Most teams ease into competition, but not Redondo. The Sea Hawks open their inaugural season against the two teams in Southern California who played in the championship game last season, when Mira Costa defeated St. John Bosco.
Redondo’s head coach is Paul Breen, a successful rugby coach with the LA Rugby Club who coached the last two seasons at St. John Bosco. While he is having trouble fielding a full team this season, he expects the program will grow with more exposure to the sport and the high enrollment at Redondo Union High School.
Mira Costa will host Redondo Friday at 7 p.m. in what Mustang head coach Duke Dulgarian hopes will be the first of many meetings between the schools that will eventually match the rivalry of other sports.
Dulgarian, who also has a long involvement with the LA Rugby Club and has built Mira Costa into a national power ( No. 7 in the nation in 2016) was instrumental in starting the program at Redondo.
“At present they are struggling with numbers but by next year they should be fully up and running,” Dulgarian said. “Paul and I are confident by next year it should be a rivalry. Paul is a very good head coach and he’ll get it going.”
With only 11 players on its roster with little to no experience in the sport, Redondo opened the season against St. John Bosco who lent the Sea Hawks four players to fill out their team. Although St. John Bosco won 36-7, it was a moral victory for Breen.
“The score could have been 100-0 but we held St. John Bosco to under 40 points and even scored on them, which is a big deal,” Breen said. “Our boys showed great heart and courage. We had small players tackling 300-pound players
Shwabe Shaw scored the first try in the history of Redondo rugby as his father and assistant coach, Aleem Shaw, looked on.
Breen knows he has his work cut out for him but crafting youth into successful young men is his main mission. He teaches safety first, then fundamentals.
“We’re not expecting much this season, just some moments of glory,” Breen said. “We’re still learning how to throw the ball in.”
While club rugby continues to grow, Breen feels high school rugby is the future of the sport in the United States.
Breen said his players are at the junior varsity level and Dulgarian will field a squad of JV players Friday as his varsity team will be competing at UCLA on Saturday against club teams Mother Lode at 10:20 a.m. and Lamorinda at 1:40 p.m.
Mira Costa (2-0) is coming off a 47-7 rout of visiting St. Anthony last Saturday. The Mustangs were led by No. 8 position Jonah Tavai, flankers Gunnar Kissman, Alex Oshita, hooker Callum Lapper, fly half Kaden Loversky and inside center Jordan Fischer.
“It was a truly unselfish match played by the Costa boys as they continued to share the ball, looking for opportunities to offload the ball to their teammates as well as playing very good defense against a very big and physical team,” Dulgarian said.
Prior to the boys contest on Friday, Mira Costa’s girls team will take on View Park Prep at 5:30 p.m. The team is in its first year and its head coach is Ali Taylor, who also serves as the boys forwards coach, and gets help from the rest of the coaches on the boys team.
“The girls are doing great,” Dulgarian said. “What a pleasure to coach. They are always happy to go to practice and learn. They are getting better every day and we hope by next year they will be a very competitive team.”
For more information or to join the Redondo Union High School rugby team, contact head coach Paul Breen at 310-850-0116; pbreen@breeneng.com
