PENDLETON — The rise to the top has come quickly for the Pendleton Heights High School rugby team.

In Pendleton Youth Rugby’s second year of having a high school group, the Arabians are Rugby Indiana state champions.

On Monday, at Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Pendleton Heights defeated Leo 47-19 in the Boys Division I championship game.

The Arabians got to the title game with a 35-31 win against Avon at Cyntheanne Park in Fishers on Saturday.

A year ago, in the club’s first high school season, Pendleton Heights finished as state runner-up, losing to Carmel in overtime.

“It’s kind of surreal,” said Pendleton Heights senior Ethan Childers, who will play on the club rugby team at Purdue University next year. “From the start of the season this was the goal. We talked about being here. Actually being here is kind of crazy. I am just really proud of myself and the whole team. It’s just really awesome.”

“Togetherness and brotherhood,” team captain Will Kaster said of how the team prevailed in 2022. “This team is a real family and trust each other. That’s the biggest thing, we can rely on each other.”

Pendleton beat Leo in the state quarterfinals last season before knocking off Mishawaka Marian to reach the title game. They lost to Carmel 24-23 in overtime.

“I think last year’s loss was one of the biggest driving factors of how we played this year,” Childers said. “The whole team, being back in the same spot, we all had those memories. None of us wanted to be back there. I think it drove all of our practices and our work all year. This year knowing that it paid off and we finally won was an amazing feeling.”

Both Childers and Kaster have been part of the program since eighth grade. A lot of the younger players have come through the program’s elementary teams.

“Being a growing program, especially one that returns a lot of players from last year’s roster, we’ve shown we have experience and have been able to link together phases from their familiarity with one another,” Pendleton high school head coach Austin Robbins said of his team as it prepared to play in this year’s state tournament.

Robbins has been a part of the program for three years, including the COVID-19 season in 2020. Last year was the first time the high school team was able to take the field. Previously, Robbins had coached Bloomington, Zionsville and Fishers high school teams.

“We came out of the gates pretty hot (this season) and have played some strong competition throughout,” he added.

Pendleton finished with a 14-3 overall record. They lost two matches (went 1-2) in a national invitational tournament, held earlier in May prior to the state tournament, to a team from North Carolina and a team from Virginia. The only other loss was to Cathedral by one point.

Cathedral won the boys Super League state title on Monday. The Super League is the highest level, and one level above Division I, in Rugby Indiana.

The Pendleton team has 31 players. As a club program, it — along with having 25 players from Pendleton Heights High School —has players from Frankton High School (3), Mt. Vernon (2) and Shenandoah.

Ten of the players are seniors, including soon-to-be Pendleton Heights grads Childers, Kaster, Schyler Altherr, Jake Ehrgott, Will Logan, Derek Lowder, Beck Sebastian and Braydon Webster. Other seniors are Kevin Russell and Keaton Smith from Frankton High School.

Logan plans on playing Rugby at Indiana University. Sebastian is going to join Childers at Purdue. Some other players Altherr (Franklin), Ehrgott (Franklin) and Kaster (DePauw) have plans to play football in college.

Kaster said togetherness was a key to the team’s success; Robbins said that extends further than just with players and coaches.

“The overall support of the community has been outstanding for us,” Robbins said. “I don’t think I have coached at a program that has been so well-embraced by everyone around it. The school, even though we are not a school program for Pendleton Heights, have been very supportive, letting us reserve facilities.

“The overall growth of the youth program is something that has built up to this (state tournament) moment. We have so many of our players that are sophomores and juniors that started playing in second, third and fourth grade at the flag level. They have continued to grow throughout. We have an outstanding parent group that will do the dirtiest jobs, washing the boys jerseys after the game.

“It’s just outstanding to see so many people in the community embrace us. In the teams I’ve coached before, a lot of those jobs fell upon coaching staffs. I’ve been able to coach rugby and fall back on the fact that parents are going to support us with all those other items that we need.”

Though a talented senior group, Pendleton has a lot of standouts who will still be with the program. Sophomore Nick Trout was the team’s leading scorer. He is the son of program Director of Rugby Curt Trout.

Eli Arthur, another sophomore, is also one of the top scorers.

Heading into tournament competition, Pendleton received a No. 6 ranking in the FloRugby.com Tier II Division.

The rugby website’s paragraph on the team stated:

“Pendleton’s rise to national prominence in recent years has been nothing short of stunning, going from the ground up just two years ago and qualifying for their first nationals in front of what’s sure to be plenty of in-state support (at the national tournament held in Elkhart). These boys can play, too, despite being one of the smallest communities in Indiana, and nearly came back to beat Royal Irish (Cathedral/Chatard team) in a matchup just a couple of weeks ago.”

“Teams that we were narrowly beating last year we have been able to finish games and expand the margin of victory this year,” Curt Trout said, prior to his team’s post season run. “You can tell we have taken a step forward where we are at program-wise.”