Spring Sports Roundup: Rugby

For a team that looked shaky at the beginning of the season, Shaker High’s rugby team did pretty well -- advancing to the state quarterfinals, farther than any other high school team this year.

“The beginning of the year was rough,” said junior Leo Katz. “We weren’t playing as a team at all. Everyone was just playing selfishly and we played pretty scared on defense.”

But the potential was there all year, Katz said, and once playoffs started everything just started to click.

“We started working the ball around more in the playoffs and stepped our game up,” he said. “We were more focused and executed our game plans.”

Assistant coach Mike McKeon said the team struggled at first because most players had never played rugby before, and there weren’t enough of them for two teams to scrimmage in practice.

“The only time they’d see the game the way it was supposed to be played was in regular-season games,” McKeon said.

Shaker lost the season opener to Avon Lake, the sixth-ranked team in Ohio, by a lopsided score of 60-5. But they finished the regular season 3-3-1.

“Every game the kids picked things up from the mistakes they made in the previous game,” McKeon said.

In the first round of playoffs, Shaker faced Avon Lake again.

“We played great defense all game and shut their star player down,” Katz said. “We were down one on the last play of the game and I hit the game-winning kick.”

Shaker won that game 21-19, then beat Midpark 6-5 in the second round to advance to the state quarterfinals. Midpark had beaten Shaker 19-17 in the regular season on a last-second try, the equivalent of a touchdown. In the state quarterfinals, Shaker lost to Avon, the No. 1 team in Ohio.

Katz and McKeon said the second Avon Lake game was the highlight of the season.

“We were predicted to lose our first [playoff] game by about 40, so it was pretty awesome and surprising winning,” Katz said.

McKeon agreed.

“We played pretty much flawlessly,” he said. “I knew they had it in them to do it, but to be honest, it was a little surprising.”

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