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A Message from Coach

LSU Rugby Football Club
Coaches' Report -- April 22, 2009

I would like to thank all the alumni who stepped up and made contributions that allowed us to travel to Berkeley, California for the National Round of 16. I have heard from many alumni across the country about their excitement with the program. As I hope all of you heard, we won our first match against University of Utah 47-5, and lost to San Diego State on Saturday by the score of 44-30. Looks like at the end of the season the Tigers will be ranked around 5 or 6 in the country. The team had many great accomplishments this season and I am extremely proud of the entire team, we all worked hard, and made many sacrifices to achieve this success. This year’s team was very special, and it is sad that I will say goodbye to 6 seniors, Jimmy Rehkopf, Saade Bou-Mikael, Eric Johns, Brendon Batt, Michael Heier and Adam Davis all of whom played key roles in the team success. I am proud to say that in the four years we have been coaching and these seniors have been playing that we have compiled a record of 75 wins and 13 losses, won the Texas Rugby Union (Division 1) two years in a row, competed in the Western Championships coming in 6th place in year one, 5th place in year two, 3rd place in year 3, and 1st place in year four. We have won 2 consecutive SEC championships in both the A and B division and competed in the National Round of 16 eventually making it to the round of 8. The coaches and team have worked extremely hard; we have had countless meetings, practices, conditioning sessions, made some horrendous travel trips, etc. etc. Although tough, this year's success has been very rewarding. Thanks to Red, Mike, John, and Chris for helping with the coaching, van driving, and for putting up with me. Thanks to our players committee Eric West, Adam Ducoing, and Robert Johns for their work on the players committee, as this player/coach interface has been very positive and will only get better. Thanks to Cody Cadella for his tireless work getting this thing done, he has been outstanding on the field and off.

The team continues to get better every year and I continue to hear from High School athletes from Louisiana and around the country that want to come to LSU get their education and play rugby for the Tigers. Rugby in high schools continues to grow by leaps and bounds and I continue to thank give thanks to all those who continue their outstanding efforts to continue cultivation on the New Orleans rugby “farm”, and all those other high school rugby coaches who are the key ingredient to our sport's growth.

The Round of 16 Weekend- On Friday LSU beat a good Utah team 47-5. Utah’s coach said he “underestimated” the Tigers, but I think we were just better on the day. Our smaller, fitter team dominated pretty much and if we would have not have had a few early knock on’s the score could have been worse. Tries were scored by freshman Jeff Levasseur, Robert Johns (2), Adam Ducoing, Eric West, Sam Wills, Andrew Larkin, and Eric Johns. Saade Bou-Mikael had a couple of penalty goals and conversions on the day. I was particularly pleased with the play of our forwards who dominated a larger Utah pack while maintaining a high work rate throughout the match.

On Saturday, LSU lost to a very good, very deep San Diego State team 44-30. Our team played fierce to the last minute, but had too many early mistakes and missed tackles that cannot be made against a good team like SDSU. Saade Bou-Mikael, Eric West, Cody Cadella, and Adam Ducoing scored tries. SDSU were very good in the breakdown and won crucial line-outs and set pieces at critical moments in the game. Their kicking game was also very good. It was a disappointing loss and it was hard to take but SDSU was the better team on the day. It will be interesting to see who wins when they play BYU in the next round.

The University of California- There is a reason they have won something like 23 of the last 26 National Championships. Their venue was fantastic. Tiger Fans imagine having our rugby complex in the shadows of Tiger Stadium, maybe where the old Alec Box is, complete with stands, concessions, and where mowers were manicuring the turf at the completion of every match. Where Skip was in attendance at the game (As Cal’s AD was), where they allowed us to warm-up at the football practice facility (We actually warmed up Saturday in Cal Stadium), where traffic for the Cal spring football game was diverted for the rugby game. Where beer is actually served! Support- Cal is a rugby machine- they are tremendously funded, have great facilities, have unbelievable school support, have paid coaches, use of university weight rooms etc. Watching them play I would bet they are the best rugby team in the country bar none. They should repeat as the National
Champions. Their administration has worked hard to get where they are and I commend them for their hard work, as it has certainly paid off. They also ran a first class event.

Funding- Other than Cal, LSU is much like other teams in that we are terribly underfunded to compete nationally. We have a group that is in the beginning stage of setting up a "support foundation" for future support of the club (we will be asking for input and volunteers to help, more details to come)

Funding this year’s championship run was and will continue to be challenging. We have parents, coaches, and a couple of players that have made “loans” to the club for travel expenses incurred. We still need your help to get these repaid! Any contribution is helpful at this point. Please make checks payable to LSU Rugby and forward to:

LSU Rugby
236 Guava Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

The Future- we saw, we learned and we will get better. We will continue and improve scheduling which will allow us to play better teams, we will continue to improve and learn new coaching techniques, we will recruit more athletes in order to have a deeper squad (a few bigger ones too), we will continue to be a team the players, coaches, alumni, parents, supporters and the University will be proud of.

Thank you for your support.

Bulawayo,

Scott McLean
Head Coach
Louisiana State University Rugby Football Club