The JBU rugby club won their games in South Dakota and is preparing for a trip to Los Angeles in the spring.
“We played two games, the semifinal match against South Dakota State on Saturday and the final against Wayne State on Sunday,” said Tyler Kinzer, senior intercultural studies major.
Kinzer believes that the team played very well as a whole both games. They won the first game 36-17 and started to fall apart a little in the second half but came back and cleaned it up.
“The second game against Wayne State was incredible. I’ve never been so proud of my team,” said Kinzer.
Kinzer believes that it was by far the best game of rugby he has played since he came to JBU.
“Wayne State recently got hit by a huge tornado and there was a lot of damage there. All of our players gave some money out of pocket, and we were able to give the $200 as a gift to help a fellow rugby team rebuild,” said Kinzer.
Kinzer believes that on top of their victories on the field, they most importantly showed the love of Christ and upheld good character.
The team is not exactly sure where in LA or when finals are, but the Wayne Representative told them that he would send them the details when it is all worked out.
“We haven’t gotten this far in about 10 years, and it is a privilege and a blessing to be able to represent JBU and Christ over all in Los Angeles,” said Kinzer.
Kinzer expects to have good competition in LA, but stresses that the JBU team hasn’t had the chance to go there in a long time.
“We need to start fund raising to get enough money to fly out there because it is too long of a drive,” said Kinzer.
Kinzer thinks people should care about the team because they are representing a small Christian College, are a student lead club, have the chance to represent JBU in a higher level of rugby and are also a ministry that will be able to represent Christian character to more teams on a broad spectrum.
“We couldn’t do so well as a club if we didn’t have support, financial and moral, from our fans and JBU community and are depending on them to help us go,” said Kinzer.
Jeremiah Moore, sophomore marketing major, feels that they had an awesome weekend in South Dakota.
JBU is in the top 16 out of 217 teams in the nation.
“This is super exciting,” said Erika Forney, junior photography major.
Forney thought it was crazy that a JBU club rugby team would be going after such a title.
“If we win, we get to the final four in Denver, CO,” said Moore.
Moore feels that there is a sense of brotherhood across all rugby clubs.
“Knowing that we play with ‘Christ over all’ literally on our backs, we play with Christ’s character,” said Moore.
Moore believes that the rugby team always makes sure to lift up the community at JBU and hopes that the community will, in turn, help them out.
Forney believes that they are very generous men.
“I mean those short shorts,” said Forney.
Details about fundraising will come as Kinzer hears more from the representative from Wayne State.