King's rugby on the rise

University's team stages worst-to-first (almost) turnaround

King’s team smiles in a huddle after defeating Dalhousie seven to three at Rockingstone Field on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Photo: Roland Eksteins

John Adams recalls his first year with the University of King's College rugby team as a minor disaster.

"My first year, we lost every game and got only one try the entire season," Adams remembers.

He reminisces about a game that same season when the team had only 13 of the 15 players it needed to field a team.

"I remember one game where our coach, Owen Donat, was going to play. It got rained out so he didn't, but he was suiting up."

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King’s and Dalhousie forwards crouched and ready to engage in a scrum during their game at Rockingstone Field on Saturday, Oct. 15 2011. Photo: Roland Eksteins

This season is a different story. Adams is now the head coach. The team has clinched first place in the Division Two university league, after beating Dalhousie University 7-3 the other week. They finished the season with a 5-1 record. 

But how did this happen? What were the game changers?

New staff

Adams is the first to acknowledge that a major figure in the turn-around is his assistant coach, John Choptiany.

"He was instrumental in building a program out of King's rugby," Adams says. Choptiany is another former player, who joined the team in the 2007-08 season and turned to coaching two years later.

By the time Choptiany started playing for King's, the long losing streaks were in the past, but when he started to coach the program took off.

"I really liked the team, but I wanted to make it a little more professional, a little more organized," says Choptiany. "It wasn't well respected. We weren't really good, but we had a lot of talent."

Choptiany went to work. He organized exhibition games, scores of them. In fact, the team now plays more exhibition games each year than regular-season matches.

Another thing Choptiany did his first season as a coach in 2009-10 was organize a spring tour to Barbados. The trip schedule was split between exhibition games with local teams and community volunteer work. Team fundraisers and support from King's alumni covered the entire trip. Last season they took a similar trip to Cuba.

Equipment

The scrum machine has proven to be a great advantage for team practices. King's is one of the few Atlantic university teams to own this piece of equipment. It looks like a football blocking sled, and allows the team to simulate scrums using only eight, instead of 16, bodies. This results in more efficient practices. King's scrum half, David Renny, says he find it funny when the Dal players half jokingly ask when they're going to get to borrow it.

Another explanation behind the revamp is the league itself. For the last five years King's had played in the Atlantic College Athletics Association varsity league. It was a small league, with small schools, that ended up collapsing. This season they returned to the bigger pond with the larger schools, such as Dal and Acadia University, where they had racked up those losing records only a few years ago.

Justis Danto-Clancy, the King's team member who plays the position of hooker,, explained the psychology behind the changes. He said the several years of varsity allowed the team to build confidence, but this season the team started on its toes, aware of the tests ahead.

 And just as the voice says in the baseball movie Field of Dreams "if you build it, he will come," King's started to build a rugby program, and the players came.

Adams has no rational explanation for the group of talented players who have arrived recently.

The team ultimately lost to St. FX in the league championship in October.

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