Rugger Alumni,
The newly formed C of C Rugby Alumni Board would like to take a moment and thank you for being involved with the 10 year history of C of C Rugby. We are starting to grow a great alumni base and we want to make sure that we are doing our best to keep everyone involved and informed. Please take a few minutes to read the below and to catch up on all the exciting things we have ahead, not only this year but years to come. This is the first edition of our new newsletter, please let us know your thoughts.
End of Season Wrap-Up
End of Season Awards
Alumni Donations
Scholarships
What is Going On?
End of Season Wrap-Up Spring 2012
For the spring season of 2012, CofC put together a young and athletically talented squad under the leadership of new coaches Greg Lambton-Carr and Dr. Lance Davis. Along with Furman, the Citadel and Lander, CofC moved up to play Division II rugby in the newly formed Southern Conference. This new organization includes a total of 12 teams split into Eastern and Western Divisions. With additional help from a couple English exchange students, the Cougars earned four wins and one loss in the regular season. The wins included blow-outs against Furman (57-27) and the Citadel (57- 13). The Furman win was particularly satisfying, as the Cougars gained revenge for their playoff loss against the Purple Paladins in the Spring of 2011. Other wins included solid victories over UNC Charlotte (34-14) and a surprisingly strong Lander squad (22- 12). The one defeat came in a bitterly cold and snowing away game against Appalachian State University (45-29). The overall record earned CofC the second seed in the conference playoffs with their first match against the East division leader and nationally ranked UNCW Clamdiggers. The Cougars played a tough and physical match against UNCW, regularly beating them in the rucks and scrums. But sub-par backline play and the dominance of UNCW lineouts cost CofC the game, final score 26-7. The score does not properly attest to the overall closeness of the game. UNCW scored three quick tries in a span of ten minutes thanks to relentless kicking for which the inexperienced wings and fullback were unprepared. Even when the Cougars successfully defended the kick and forced the Clamdiggers out-of-bounds, they lost at least two-thirds of their own lineouts. At the same time, the Cougars played hard-hitting defense and forced UNCW to stop play multiple times to deal with injuries. For the majority of the game, CofC was within two tries (19-7) but were unfortunately unable to score anymore points. However, the alumni will be happy to know that the severity of aggression with which CofC played caused UNCW to file a complaint, which was promptly dismissed without consequence (other than to show that UNCW are a bunch of pussies). The next day, CofC lost to UNC Greensboro in the third place match (27-14), although they probably would have won had they not gotten so drunk the night before. While the playoffs were once again a disappointment, College of Charleston had an all-around good season that shows just how much the team has grown these past 10 years.
End of Season Awards
Golden Boots: Lock Hugo Roller who played every minute of every single game with unmatched intensity and ferocity.
Steve the Animal: Scrumhalf Brian Ablapnap who also played every minute of every single game with great skill.
Zulu Warrior: Inside Center Ed “Fletch” Fletcher who played a great season and motivated everyone with his fiery English-accented half time speeches.
Sexy Dan: Outside Center Ian “Shaun White” Mueller who scored 7 tries in regular season play. (10 including tournaments).
Dick of the Year: Outside Center Ian Mueller who also earned Dick of the Day more times than anyone else.
Jon Hansen Drinking Award: Freshmen backs John Sussingham and Conner McCoy who got hammered drunk almost every single night and behaved as such.
The Jeremy Tindal Most Likely to be a Father award was not given this year, as it was not earned. A note on the name change: Jeremy received the award in the Spring of 2011 and then promptly got a girl pregnant and is now actually a father.
Alumni Donations
• We have begun the process of establishing an official “non-profit” status so we can all donate to the club and deduct the donation for tax purposes. Todd Burnaford is heading this project.
• Sam Cook is working on a new website for the club which should be done in the next few weeks. This new site should be easier to navigate through and it will have a direct link to make donations to the club and to the alumni fund.
• We alumni need to support the team’s success and to help grow the team for the future. With the little funding the team receives from the school, it is imperative that we assist them to help with travel expenses, new equipment, new jersey’s, socials…We would also like to establish an annual goal to reach for donations. There will be more to come on a goal establishment for this year but with nearly 90+ alumni we are hoping for a good turnout!
Scholarships
• At some point in the near future, with the help of all of us, we would like to establish an annual scholarship to a current player. We have not set the requirements for this yet, nor a scholarship amount but we will start small and grow it as we can.
What is going on?
• Charleston Memorial Day 7’s- The Charleston Outlaw’s will be hosting their 10th annual Memorial Day tournament. If you wish to participate or watch please contact Sam Cook directly at sambcook@gmail.com or call him at 404.433.6747. You can also visit the outlaw’s website to find out more. http://www.charlestonrugby.com/tourney.html
• Charleston Affair- Many alumni and current players met up at this year’s Charleston Affair event at the College which was a blast (although very crowded). Rugby songs began to be sung but were quickly stopped when we realized the event we were at. This event occurs on the first Saturday of May each year. Next year we would like to have a rugby social on the Friday night prior to for those who are in town.
• Logan Honeycutt- Logan recently engaged his lovely girlfriend, Erika Lindroth, on Sullivan’s Island Charleston Affair Weekend. Congrats to you both! Let us know when the wedding is so we can all show up!
If you have news to share, please email Andrew Muller at AEM84@yahoo.com and we will share it in the next newsletter.
All the best,
C of C Rugby Alumni Board