The Danville Oaks Rugby team defeated the Kahuku Red Raiders High School Rugby Club 8-5 in the championship game of the Pacific Cup Invitational in San Diego on Saturday.
Danville, from Northern California, is ranked No. 1 on GoffRugbyReport.com.
“The team has worked hard this season,” Kahuku coach Seamus Fitzgerald said. “They’ve shown great discipline, a strong work ethic and a lot of character to reach this level of play. Teamwork and learning to play as a unit had a lot to do with this team’s success. Because they know the system much better this year, they were able to execute at a higher level and play more cohesively as a team, which made them stronger overall.”
Kahuku reached the championship game by defeating No. 4 Back Bay of Newport, Calif., 53-0.
Sione Uasi scored a try for Kahuku on a quick tap, and William Fonokalafi was called the best player of the tournament in a GoffRugbyReport.com article.
In April, Kahuku beat the Kalihi Raiders 36-0 for the state title.
Doing great things for our boys, possible 5 players are in discussion for receiving college scholarships because of their play at this tournament.
I wonder how long till Kahuku Principal and Athletic director fire this coach because they can!
Getting rid of the coach is a terrible idea. Kahuku is the best team and play better rugby than anyone we’ve seen in the past three years. The culture of the team and sportsmanship shown by the players before, during, and after the match is also unmatched. Our boys learned a lot by playing Kahuku, and I don’t know why anyone would want to tear down what Coach Seamus has built.
Danville Coach Jon Straka
Coach Jon Straka (not sure if u are the real coach or not), congrats on running a fine Rugby program and the win over Kahuku last week.
The scoops at Kahuku High School is that the new principal and AD came in two years ago and made the Football coach (an alumni and coached at the school for 30yrs and he won 5 state championships) reapply for his job for no valid reason, and then hired an outsider from Idaho. The Idaho coach resigned after one year and now this year they hire another outsider. The new Kahuku school administration really dont support our local alumni coaches who have coached and sent many boys to the NFL, whats sad is that both the principal and athletic director are also alumni of Kahuku so speculation is that they have personal history issues with the great coaches that we have in our own community therefore they got rid of them and wont hire them.
So now that Coach Seamus has a good thing going with the rugby team and as they begin to make a name for themselves and gain national recognition it wouldnt surprise me if the administration gets jealous and makes him reapply for his job one year and then hire someone from the mainland.
@redalert293, thank goodness that rugby is a outside club sport so the admin has no say over who coaches. Seamus and his coaches have done a great job with the program.
While the principal and AD have had their hands in making a mockery of the football program, VP Santiago is just as much to blame maybe even more.