Pendleton Heights club rugby program setting high standards
PENDLETON — A special season for the Pendleton Heights rugby team took another step in the right direction.
On Saturday, May 22, in the Rugby Indiana State quarterfinals at the Sports Complex in Falls Park, the team decisively defeated Leo High School, 47-5.
Not bad for a first-year varsity team.
Story continues below photos.
Pendleton Heights had hoped to have its first season in 2020, but it was canceled because of the pandemic. It had a high school junior varsity team in 2019.
The program has built its way up through the youth program ranks, starting out with teams at the flag/elementary level in 2014.
Though it’s the inaugural year on the varsity field, the young Pendleton team — it has only three seniors — has high hopes. With the win over Leo, the Arabians remain unbeaten on the season. Their record is 9-0.
“We didn’t know what to expect. No one did. It’s a COVID year and some teams really struggled getting kids out,” Pendleton Heights coach Curt Trout said. “Ours didn’t. We’ve thrived in numbers, especially in high school.
“Part of our success has been having the players to do things that some teams weren’t able to do.”
In April, the program picked up a first-ever national ranking. Currently ranked No. 26 by the Goff Rugby Report, the team has been ranked as high as No. 18, impressing pollsters with an out-of-state win against Sumner, a team from Sumner County in Tennessee that was nationally-ranked at the time.
“It was shocking at first,” coach Trout said. “It was super-exciting to get ranked.”
In Saturday’s tournament victory, six players scored tries, the first two were from Dresden Roberts.
Having a lot of scoring options has been one of the keys, according to Trout. He said 17 players have scored this season.
“As long as I’ve been doing this, we’ve never had that happen,” Trout said of the high number of scoring contributors. “Normally you have a couple guys that do a lot of the work and get most of the tries.”
Chaston Green is the team’s leader in tries with six.
Leading 14-0 in Saturday’s tournament game, Leo scored an unconverted try, its only score of the game.
For Pendleton Heights, Will Kaster broke a pair of long runs, with one ending in a try. Justin Beeler followed and had several impressive runs.
By halftime, Pendleton Heights had extended the lead to 26-5.
The second half was highlighted with two long runs by both Clifton VanDuyn and Nick Trout. Both players were able to score tries. Crew Boles kept the pressure up and scored a centered try.
Nick Trout finished the scoring tally by hitting six of seven conversions.
“When you’re not depending on one person to score and let the system do the work, the kids have really excelled,” coach Trout said. “Kids become unselfish, because they know they’re going to get a chance at some point. When they’re unselfish in rugby, they’re going to win.
“It’s kind of like old-school basketball, being unselfish with the ball and get the ball to the open guy and the open guy scores. That’s our game plan.”
With the win over Leo, Pendleton Heights moves on to the semistate portion of what Rugby Indiana calls the 2021 Spring Championships. The Arabians will play Mishawaka Marian in Elkhart on Saturday, May 29.
The Arabians are the top-seeded team in Boys High School Division I. Saturday’s game is scheduled for noon. The other semistate matchup has No. 3 Avon against No. 7 Carmel.
Action will take place at Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart. The state championship will be played at 12:30 p.m. Monday, May 31.
“It’s pretty cool, because the kids haven’t done it before, but it’s also kind of tough because the kids haven’t done it before,” coach Trout added on the seeding and expectations. “We’ve never been to the state tournament before, but we have been to Elkhart for the Midwest Tournament, so they’re familiar with the facilities and know how great they are.
“They’ve played similar teams that are tough and physical like Mishawaka Marian,” he added. “They’re not going to be surprised when the other teams look like men and we’ve got kids that aren’t shaving yet. They won’t be surprised by it, because that’s just how things have gone this year.”