On Sunday, July 21, Coronado High School Rugby held their first ever Alumni vs. Coaches match. The alumni brought the speed and agility and the coaches brought the strength and experience. After some friendly banter, strained muscles, and sore bodies, the alumni took the win, 31-12, for the trophy.
This game brought back some great memories for both the players and the coaches. It consisted of three 20-minute periods of back and forth play. The occasional open field gave the alumni their chance to use their speed and score. However, the coaches were doing an incredible job at keeping their line, tackling, and communicating. They kept a lot of the play inside and were able to use some of their brute strength to push into the try zone.
The alumni pushed ahead and continued to score while holding back the coaches. Both sides put up a great fight, but the alumni had the better game.
Despite the loss for the coaches, the camaraderie and game of rugby brought back some great memories for Coronado High School coach, Coach Buck. He has been playing rugby since 1978 and personally coached every one of the players on that alumni sideline that day. Coach Buck said that it was “a lot of fun being out there with them […] and I hope that it is a tradition for as long as I’m around.”
Alongside Coach Buck was the Coronado High School rugby head coach, Coach Santos. He was also out on the field competing against some of his old players. Coach Santos stated after the game that “they all wanted to get me, and I think they all got a little bit of me out there.” He believed that sometimes the alumni weren’t necessarily competing against the coaches, but against themselves to see who could get the tackle, or juke out their favorite coach. However, even with the loss this year, Santos is confident that with a little more fitness they can take down the alumni next year.
As a commemorative part of this inaugural game, custom URT shirts were made for the both teams.
Find a video of the full game below:
