The Wayne State men’s and women’s Rugby teams are preparing for a successful season after scoring some experienced recruits for the 2017-2018 seasons.

Darrin Barner has been coaching the women’s and men’s rugby team for the past 16 years. With each school year comes a new season and new excitement from the players.

“The reaction and enthusiasm of new freshmen and rookies and also the maturity of the upperclassmen stepping up and showing leadership skills is what I look forward to most when starting a new season,” Barner said.

The women’s team is going to be rebuilding this year after losing a large number of seniors. After having several strong years, the women’s team will have a smaller roster than in previous years.

“We had 12 seniors graduate,” said Leanna Rosberg, senior women’s rugby player. “They were all very good rugby players, starting every game. So it’s going to be a challenge to replace them.”

Several recruits had two to three years of experience before coming to WSC.

“It’s been a great recruiting year with high school rugby players choosing WSC as their college of choice,” Barner said. “There are 900 college rugby programs for women and men, and it was great to see that they picked our program and how they can take a well-fueled
machine to higher limits with their talents.”

With lots of new talent coming in the freshman class this year, the teams are ready to try for another national title.

“The team’s main goal is to win the conference. The second goal is to win a playoff game. The final goal is to play in the final four,” Barner said. “We run two offenses, so that if the defense keys in on our game, we switch to the other,” putting the team at an advantage that most defenses aren’t prepared for.