Duke men’s club rugby team will look to celebrate its 50th season with a national championship this weekend.
As the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) Region II champions, the Blue Devils will compete in the national semifinals against New England Saturday in Glendale, Colo.
If Duke knocks off the Pilgrims—who finished as the top-ranked team in the fall—the Blue Devils would advance to their first Division III championship game since they finished as national runners up at the 2005 tournament finals in Greenville, S.C. At that time, the tournament was called the East Coast Division III Collegiate Championship.
“Because of the anniversary, we have been connected with the alumni base,” senior Nico Rice said. “Just learning the history of the team, going back to 1962, it’s really informative and really puts an emphasis on us to create our own legacy while were here, and I think we’ve done that.”
Duke’s run to the tournament’s final weekend began back on March 9 when it trounced West Florida 55-19 in Pensacola, Fla., and the Blue Devils have not slowed down since then, defeating North Florida, Montclair State and Gettysburg all by double-digit totals to secure the Region II crown and keep their undefeated season alive.
With its impressive performance thus far, Duke has shown it might deserve to be in a higher division.
“We’ve bounced between divisions over the past four years,” said Rice, who served as the club’s president last year. “My freshman year we were in Division III. Then we went all the way up to Division I my sophomore year and got absolutely killed, dropped down to Division II last year, and now were back to Division III. And it’s not where we should be. We should be in Division II, and we’re really making a statement about that and just blowing teams out.” Rice said that part of the reasoning behind playing in Division III was a rule prohibiting schools with NCAA Division I football teams from participating in the national playoffs for Division II rugby clubs.
In order to continue to dominate their opponents, the Blue Devils have had to maintain a deep roster.
“In the past we haven’t had the same depth,” Rice said. “This year, we’ve really had a deep talent base. We’ve had starters on the bench. And that’s the biggest difference for us, that our talent is so much deeper.”
Critical to this player retention has been the team’s new coach, Mike Morgan, who has instilled an attitude of accountability across the team, Rice said. “I’ve talked to the guys a lot about just getting an inch better every time we practice,” Morgan said.
Morgan played rugby himself in Roanoke, Va. and Charlotte, N.C. and later held coaching positions at Furman from 2003-05 and at the Raleigh men’s club in the spring of 2012 before taking the head coach job at Duke this past fall.
During his time as an assistant at Furman, Morgan helped the team to bring home three consecutive championships.
He also had a knack for knocking out the Blue Devils.
“When I coached at Furman we beat Duke two years in a row to keep them from going to nationals,” Morgan said. “They’ve had some really successful teams a long, long time ago. They went through a pretty long period of time when they really just didn’t have very much success and the program has really rebounded.”
Part of the rebound effort himself, Morgan said he has enjoyed becoming a part of this Duke community, working with a players that vary in skill-level from lifetime rugby veterans to first-time players who have had high-school football experience at most.
“The kids that go to school here are phenomenal kids,” he said. “They are fun to be around, they listen, they are coachable, [and] they want to learn the game.” Morgan has also worked on ways to celebrate the club’s 50-year history, including an alumni weekend event and fundraising drive for the team.
The biggest test awaits the first-year head coach and his squad this weekend, though, in their quest to get back to a championship game.
“We have always been athletic and always had a level of talent,” Rice said. “But he has been able to give us the discipline and level of awareness, give us that added toughness…. so that we can really do something special with this.”
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