Sports > November 17, 2005

By Jack Odell

Old Gold & Black Reporter

Although the coach and members of Rugby Football Club have spent the last few years working to rebuild a once struggling program, most people around the university and beyond have only recently taken note.

It is no coincidence that RFC has recently put themselves on the map for good.

After finishing a strong fall season, the club sent an astounding 10 members of the 35-member club to play for the North Carolina Rugby Union Collegiate All-Star team.

And if simply making the All-Star team is not enough, the representatives played well, too.

“I felt that all of the Wake players who were on the team played extremely well,” Coach Pat Kane said.

Unfortunately, the North Carolina team lost the first match to South Carolina, despite having an arguably more talented roster.

“I think we were all disappointed that we lost our first match to South Carolina,” Kane said. “We didn’t play well as a team.”

However, the North Carolina club did not give up after that one setback.

Instead, they brought their best game to the second match against a very tough Deep South team which consists of All-Stars from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

The North Carolina All-Stars won the match to prove their power in the southern region.

“I was glad that the Wake guys got to see some of the better college players that the South has to offer and recognize that these players, some of whom were All-Americans last year, are not all that much better than they are.

“Hopefully they will realize that playing at the highest level is not something that is out of their reach and this will inspire them to put in the extra effort necessary to reach that level,” Kane said.

Two members of the Wake Forest club are being considered as prospects for the South All-Star team.

Freshmen Javin Hutchinson and Matt Gottbrecht have a chance of being invited to the team tryout which determines the players that will represent the entire South in the National Collegiate All-Star championships in Colorado.

This tournament showcases the best college players in the nation and is used for selection for the All-American team.

These two players are unique in their own regard.

Hutchinson came as a surprise to the Wake Forest club when be joined the after coming to Winston-Salem from Nairobi, Kenya where he grew up playing the sport.

Gottbrecht is a success story in that he has only been playing rugby for three months and is already good enough to catch the eye of the All-Star coaches.

“They saw how good he was after only a short time playing the game and recognized the potential he has as he becomes more experienced and more familiar with the sports,” Kane said.

“So, they may invite him to the camp just to get him more exposure to a higher level of play with the expectation that he will be on the team in years to come.”

“Basically, even if neither Javin nor Matt make the South team this year, given the fact that they are only freshmen, I fully expect that both of them will be on the team in the next few years,” Kane added.

When asked if the increasing success of the Wake Forest club is due to his ten all-stars, Kane claimed that it was more passionate than that.

“The success of the Wake Forest team has been the result of the commitment to winning that the entire team, all 35 players, have shown,” he said.

“It is not necessarily the ability of any individual players. Yes, the skill of the players who were on the all-star team definitely makes us a better team than if we didn’t have those players, but those guys are only as good as their other teammates enable them to be.”

Kane expressed his happiness for the success of his all-star players, but remained focused on the future of the entire Wake Forest club.

“The future of Wake rugby is extremely bright. Our goal for the spring season is to win the South championship for our division and advance to the East Coast Championship,” he said.

He then reinforced the necessity for the continued work ethic that led to their success in the fall season.

“If the players put in the necessary training work on their own during the off-season, there is no reason that we shouldn’t accomplish this goal.”