The Boise State men’s rugby club is kicking off their 2022 season. They had a great season last fall, and it’s only going to get better this year.
Ranked fourth in the nation, the team has one goal in mind: rise above last year’s loss to Virginia Tech in the semifinals and become D1AA Champions.
The team is coming off of an undefeated regular season last fall, during which they made it into the playoffs but were eliminated in the second round after they ran into health and endurance issues.
“We were up 10-11 [points] at half. We lost about eight starters at half due to injury, which was not good for us,” said senior integrated media and strategic communications major and team captain, Kyle Curry. “We lost, and that team went on to win the trophy.”
Despite this loss, Curry felt that the Broncos could’ve been in the No. 1 spot.
It’s a new year and a new season for Bronco rugby, and the players are confident in the work they put in during the offseason.
The team implemented a rigorous offseason workout program and acquired new members to the coaching staff over the summer, according to senior marketing major Brandon Besler.
One of these coaches is three-time collegiate All-American, Nartus Wessels.
“We got a new coach, and he definitely brings more rugby IQ and a different look on how we play rugby,” said senior business administration major Bennett Mantz.
One of the team’s biggest strengths this year is its returning talent including Curry and Mantz, who were named scholastic All-Americans by National Collegiate Rugby.
“I think in general we’re just very technically skilled compared to other teams, and we’ve got [a] really high IQ which really helps us out,” Besler said. “We’re not always the biggest team, but we usually can beat teams due to being better at the fundamentals and just more skilled.”
This season is shaping up to be something special for the club. Years of hard work have brought the team to where it is today.
Not long ago, Bronco Rugby was more of a “social club,” according to Besler.
The rugby club was reestablished in 2006 and used to be known as the Boise State Fighting Flamingos, according to Curry.
“They wore these bright pink jerseys,” Curry said. “We’re going to pay homage to those coaches and players by debuting the pink jerseys this season at a couple of home games as a little bit of a throwback.”
The team has since found their new identity. When many of the team’s seniors were freshmen, they won only two games out of nine. Now, the club has only lost two games in the last two years.
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Many veteran players have dedicated their time after class to building a blue-collar culture that is focused on winning, according to Curry.
The team is not financially supported by the university unlike some of the teams they play against, like Nazareth College in Rochester. According to Mantz, Besler and Curry, this puts an extra chip on their shoulder.
“When we found out Nazareth was varsity, we knew there was no holding back,” Curry said. “We like to think of ourselves as a blue-collar team. When we played Nazareth, we beat them 46-19, and they were all scholarship athletes and we were not.”
It’s championship or bust for the club. The team says they want to leave a legacy behind and build rugby culture around Boise State.
“Last year was the farthest our club’s ever gotten,” Besler said. “To leave on a high note, being a champion and leave that legacy behind as the first champions in Boise State history, it would be amazing.”
The club says that winning a championship would not only mean a lot to the university, but to Idaho as well.
“It would be a symbol of how far we came, and if we won it would feel like something we definitely worked for and deserved,” Curry said.
The team hopes to have lots of fan support this year and have made admission to their games free of charge.
“I hope that people come to the games because it means a lot to us,” Mantz said. “Having fan support there definitely keeps us that much more motivated.”
Boise State men’s rugby kicks off its first week in Pullman, Washington, against the Washington State Cougars. The team will play its first home game against Gonzaga University on Oct. 1 on the Lincoln Turf Field.
