New Beginnings for Milton Rugby

If you are looking on the campus of and see a bunch of students playing what looks like to be football without helmets, pads or any protection, don’t be alarmed.

That’s just the new rugby team at Milton High.

 The Wildcats unveiled the new spring sport a few weeks ago and with the help of head coach Joe Dolan, they have already grabbed its first win on the field of the regular season.

But looking deeper into how the sports got started might have been a win in itself. With the help of a few interested parents, Dolan got the call to start a rugby program in August. Dolan had been the coach of the Brookline High rugby team since 1991.

Dolan worked with members of the interested rugby community to lay the groundwork for the program, and when he saw that headed in the right direction he decided to undertake the building of a brand new endeavor.

“I work and teach in Milton, so it was very attractive from that standpoint,” said Dolan.

The first order of business was to spark some interested in the sport. At freshman orientation, Dolan set up a sign-up sheet to get a general interest from some of the new students. He said he got about 20 kids interested in the new sport.

Second, he had to convince the to take on a new sport with budget constraints looming over just about every school system in the Commonwealth. Dolan set out a goal of raising $6,000 to help fund everything from jerseys, equipment, coaching stipends and fields.

Through private funding, Dolan and the new Milton rugby community raised $4,000, and to make up for the rest the student athletes were asked to chip in $150 per person to play. Once the school committee saw how serious Dolan and the newly formed Wildcats sport were about getting the season started, they approved the arrival of the team.

“We used private fundraising to get over some of the initial costs and we will probably be able to build more next year now that we have jerseys and the equipment and balls,” said Dolan. "We are self-reliant on funding because we didn’t want to put a strain on Milton’s budget.

“When the School Committee heard that we had the money in place they were for it. That was probably one of the things that we had to take care of when we started back in August.”

The rugby team is open to both boys and girls, and Dolan said he has had a female player come out in all 20 of his coaching years, including the new start at Milton.

Now all that is left is to get a consistent, winning unit on the field year-in-and-year-out, said Dolan. It takes 15 players to play on the field at a given time in a rugby game, so Dolan likes to carry 20 or more players to deal with injuries and substitutions.

So far, the Wildcats have been able to get 20 consistent players, with 13 of those coming from the sophomore class.

“The kids are doing a lot better than I thought we would do with a victory under our belt in the first two weeks,” said Dolan. “In the short-term we wanted to get 20 players out and get the backing of the community.

“It has been terrific.”