mentioned 2 paragraphs above Kayla Killbury is the Women's President.  Brandon Hernandez is the Men's President and with the help of those 2 we plan on taking both the men and women into competition.
      The coaches for our season is basically the same, John "Bear" Hinson is still my Assistant Head Coach and coaching the forwards.  Daniel Stewart is back as Assistant Coach working with the Backs.  Jonathan Holmes is also back as my Assistant Head Coach for the Women.  I have been in communication with Alyssa Gelman who may take on a role as an Assistant Coach helping the women, but this is still up in the air, as soon as I am able to secure things and people, I'll make that public.
      Beginning with the Women's program, our girls UT Dallas Women's Rugby will compete in Tier 2 competition.  This competition will have 5 clubs all playing 12's or 10's rugby in a series of 4 league matches.  There will be a championship match to determine that champion later in the November.
       The men began the summer ready to compete in Tier 1, but with a late addition to this Tier, it was decided and voted by the guys to drop to Tier 2.  A competition that should be more in line with our players.  This is and should be a conference that suits our club very well and games we should be competitive.
       It is going to be a busy year for both the men and women, but I feel that some of the incoming freshmen along with a good number of returning players.  This could be and should be a very exciting season, one that could rival the likes of our first 2 seasons in the league.
      Our schedule is posted on this web site and there is one small change, the players clinic probably will not happen due to a lack of participation from not only our club, but the other clubs around the league.  The other change will be the Dust your Boots off Tournament in Austin.  This year St. Edward's University will not be hosting the tournament, so Shayne is working on finding a club willing and able to host it.  As soon as I know more info again I'll post it.