Rugby Club Welcomes Multi-Sport Athletes

The Berkshire United High School Girls & Boys Rugby Club holds its initial 2014 practice earlier this month at the FieldHouse in Canaan, N.Y.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — In the brief history of the Berkshire United High School Girls & Boys Rugby Club, head coach David Colli has had a lot of reasons to smile on the pitch.

But one of the recent highlights came on the mat.

 

"When Robert Yvon (of Monument Mountain) won the Western Mass wrestling title, one of the first people to congratulate him was Jordan Knowlton of Taconic," Colli said, referring to two spring teammates who are winter rivals.

 

"Part of the gig with rugby is we travel, but it's really cool, getting kids from all the different schools traveling together.

 

"Rugby is a bonding sport."

 

And building bonds among high school students from throughout the county is part of the mission for Berkshire United, which welcomes boys and girls, freshman through seniors, from any county high school for a schedule that starts in March and ends in August.

 

Heading into the 2014 season, Colli said the program had players from Pittsfield High, Taconic, Mount Greylock, Drury, Hoosac Valley, Wahconah and Monument Mountain.

 

Although the club program operates outside the varsity athletics system, Colli sees it as dovetailing nicely with the sports at each of those schools.

 

He is an assistant wrestling and football coach at Monument Mountain, where he was a standout soccer player himself back in the day. Colli is a big believer in kids playing a variety of sports.

 

"Jordan Knowlton wrestled his first year at Taconic this year," Colli said. "I've been trying to get him to wrestle for four years. And he got fourth in Western Mass in his first year of wrestling as a senior.

 

"He's a captain of our rugby team."

 

Colli's spirit of "athletic ecumenism" extends right into the spring season. He allows and even encourages his rugby players to be multi-sport athletes.

 

"I remember as a kid, I'd go to wrestling practice and then play basketball or go swimming or whatever," Colli said. "Varsity coaches at the schools — some of them will frown upon it. But we don't want to get in a fight about it. We just want to give kids opportunities.

 

"Every kid we ever had who played track or softball or baseball or whatever, we understand. We say, 'Go have a great game.' ... I'm a high school coach myself. I'd be angry if my kid missed a practice.

 

"If a kid is going to be a half-hour late for [rugby] practice, I'm cool with it. I'm not going to make him run laps or something. If he's late because he's coming from another sport, I don't care."

 

Berkshire United practices Tuesday and Thursday evenings in Pittsfield's Osceola Park once the weather improves. Its initial March practices are held indoors at the FieldHouse in Canaan, N.Y.

 

Colli did not play rugby himself until three years into his college career, when he transferred from Bridgewater State — where he played soccer and wrestled — to Maryland's Salisbury University.

 

He played on two national championship teams for legendary Salisbury coach Robert "Doc" Davis and honed his skills further with a short stint in rugby-mad New Zealand.

 

"I learned the game at 21," the Stockbridge native said. "I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd played as a little kid.

 

"To have been able to come back to where I grew up and start youth rugby is a neat opportunity."

 

Berkshire United has built quite a resume since it was founded in 2008. The boys have been to the first three state finals in the history of the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization's club division and won one of them; the girls' side is entering its third season and has been to the last two state finals.

 

This spring, the girls will host the High School Girls Rugby National Championships at Taconic High School, May 17-18.

 

The first part of the year, Berkshire United plays the more traditional "15s" style of rugby with 15 players to a side. From June through August, it plays "7s," a faster-paced, higher scoring version of the game that is growing in popularity.

 

"In 2016, there's going to be 7-on-7 in the Olympics," Colli said. "It's short with 14-minute matches. It's wide open with a lot of pace and tackling and action and it's over quick.

 

"It's perfect for the American palette."

 

Last year, Berkshire United's boys finished their season at the Can-Am Rugby Tournament in Saranac Lake, N.Y., playing in the inaugural high school division at 41-year-old event, the largest in the northern hemisphere.

 

"There were three thousand people in the stands, and we were down 22-0 at half-time and came back to win," Colli said. "That's how we ended our season last year — finishing off with a win. It was pretty awesome."