Rugby team set to accomplish goal

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat First year rugby player Sean Bornheimer (right) breaks through defenders at this season's first rugby practice yesterday afternoon at Mansfield Park. The team opens its season in November at a tournament in Houston.

But for some reason it seems to have left a bitter taste in UA rugby head coach Dave Sitton's mouth.

"Last year's team was very talented," Sitton said. "But there were some details overlooked. The conditioning could have been better. We were fatigued at the end of some games last year, which led to mistakes."

The Wildcats' record was good enough to get them into postseason play in the Cherry Blossom Tournament in Washington, D.C., where they finished third. But it didn't come near to achieving their three-stage goal of: 1) Winning the SoCal Conference, 2) hosting the regional playoffs and 3) winning a national championship.

"This year's team has the chemistry and talent to do great things," Sitton commented. "The sky's the limit for this team. It all boils down to how hard they want to work."

The coach is no stranger to hard work. He excelled in football and baseball in high school, then headed to Arizona to catch for the baseball team. Two shoulder operations put severe limitations on his throwing ability, so in order to fill the void of baseball Sitton picked up rugby during a semester spent in Wales. He came back to Tucson, where in his senior year he became player-coach at the age of 22. Now, coming into his 25th season of coaching rugby, Sitton's tenure is exceeded only by lacrosse coach Mickey Miles-Felton as a UA club coach.

"Mickey's been here since they unloaded the Ark," Sitton said with a smile.

Key returnees to this year's squad include All SoCal members Tony Marcotte, Zach Harrison, Chris Kron and Al Lakomskis. The Wildcats usually get help from their recruiting classes with last year being no exception. 1997 recruits expected to make big varsity contributions include Ken Goto, James Kai, Daniel Shields, Greg Pagonis and Michael Bennett.

There are many other objectives for the team besides winning, however. Since rugby is a club sport, the money needed to run the program comes mainly from alumni donations and fund-raisers. Everyone involved with the team is responsible for raising money. The players have done everything from distributing fliers at UA football and basketball games to shirt sales. Also contributing to sponsoring tournaments were local corporations such as E-Maxx Energy Drink and Desert Diamond Casino.

Academics are also stressed in this program. Six players from last year's team had a GPA of 3.9 or higher.

But by no means is joining rugby all work and no play.

"It's not only about practices and matches. You get chances to hang out and meet the guys outside rugby," Pagonis said.

The first tournament is in Houston this November, but league play doesn't begin until the end of January at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.

Brad Weaver can be reached via e-mail at Brad.Weaver@wildcat.arizona.edu.