Young Ruggers Are On the Move
The Section XI Warriors, a young rugby 7s side with players spanning East Hampton and East Islip, continue to impress, according to one of their coaches, Kevin Bunce, who said that the junior varsity side won two games and tied one at a tournament in Pelham, N.Y., this past weekend.
“This was the second of a five-tournament series, and our kids played really, really well,” Bunce said Monday morning. “They’re spreading the ball out, moving it from side to side and finding the gaps, and they’re also tackling well, hitting low with their heads out and wrapping up the arms, taking the ball carriers down quickly and playing the ball out. You don’t have to be big in rugby; if you’re doing things correctly technique-wise, it’s anybody’s game.”
“Since we’re not the biggest team, we’re staying away from scrums and lineouts and not kicking much. We’re keeping the ball in our hands, which translates into points.”
The Warriors, who play fellow high school junior varsity teams, from Westchester County by and large, defeated Thornton-Donovan 19-0 to begin with, after which they played to a 20-20 tie with Pelham High School, and edged a combined Keio Academy and French American Academy team 25-23. “We took it to them — that was a terrific win,” said Bunce. “They beat us 36-0 the week before. Their coach was kind of surprised, not too happy. I gather they hadn’t lost in a while.”
“Our kids tackled hard, they passed the ball, they’d learned their lessons. The key was the tackling. We were scoring every time we touched the ball.”
Among the Warriors’ scorers, Bunce said, were Christian Soloviev, Jake Jablonski (Bunce’s fellow coach Mike Jablonski’s son), Kevin Bunce Jr., Chris Vedder (who wrestles at 126 pounds for Shoreham-Wading River), and Jacob Ehrens, a St. Anthony’s student from East Islip.
“We’ve been getting about 20 at our practices” at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and at Shoreham-Wading River on Wednesdays and Fridays. “Fourteen made the trip. We’ve been renting a 15-person van from A-Car Auto Rental in Blue Point, which gave us a good deal.”
The winner of the series will be determined at the end of it, using win-loss records and points for and against. “At the moment, we’re a solid second,” said Bunce.
He added that Jablonski and he plan to pick Long Island select 15s and 7s sides in the spring, teams that will enter regional tournaments, “where college coaches see you. . . . We’ll send out letters to the some seven high schools on Long Island that play rugby and have tryouts in the spring, probably at either Calverton or Stony Brook. We’ll see what happens.”