News from campus and beyond
Welcome: new recruits and returning players
The Furman men’s rugby team will launch the 2012-13 season with the squad’s first practice Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Roberts Rugby Field.
The team, which returns about a dozen players from last spring, will rely heavily on new recruits to fill out the squad. All prospective players should wear shorts, a t-shirt and cleats (if you have them, if not, running shoes will be fine.)
The team will be working to rebound from a disappointing, injury-plagued 2011-12 campaign, which saw the team finish with a 7-9 record, the Paladins first losing season in 12 years.
John Roberts enters his 15th year as head coach the Paladins. He is assisted by two-year coach Darren Scott, a former New Zealand professional rugby player. Roberts has a 156-58-1 career coaching record. His teams have collected three national championships, two national runner titles and seven South championships.
Next year, the team will welcome its first recruiting class of five scholarship rugby players. This scholarship program, launched with financial assistance from rugby alumni and friends, will offer substantial financial assistance to rugby players.
Nick Rossano, a freshman from Greer, joins the team this year as the program’s first scholarship recipient. Captain for his high school team, Rossano is a two-year state and regional all-star.
“Our scholarship program will allow us to attract national-caliber rugby players,” says Roberts. “They will help launch our play to an entire different level. Still we are continuing to recruit from our student body. We hope the scholarship program will ignite more even more interest in our program.”