Naperville 1 and West Suburban
develop into middle school title contenders
By Paul LaTour
During preseason meetings, teams often set up goals to attain during the upcoming campaign. More often than not, one of those goals is to win the championship.
Yet neither the Naperville Crusaders I nor the West Suburban Barbarians spent any time this season thinking about winning the iYRA Middle School State Championship.
It had nothing to do with whether or not the teams were good enough to contend for the title. It was because the second-year league’s focus is on player development, not winning.
“It wasn’t even a focus of ours,” Naperville coach Graeme Jackson said of reaching the final. “It really didn’t dawn on us that we had even made the championship game until we beat Arlington (May 23).”
In the inaugural season the finale pitted the team with the best record – Arlington – against an combined side of “all-star” players from the remaining teams. The coaches got together in the offseason and decided to create an actual championship game.
“We’ve always said we’re a developmental league and we’re just trying to introduce the concepts and the ethos of rugby to these kids,” Barbarians coach Phil Clarke said. “But having a championship makes people take more of an interest, and therefore spread the word. Being involved in the high school Championship Day (in Lemont) will certainly help do that.”
The Barbarians face Naperville1 at 10 a.m. Monday at the Blaze facility in Lemont, the first of six championship matches being held during the annual Memorial Day rugby-a-thon. In all 10 matches will be played on the three fields, culminating with the Tier 1 boys final at 4 p.m.
“It’s a great revelation for the middle school kids to understand how big these high school programs are,” Clarke said. “If you’d have asked any of them before the season, they would have had no idea there were high school rugby programs.”
For most of the middle school players, the league serves as their introduction into the sport. Unless they have older siblings involved or parents with rugby backgrounds, they remain oblivious to the sport.
That’s why coaches don’t want to put too many expectations on the players in terms of winning and losing. In fact, those expectations are probably as non-existent as the players’ original grasp of rugby.
That approach keeps everyone involved and not unnecessarily hung up on results.
“We’re really focused more on having them enjoy the game,” said Jackson, who also coaches the first-year Neuqua Valley High School team. “This is more of the iYRA calling it a championship game to promote the game. But now that there is a championship, the boys are excited about it. Now it actually means something to them. That’s a good way to go where the focus is not on the championship all year.”
Jackson’s club is made up of two sides, drawing 36 players from all across Naperville. Jackson said his goal is to keep both squads equal, but that the Naperville 1 side ended up jelling better.
Jackson goes so far as to rotate players at halftime to make sure as many of them get experience at different positions. Thus the first-half forwards become back-line players for the second half.
After realizing they were playing for the championship, the players told Jackson they shouldn’t rotate in the final for fear that could weaken the team. Jackson wasn’t having any of it.
“I said to them, ‘We’ve been rotating all season and we beat Arlington by rotating, so we’re going to rotate,” he said. “We will continue to do that.”
The Barbarians, who are based in Western Springs, draw players from Western Springs, LaGrange, LaGrange Park, Hinsdale and other nearby cities. Clarke said his goal is to become a feeder program for one of the high schools because there are no current teams in the area.
“Some guys I know tried to start a high school program, but just didn’t get enough kids signed up at the beginning of the year so they shelved it,” Clarke said. “If they start campaigning earlier and my eighth graders come through, hopefully we can get it started in the area.
“We’ve even created a name – the West Suburban Wolfhounds – and the team is registered with USA Rugby. We just didn’t get enough kids signed up.”
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
Naperville Crusaders 1
1. Tomas Medina
2. Suraj Jena
3. Matt Callahan
4. Ryan Minick
5. Mike Krug
6. Sebastian Laskowski
7. Bernie Laskowski
8. Andrew Fraczek
9. Logan Jensen
10. AJ Geoghegan
11. Wyatt States
12. Garrett Kizior
13. Quinton Jackson
14. Sam Sanko
15. Ben Sweetnam
Coaches – Graeme Jackson, John Bramlet and John Baderman
West Suburban Barbarians
1. Dan Fiszer
2. Jorge Hernandez
3. Damien Hanson
4. Cody Melka
5. Garrett Hanley
6. Tom Weiler
7. Mitchell Ciszewski
8. Daniel Lockie
9. Gareth Jones
10. Piers Clarke
11. Marc Morrison
12. Mike Masterson
13. Quentin Sanchez
14. William Belden
15. Christian Musil
Coaches – Phil Clarke, John Weyer
