DHS Rugby Club Heads West for Showdown with State Champions

Originally published: April 23.

On Friday, the Dexter Devils – Dexter Rugby Football Club’s high school team – head to West Ottawa High School in Holland to play the reigning Division One State Champions in an inter-divisional match under the lights at West Ottawa HS Stadium (3700 140th Avenue, Holland, MI 49424), kick off 7.30 pm.  Dexter currently leads Division One East with three wins and no losses, while West Ottawa, a perennial power house and a school where Rugby is now a varsity sport, is 1-1 in Division One West. 

Last year, Dexter went unbeaten in the East and lost by a single try to a powerful Rockford side at the semi-final stage of the State playoffs.  This year, with seven players returning, Dexter has reloaded with power in the front eight and speed among the backs.  Hooker Ryan Calhoun, flanker Keoni Koch, and number 8 Spencer Flannery (all seniors) are the returning forwards; both half backs, Guy Burke (scrum half) and Gordon Makin (fly half), are returning juniors; while Captain Tony Shiguango and Eddie Alexander (both seniors) return at inside and outside center, respectively.  Prop Zack Wallace and DHS football lineman Victor Morris (lock) are among the new forwards who have brought power and good hands to the pack, along with prop Kyle Parm, lock Leo Hinkle, and flankers Anthony Esposito and Alexis Berberio (who will be missing in West Ottawa because of an academic commitment), while among the backs left wing Matt Kasten has added after-burner speed, Adam Haas has proved an excellent tackler at full back, and the place-kicking of right wing Corey Robinett has been outstanding.

For the first year in the club’s six-year existence Coaches Paul Burke and Doug Karaska have been able to field two full teams in the Michigan Youth Rugby High School leagues.  Around 40 boys attend daily practice -- more than enough for two fifteen-man teams.  As a club sport at Dexter, the Devils have been able to recruit players from school districts where there is no Rugby program, with A Team members Alexander, Flannery, Wallace, and Robinett driving from Grass Lake every day, and Hinkle from Jackson HS, to practices at the Webster Church fields or the match field at Manly Bennett Park, Hamburg. 

Dexter’s B team, full of underclassmen, mostly with no prior experience of Rugby Union football, has also started the season with three victories and tops Division Three East.  Coaches Burke and Karaska are now especially upbeat on the future of the fifteen-man code of football in Dexter, seeing abundant talent and enthusiasm in the new players, many of whom grew up playing the codes of football more familiar in the American Midwest – American football and Association football (soccer).  For many of the new men, Rugby seems to combine the best elements of those other codes – continuous play, lots of ball movement, everyone involved in both offense and defense, lots of contact, and a role for players of all sizes.  As readers might expect, Dexter parents have added to the enthusiasm, with the touchlines at home matches always buzzing with excitement.  Dexter parents also claim to provide the best food for the post-match meal, shared among home and away players, who, after matches of intense physical competition, are expected to socialize and show sportsmanship, win or lose, as the traditions of the game demand.

This year saw another first for Dexter Rugby – a late-winter Rookie Rugby program, under the aegis of Dexter Community Education, in which eight seventh- and eighth-graders participated, coached by Paul Burke, assisted by the A team half-backs Guy Burke and Gordon Makin.  The Rookie Rugby players are now demanding contact matches outdoors, and Coach Burke has promised to do his best to provide them with opportunities, despite a schedule made thrillingly busy by the growth of his high school program.

Today, Tuesday April 23, Dexter B hosts Berkeley at the Rugby field at Manly Bennett Park, Merrill Road, Hamburg (5.30 pm kick off).  After this week there is one remaining home fixture in the regular season for each team: Dexter B vs Brighton B and Dexter A vs Brighton A, both on Wednesday, 1 May. at Manly Bennett (the A match is scheduled for a 5.00 pm kick off, with the B match at 7.00).  Rugby is a varsity sport at Brighton, and the DRFC coaches expect fierce local derbies in both matches, with Brighton no doubt seeking revenge for the defeat of their A Team on their home field last year. 

The regular season ends the next week with Dexter A away to Dearborn (May 8) and Dexter B away to Okemos (May 9). Both the A and B sides have already qualified for the State playoffs, which begin the weekend of May 18/19.  Before that, both Dexter teams will travel to Elkhart, Indiana, to play in the Midwest Boys Championship over the weekend of May 4/5.  Dexter A will play some of the top programs in the Midwest, while Dexter B will participate for the first time ever and is expected to be competitive in the JV/Developmental bracket. Dexter’s records so far this season (home team first):

Downriver 12 Dexter B 14
Dexter B 50 Grosse Pointe 5
Shelby 5 Dexter B 17

Deter A 26 Birmingham 0
Dexter A 83 Livonia 0
Washtenaw 0 Dexter A 53  

For more information on Dexter Rugby, go to the Facebook page for “Dexter Rugby 2013” or to the club web site: www.dexterrugby.com. 

Follow DRFC on twitter @DexterRugby.