Dexter Rugby Club Starts High School Season with Two Wins

Dexter Rugby Football Club, representing northern Washtenaw County and surrounding school districts and coached by Paul Burke and Doug Karaska, has won MYRA Division One East in each of the last three years, with the Devils going on each year to challenge the dominant programs on the west side of the state in the state playoffs, where they were losing semi-finalists (to Rockford) in 2012, and state runners-up in 2013 (to Grandville) and 2014 (to Grand Rapids Catholic Central). This year the club, with a smaller squad than in 2014, is fielding just one team (the planned JV XV was not formed), but that squad is strengthened by a large number of returning players, including: loose forward Erick Leon (DHS, Sr), hooker Tyler Even (DHS, Jr), prop Noah Keen (DHS, Sr), new no 8 Chris Bryson (DHS, senior; last year Bryson was a back), half-back/fullback Adam Haas (Sr, DHS), fly-half/centre Tristin Staebler (DHS, Sr), centre and this year’s captain, Jake Rayer (DHS, Sr) fullback Derek Wittenberg (DHS, Sr). This battle-hardened group is joined by several other experienced players who appeared mostly for last year’s B Team, including prop/hooker Nick Hubbard (DHS, Sr), locks Aidan Hochrein and Derek Melinsky (both DHS, Sr), loose forward Clayton Drenner (DHS, Sr), back Luke Sagmeister (DHS, Sr), scrum-half Neil Makin (DHS, So), winger Angelos Bairactaris (DHS, Sr), and centre/fly-half/fullback Jared Juback (DHS, Sr). Among the new members of the club are: centre/winger and place-kicker Torin Bates (DHS, Jr), lock Nathaniel Orlowski (DHS, Jr), centre/winger Tyler Smokovitz (Detroit Catholic Central, Sr), lock Justin Tomshany (DHS, Sr), prop Spencer Vollmers (DHS, Sr), and winger Sean Wakefield (DHS, Jr). However, the three-year half-back pairing of Guy Burke (scrum-half) and Gordon Makin (fly-half, both DHS) has been lost to graduation – with Burke now playing half-back for the University of Michigan – while other key losses include no 8 Spencer Flannery and winger and kicker Corey Robinett, both of Grass Lake HS.

On the one hand, the Devils this year have more three-year players than ever before (making their profile a little more like the top programs on the west side of the state, where high-school and even middle-school Rugby is better developed). On the other hand, this year’s squad is significantly smaller than in the last two years and there is less new blood. The loss of star prop Pat Mayrand (DHS, Jr) to an ACL injury is an especially tough blow, although Mayrand’s presence on the touchlines at recent matches is an encouraging sight – perhaps he will be back next year.

For those reasons, predicting the course of the 2015 season is particularly hard. In pre-season scrimmages the Devils’ pack had looked a little light, while the back line had seemed occasionally hesitant. Errors of execution (poor ball-handling, missed tackles, rash infractions…) plagued the team in a 25-25 draw in the scrimmage with Toledo Celtics and a 12-0 loss in the scrimmage with Troy. The first regular-season match, Thursday, 16 April, against Dearborn – always a tough, physical team, and this season clearly out to avenge tight losses in the last two years – was bound to be a big test. The Dexter line-up at Levey Middle School in Southfield saw only one player occupying the same position as in last season’s usual starting XV – the ferocious Erick Leon at flanker. The tight five (Hubbard and Keen at prop, Even at hooker, Melinsky and Hochrein at lock) had plenty of experience, but not as a first-fifteen unit, while Leon was joined at loose forward by new man Orlowski (flanker) and Bryson, bringing his intensity to the key position of no 8. Sophomore Makin, the youngest man in the squad, was at scrum-half, with Staebler adding experience at fly-half. Wakefield and Bates were brand-new wingers, while inside-centre Rayer had another new man, Smokovitz, outside him; and, with Wittenberg struck down by a virus, Juback started at full-back.

The Dexter faithful watched Dearborn’s big forwards take the field with some trepidation, but were soon calmed as the Devils dominated possession and territory in the first half. After ten minutes of Dexter pressure Makin appeared to have scored his first points for Dexter, diving over from Even, but the pass was ruled forward. However, Dearborn continued to struggle to clear their lines, generally choosing to tap and run, even deep behind their twenty-two metre line (a rather surprising choice given their fly-half’s excellent boot, but consistent with Dearborn’s evident desire to play an eight-man game), and, with their big forwards sometimes outrunning the support, the Devils were generally able to keep the ball deep in the opposition half. Dexter’s rucking was vastly improved from the scrimmages, and the Devils’ trademark rolling maul from lineouts deep in the opposition 22 was also much better executed. Dexter’s first try came when Leon brilliantly charged down a Dearborn clearance and the agile Staebler touched down. Rayer was unable to convert, but later in the half he scored a penalty goal to give the visitors an 8-0 lead, and it seemed only a matter of time before Dexter put the game away. However, errors in ball-handling and occasional sluggish movement among the three-quarters, combined with a reluctance to go wide, meant that the Devils did not extend their lead and in the final plays of the half Dearborn finally powered inside the Dexter 22 and then across the try-line (no conversion). At half-time Tomshany came in for Melinsky, Bairactaris for Wakefield, and Haas for Juback. Early in the second half what should have been a comfortable lead turned into a deficit, as Dearborn powered over again, this time converting the try, to make it 12-8. The Devils were now in the scrap they had expected before kick-off, and the key was to be the intensity and strength of the forwards (among whom Keen, Hubbard, Even, Hochrein, Leon – until he left with a gash that needed stitches – and Bryson were particularly impressive), supported by outstanding defensive work from Staebler and Haas. Hooker Even dominated his opposite number in scrums to such an extent that he had, by some counts, four heels against the head, while Hochrein played what many thought was his best match for Dexter, and Hubbard showed indomitable energy from start to finish. Keen’s performance was as big as the man himself and made him, in the eyes of many spectators, clear man-of-the-match. Bryson was fearless at no 8. Among the backs captain Rayer also stood up for Dexter, ending a flowing move by touching down for a try and then kicking the conversion, to make it 15-12 twenty minutes into the second half; like Leon, Rayer then had to leave the field after taking a knock, but solid tackling, control of line-outs (where Hochrein was key), intelligent kicking from Staebler, and determination from the whole team kept the ball in the Dearborn half for most of the remaining minutes. Coach Burke’s insistence on more and harder fitness drills in the pre-season was also rewarded, as Dexter lasted well. All the same, the Dexter fans on the touchlines were well aware that one slip-up could let Dearborn in for a winning try, so there was both relief and joy when Makin, taking the ball from a Dexter line-out on the Dearborn five-metre line, booted it calmly into touch, having seen the referee signal that time was up. In comments after the match, Coach Burke praised his team’s fitness, decision-making, tackling, kicking and pursuit, and “relentlessness”, but noted that the Devils would be punished by opponents if they continued to control territory and ball without converting that control into points and that the ball had to reach the wingers more often. Meanwhile the referee’s assessment of an intense, tight game was laconic: “the best match I have ever officiated”.

The following day, Anthony Wayne, from the strong Rugby Ohio’s High School Division Two, drove up US 23 to play Dexter for the first time in four years. Coaches Burke and Karaska used the match to look at almost every Dexter player: of Thursday’s starting line-up, only Hubbard (moved to hooker), Bryson, Staebler, Bates (moved to outside centre) and Wakefield opened against the Toledans. Among the new men, prop Volmers and flanker Tomshany (both 2 tries) distinguished themselves with excellent running and handling, as well as good work in the loose and the tight, while Bates ran, tackled, and kicked extremely well. Bryson’s two tries in the first half testified to his determined power running; Sagmeister at centre was very impressive under high kicks and tackled admirably; Haas brought power to the scrum-half position, while Wakefield showed that he had both speed and tackling ability on the wing. Rayer and Juback, entering the game later both scored tries (Rayer a brace), and Rayer added three conversions, while Bairactaris also touched down for Dexter, having previously shown himself a fine tackler. Staebler’s excellent kicking had already brought him a try in the first half, when he out-ran the opposition to touch down his own up-and-under. Anthony Wayne’s consolation try came late in the match and was just reward for persistence.

Dexter’s next match is at the Devil’s home field – Manly Bennett Field on Merrill Road in Hamburg – on Wednesday, 22 April, kick-off at six p.m, against Birmingham in Division One East. Spectators are always very welcome, as are new players (the squad practices Monday-Thursday at 5 pm, either at Webster Church field in Dexter or Manly Bennett field in Hamburg). Dexter’s squad list, with further details of the Dexter Rugby program, may be accessed here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsw6yjvxtvhit0h/DRFC%20Team%20Sheet%202015.pdf?dl=0. For further information on Dexter Rugby, go to the Facebook page for “Dexter Rugby” or to the club web site: www.dexterrugby.com. Follow DRFC on Twitter @DexterRugby. Photo credits: Gina Bryson.