Bottom, from left to right: Sam Egger, Ben Skinner, Patrick Mulholland, Peter McDonald, Ethan Blakie, Liam Pluta. Submitted photo.
Saint Martin’s Academy is a Catholic boarding school for boys that combines classical academics with a practical work program on a sustainable farm. and is located southwest of Fort Scott.
It seems they have some athletes as well.
“We are the reigning Kansas State Rugby Champions, ” said school headmaster Daniel Kerr. ” Currently, we are ranked #9 in the country for all schools of any size according to the Goff Rugby Report.”
“To be a rugby player at St. Martin’s Academy is to be part of something larger than yourself,” said Coach John Prezzia. “It’s to be a band of brothers; a small group of young men united in the forge of intense battle amongst each other, where they are truly, ‘ironing sharpening iron’. This creates a bond amongst them that is so tight, that every one of them is completely willing to sacrifice all of himself for the sake of each brother next to him, and the team as a whole”
“This unity of purpose and toughness is how we continually punch above our weight, and with only 68 boys total enrolled at the school, we can compete with the very best teams in the country,” he said. “We have just been invited to the National Tournament…and are currently in the planning and fundraising phase. The boys have worked unbelievably hard to get to this level, and are incredibly excited to compete with the best.”
We got the invite last Tuesday, and when I announced it to the boys, they just about brought the house down with their hooting and hollering,” Prezzia said. “It was a pretty special way to kick off this journey to try and bring a Rugby National Title back to Fort Scott.”
“Rugby, a “barbarian’s sport played by gentlemen”, was invented in Rugby, England in 1823 when William Webb Ellis picked up a soccer ball and ran with it,” Kerr said. “It is the progenitor of American football. For example, the name ‘touchdown’ comes from the rule in rugby where you have to physically touch the ball down in the endzone for the score to count. Rugby combines the fluidity and continuous play of soccer with the physicality and roughness of American football. There are 15 players on the field and like soccer, they play both offense and defense as the ball changes possession. Like American football, the aim is to carry the ball across the opponents goal line and touch the ball down in the opponents end-zone or ‘try zone’. A ‘touchdown’ is called a ‘try’ in Rugby. A try is worth 5 points and the subsequent conversion kick is worth 2 points.”