December 04, 2024

Newton Rugby opens 2016 season Friday

By Jocelyn Sheets

Newton Rugby’s Jacob Smith, left, looks for the ball to come out of the scrum during a game last season. Smith, a senior, is the lone fourth-year player on the 2016 Newton Rugby club team. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Newton Rugby opens its 2016 Iowa Youth Rugby Association season Friday. Newton begins its sixth season playing in the IAYRA high school boys’ contact league under co-head coaches Bill Reed and Justin Liston.

Rugby is a club sport. It is not a sanctioned varsity sport by the Iowa High School Athletic Association or the Iowa Girls High school Athletic Union. In 2013, Newton’s Cardinals won the IAYRA Class 1A state championship.

“We have a good mix of veteran players and newcomers,” Reed said. “We have had some pretty good practices leading up to our first competition.”

The IAYRA teams play rugby sevens, which is a cutdown version of rugby union. Everything is in sevens with seven players a side on the field and seven-minute halves. Tries — scoring plays — are seven points.

Newton plays in the Class 2A division, which has 14 teams in central Iowa and three teams in eastern Iowa. The Cardinals were 1-10-2 in 2015 and went 0-5 in the 2A Blue Division.

Back for his fourth season on the team is senior Jacob Smith. Senior Antonio Tellez-Jordan and junior Riley Nine are three-year players while juniors Zach Bayne and Jace Weldon will be playing their second season of rugby for Newton.

New to the team are juniors Trent Brady and Logan Zibert, sophomores Charles Bowen and Joe Busch and freshmen Ethan Brady and Damir Gumerov.

“We are going to really lean on our returning players. They learned a lot last year,” Liston said. “With hard work we improved throughout the season last year and are looking to continue that this season.”

Newton’s rugby team plays two games each Friday during the season. The team’s April schedule starts Friday — at 6:40 p.m. against Marion and 8 p.m. against Cedar Falls — at Southeast Polk’s soccer complex outside of Altoona.

Newton hosts one Friday night of club games this season. Newton is at home April 15. It plays a 6:20 p.m. game against Dowling and a 9 p.m. game against Waterloo East at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

“We are looking at the season as a whole, we will probably take our lumps at the start of the start of the season, but hope to be making big strides by the end of April,” Liston said.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com