Wayne State College rugby team returns home from Georgia with 11th championship

WAYNE, NE - Wayne State Women’s Rugby returned from Georgia Monday with yet another championship trophy.

Its the program’s 4th in a row and 11th overall.

"We were pretty loaded this year so we were pretty confident of what would happen this year just due to the fact that we had 13 of the starting 15 coming back," head coach Darrin Barner said. 

The Wildcats defeated Minnesota State Moorehead 57-14 in the semis and beat Endicott College 90-12 in the championship. Still, Barner described coming out on top a relief because the goal was to be better than last year’s championship team.

"It's a lot of pressure," Barner said. "19-1 would have been an extremely disappointing situation and I'm glad we pulled out win number 20 and finished undefeated."

Barner says the team’s success highlights the talent that comes in from around the Midwest. He says most players don’t have any rugby experience when arriving on campus, but their skills from other sports translate well.

"You know, a majority of our roster are Class C and Class D schools from Nebraska and we just get really, really good athletes from high school," Barner said. "They don't have any rugby experience, but they're really good in basketball, track, volleyball, softball, soccer and the transition to rugby just works perfectly. It shows what we can do here with Nebraska athletes."

As Wayne Daily News’ Aaron Scheffler learned, his players agree.

"Honestly for the program it just means that we're still on top and hopefully we can get more people to come out next year because that's what this program thrives on is new people coming and wanting to play," senior inside center Brook Hoesing told the Wayne Daily News. 

Barner says the Wildcats are working out their schedule for next year. They’re currently talking to teams like Air Force, Michigan State and Indiana.