Old Maroon members – please send in any pictures or commentary you may have regarding notable Texas A&M Rugby or Alumni in the rugby community. I will be sending out monthly newsletters.
Monthly Newsletter (beta) – June 2015
Texas A&M Rugby has officially wrapped up its Spring semester and season and Old Maroon has just received our slick jersey order in; we are gearing up for a summer of Social 7s.
Texas A&M Rugby’s 2014 – 2015 results:
In XVs, the Aggies went 4-1 in the Red River Rugby Conference, losing only to Oklahoma. The boys did not advance to play-offs; however, it was later discovered that OU had at least one ineligible player in our match with them so that match was forfeited. The Aggies effective record on the year was 5-0 and they’ll be aiming for that mark next year to earn a play-off berth.
The Red River River Conference is made up of Texas A&M, Texas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and recently added LSU.
In 7s, the boys were crowned Champions of the Red River Rugby Conference Tournament and took 2nd in the Southwest Conference Tournament.
The Southwest Conference is made up of Texas A&M, Rice, SFA, Texas State, U. Houston, and UNT. I will have more details on what separates the RRRC from the SWC later.
They earned a trip to Nationals for their play and had a tough Day 1, losing 3 matches to Arizona State, Cal Poly, and Iowa. On Day 2, they began their quest for the Shield and results improved with wins over Stony Brook and Nevada, but they ended up losing in the Shield Final by 2 to Bowling Green.
Aggies Representing the Crest:
Braeden Hood was selected to the Junior All-Americans to face Canada in March for the Junior World Rugby Trophy. While the Eagles failed in qualifying, representing the University at a national and global level is a tremendous accomplishment. Congratulations are due to Braeden.
In conference representation, the Red River Rugby Conference coaches have named the following Aggies to the All-Conference XVs team:
Jacob Browning
Alex Demblon
Phil Hanson
Jake Hoffman
Braeden Hood
Nic Jarrett
Justin Brown
Pearson Garnett
Matt Theodore
The Southwest Conference has named the following Aggies to their All-Conference 7s Team:
Justin Brown (Tournament MVP)
Jacob Browning
Award Winners & Donors:
A special thanks to Award Donors in parentheses. Still need 2 more award donors ($300/award). The proceeds cover the fall dues for returning players OR makes the first Alumni donation in their name upon graduation.
MVP – Braeden Hood (Dallas Harlequins)
Most Valuable Forward – Alex Demblon (Bill Taute)
Most Valuable Back – Matt Theodore (Chuck Martin)
Most Improved – Jacob Browning (Cloud[8]Sixteen)
Defensive Player of the Year – Braeden Hood (Kyle Ranne)
Rookie of the Year – Justin Brown (Austin Blacks)
Doug White Memorial Award – Carter Ross (Craig Belew)
Alec Klinghoffer Coaches Award – Alex Demblon (DONOR NEEDED)
Aggie Man of the Year – Grayson Dowlearn (DONOR NEEDED)
2015 – 2016 Texas A&M Rugby Officers:
President – Eric Wiggin
Vice President – Braeden Hood
Treasurer – John Schell
Recruiting – Travis Henry
Recruiting – Justin Brown
Fundraising – Connor Wilson
Gareth Jones – Cody Dubberly
Merchandise – Robert Larson
Match Coordinator – Holden Heartwell
Webmaster – Hunter Lahasky
Social – Jacob Browning
Congratulations on the new seats, boys. Good luck next season!
Special Thanks:
I would encourage us to all offer a big thank you to our coaches and staff this year. A special thanks goes to Johnny Smith, who will not be re-joining the staff next year to focus on other family and personal endeavors. Johnny – thanks, as always, for your support and service to the club.
Old Maroon 7s Season:
Old Maroon will be playing some Social 7s this summer for the following dates; PLEASE CONTACT ME if you would like to play in any of these tournaments.
6/20 – Bloodfest 7s (Pflugerville, TX)
7/11 – Cowtown 7s (Fort Worth, TX)
7/18 – Cherrybone 7s (The Woodlands, TX)
8/1 – Mudfish 7s (Dallas, TX) – TBD based on interest
TBD – Varano 7s (Houston, TX)
If you’re just at a tournament to relax, stop by the tent and meet some Aggies, current players and former. We should have a few free refreshments for you from one of our sponsors.
We would like to thank our gracious sponsors this 7s season for the slick jerseys and additional beernefits:
Karbach Brewing Co.
Scheef & Stone, LLP
Spirit of Texas Distillery & Pecan Street Rum
T5 1/2 Rugby Development Group
Seabrook Seafood
Earl Silver ’89
Other thoughts – where is Texas A&M Rugby headed?
Lately rugby has been evolving rapidly and it seems like there are multiple, high-value entities making waves to push for highly-competitive venues throughout the U.S. At the Men’s Club / “Professional” level, you see the NRFL trying to break the Professional league game into this market, while they are not affiliated with USA Rugby, this country’s governing body.
At the collegiate level, you see several entities creating different competitions and you see situations where there’s a USA Rugby-sanctioned 7s National tournament (in which we just competed) and the, perhaps more well-known, College Rugby Championship 7s Tournament (CRC). And that’s just for the 7s form of the game.
However this all shakes out, the most consistent indicator of whether or not a team becomes and remains a nationally-competitive program (regardless of the governing entity) is full-time coaching. We have all heard the suggestions from the depths of our ranks and they have been heard. We are working through conversations to leverage the financial and networking horsepower of Old Maroon to make such a financial commitment more of a possibility. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, now, but I will keep you updated. I will be reaching out to some of you as we go, but if you have any questions or suggestions, please give me a call or shoot me an email.
Thanks and Gig ‘Em,
Blake Pellerin ’09
