Flathead Valley Black and Blue rugby team builds camaraderie

As the end of the game neared, a sideways rain began to pour, further soaking the already wet field, pummeling the players, as their stamina began to wane.

The Missoula Mud Dogs were pushing closer to the end zone, and the Black and Blue slipped on the wet grass as they worked to hold them back.

It looked like the Mud Dogs were going to score, but it didn’t matter. The Black and Blue already had the game bagged.

The Flathead Valley Black and Blue high school rugby team beat the Missoula Mud Dogs 47-7 last Thursday during their first home game of the season at Evergreen Junior High.

The high school rugby club formed in 2009, and has consisted of players from Flathead and Glacier high schools. But the team is open to any high school male in the valley who wants to play. They’ve had players from Whitefish and Columbia Falls, and for the first time this season, from Bigfork.

Noe Gomez is a senior at Bigfork High School. He played rugby for the first time as a sophomore, with the Flathead Rams, a team that grew out of the Black and Blue when club membership was high. That team folded, and Gomez competed in track as a junior while the Black and Blue went on to an undefeated season. After missing his senior football and wrestling seasons because of a torn ligament in his shoulder, Gomez is back playing rugby. 

While he’s still fairly new to the sport Gomez said he likes it as much as he likes football. And he’s starting to lean more and more towards rugby as his preferred sport because of the opportunities there are to play it after high school.

He’s planning to attend college in Modesto Cali., where there is a club rugby team.

Coach Peter Leander knows first hand that rugby is a tight-knit community.

In the early 1990’s Leander played for the Phoenix Rugby club. When fellow Black and Blue coach Dave Kinkle got sent to Phoenix for work he hooked up with the club. Before Kinkle left he and Leander swapped jerseys, parted ways and expected they’d never see each other again.

But when Leander moved to the Flathead valley he saw an article in the Flathead Beacon about the Black and Blue rugby team, and recognized Kinkles name.

Remembering their time in Phoenix, Leader dug to the bottom of a drawer and pulled out Kinkle’s old jersey. That jersey has found it’s place on the team. At the end of every game the coaches choose a Man of the Match. That player gets to keep Kinkle’s old jersey until the next game.

Leander grinned as he watched Thursdays’ Man of the Match strut around in the old jersey.

“They love it,” he said.

For Leander, rugby is all about the camaraderie. That is something he is trying to teach and encourage with the Black and Blue.

“You just crash into each other for 70 minutes, and then you have a burger together,” he said.  Going out, playing hard, then coming of the field and shaking hands, Leander describes as the spirit of rugby. “The true spirit of rugby is something to aspire to.”

At Thursday’s match, after the jersey’s came off, pizza boxes were opened, and burgers hit the grill, you couldn’t tell who had played for Missoula, and who played for the Black and Blue. It was just a group of muddy teenage boys. “It’s nice to start the camaraderie now,” said Leander.

And as Leander pointed out, those kids could end up on the same team someday. 

He hopes to see more kids from all of the valley come out for the sport. 

They don’t have to have any experience he said, “Just a good sense of sportsmanship, camaraderie and a willingness to play hard.” Most of the guys on the team had never played rugby before joining the Black and Blue.

They are playing well this season. The match against the Mud Dogs was their biggest win. They have one other home game remaining before the state tournament in Corvallis May 16 and 17.

“They’ve just come leaps and bound,” Leander said.