The 2012 rugby season was a rollercoaster ride for Aggies. There were some incredible highs and some rough lows...
In their first ever season at 7s the Aggies won a thrilling Big XII championship and qualified for nationals where they finished 11th out 30 teams. The fifteen’s squad finished the season at 7-4, with a 4-4 record in Division-1A competition. The Aggies won both home and away matches against Oklahoma and Notre Dame, however were solidly defeated by Arkansas State and Life University. “We were inconsistent last year,” said head coach Brett Mills, “if we can become more consistent and believe in ourselves more this year, we are going to have a great deal of success.”
The Aggies join the Allied Rugby Conference (ARC) this year for its inaugural season. The ARC will compete in D-1A, which is the highest level of collegiate competition in the country. “I am extremely proud and excited to be a part of this new conference, it has the potential to become something very special,” stated Mills. “We are excited about getting back in a conference with traditional rivals UT and Sam Houston State, and retaining our relationship with Oklahoma.” The ARC membership includes Texas A&M, University of Texas, University of Oklahoma, Baylor University, Sam Houston State University, and Texas Tech University. Aggie team president Chris Frazier added, “We are really delighted that most of our matches will be within driving distance of our fans, so we hope that our supporters and alumni come out to see us both at home and on the road.” The Aggies also have BYU, ASU, and Life on the schedule and are hoping to have Army and the Air Force Academy as well. This will be one of the most competitive schedules for the Aggies in recent memory.
The Aggies will play an expanded 7s season this year with a number of tournaments in the ARC. They will take part in the SEC 7s Championship and the ARC 7s Championship, both of which will be national qualifiers. “We are very excited about sevens this year, and come into our second season with a great deal more experience than last year,” commented Mills. The Aggies 7s outfit boats one of the top sevens’ players in the country in Brian Guillen. Mills adds, “Brian is a dangerous offensive player and really makes things happen for us. I know he is going to be even better this season after playing sevens all summer long.”
Mills is very excited about the prospects for the Aggies going into the fifteens season. “We are returning twelve starters from a team that played an extremely tough schedule last year and finished 7-4. If we can stay healthy and find some depth, we are going to present a real challenge to our competitors,” said Mills. The Aggies will be led by their senior captain and Collegiate All-American, Conor Mills. Mills was third in D-1A in scoring with 101 points (168 total) and led the nation in penalty kicks with 18. “Conor’s real talent is his ability to read a game and give his backfield mates chances to do what they do best. We scored 434 points last year with Conor running the game, so I am excited to see what he will do his senior year,” said coach Mills. Mills is just one of the talented backs the Aggies feature. “In my opinion, we have one of the most talented back divisions in the country, and if they stay healthy, they are going to score a lot of tries.”
Veterans Lukas Jacobson (fullback), Jan Young (center), Brian Guillen (wing), Aaron Durke (scrumhalf), Tyler Gessner (center), Grayson Dowlearn (center), Cody Yarbrough (center) and Matt Saladino (wing) are all returning and have benefitted tremendously from last year’s tough schedule. This gives the Aggies some exciting options. “Our guys are big, powerful, athletic, and skilled with a ball,” said captain Conor Mills, “we can score from anywhere on the field and teams cannot focus on one guy because everyone is dangerous.” The backs scored 46 of the 58 team tries last year which says a lot about the quality in the back division.
Despite the quality of the backs, Mills, a former forward, believes strongly in the importance of his forwards and their ability to establish not only the platform for the backs, but the tone of the game. “Aggie rugby has a proud tradition of being a physically tough and hard team, we will continue that tradition this year,” said senior hooker Andres Diaz. The pack returns Diaz, Armando De la Garza (prop), Dickson Garnett (prop), Chris Semler (lock), John Deao (lock and vice-captain), Raymond Hawkins (flanker), Chris Frazier (flanker), and Jonathan Barbee (#8). “We return the entire pack from last year, which is extremely exciting for us. Coach Jeremy Stewart, our forwards coach, does a brilliant job of getting these guys ready to play each week, and I know that they will be extremely physical and tough this season,” said Mills. “Diaz sets the tempo for us with his intensity, but the rest of these guys are hard at both the breakdown and in the tackle.” Mills is exceptionally high on Chris Frazier who he thinks might be one of the best loose forwards he has ever worked with. “Chris is fearless, has an exceptional motor, and is relentless in the tackle. He is like a shark in that he never gives up on his prey.”
The key to success this year, as it is every year, is keeping the Aggies healthy. “We have to stay healthy if we are going to be successful this year. We want to continue to build our depth and I think we are going to be very deep in certain areas,” stated Mills, “we have some exciting walk-on athletes coming in and some really great freshman as well. I expect that there will be a good deal of competition for spots in the twenty-three which is only going to make us better.”
The Aggies’ success does not all rest on the field, and Mills is quick to complement the work of Rugby Director Craig Coates. “Craig has been amazing, he has been the driving force in our transition to the new conference, works with our alumni, and keeps the Aggie ship running tight,” stated Mills, “he allows me to coach rugby without having to worry about all the extremely important but time-consuming details that go into managing a rugby team. I think we work extremely-well together and I am excited about working with him again this season.”
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