By Zach Waltz
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s rugby season has come to an end as the Bonnies lost their bowl game against American International College (AIC) in Shippensburg, Pa. Saturday.
The Bonnies were originally supposed to play Shippensburg University, and SUNY Brockport was supposed to play AIC. However, Brockport was not able to travel, so Shippensburg bowed out, allowing AIC to face off against the Bonnies.
Head Coach Clarence Picard said the Bonnies would have liked to have performed better in their final game of the season, but said they can still improve.
“As far as the results go, they weren’t as good as we would have hoped,” Picard said. “We lost 42-24 with their seven tries to our four. They were a big, physical, fit and athletic team. They played fast.”
Picard said the team has rebounded fast from the unexpected matchup against AIC.
“They came right at us and gave us our lumps,” Picard said. “With losses like that, it’s about what you get out of them. We have a team meeting Wednesday. We’re ready to get right back at it. We have to dedicate more time to training.”
As the team prepares for the offseason, Picard said some players are preparing for seven-on-seven action.
“We have a split schedule right now,” Picard said. “A third of the team is going to be going to sevens, and they’re going to be doing that fairly quickly. They’re going to be working on their speed and ball handling.”
Picard said the rest of the team will start a lifting program in the offseason.
“The rest of the team will go into a different mode,” Picard said. “They’re going to take a little time off for the next week or two to get their bodies healthy. Then, they’re going to go into a heavy lifting mode where they’re going to try to build some strength and put on some size to put them in a better position to compete.”
Picard said the team’s job now is to get the young players ready to step up into bigger roles.
“We had a lot of young guys, specifically forwards,” Picard said. “That’s an area where we’d love to say skill and fitness count, but a lot of times, muscle-on-muscle counts too. We’re a little lacking in that area, so we’re going to try and get right after it and make a nice little step in the right direction.”
In particular, Picard said the sophomores are in a position to become crucial players.
“Now’s the time for the sophomores to step up and become team leaders and all-conference level players and really make a contribution,” Picard said.
Picard said the challenge is preparing the freshmen to step up and fill the voids left by the sophomores.
“We’re always trying to speed up the amount of time it takes for a guy to go from a freshman that doesn’t know what’s going on to a guy that we can count on,” Picard said. “Traditionally, this offseason is when you really have to start to see those changes be put in place. We’re looking for guys that dive right into the weight training, nutrition and film watching. Those are the kind of guys that can make a huge jump to being important players.”
waltzzd12@bonaventure.edu
