Liberty North boys rugby improving through the summer with 18U KC Blues
LIBERTY, Mo. — The sport of rugby is popular worldwide. It is an intense physical game that requires speed, agility, endurance, and heart. There are no pads or helmets. It is played only with a mouthpiece. Games can be played in a 15-a-side or a 7-a-side version (sevens). There is not a large extensive book of rules for rugby, but instead, the 23 laws of the game, which were established in the 1800s. The basic goal of the game is simple–get the ball behind the opponent’s try line into the in-goal area while your opponent’s try to stop you. The ball can be in hand or kicked. When the ball is carried in hand it can only be thrown or handed off backwards.
Teaching the finer points of the sport to young local athletes are two brothers, and coaches for the Liberty North high school club team, Ben and Brodie Orth. Younger brother Brodie has played on international teams representing the United States, as well as professional teams in New Zealand, Boston, Iowa, and Colorado.
The Orth brothers grew up in Kansas City, but most of their extended family is Canadian–so they went to Ontario for the Summers from a young age. “The kids up there didn’t play tackle football, they played rugby,” says Ben. “It looked like the football we played, except they didn’t stop and switch sides from the offense to the defense. That appealed to me. I played football in the North Suburban Youth Football league as a youth. You had to play on either offense or defense. In rugby I got to do both.” In 1991, Ben’s Junior year in high school, they started a rugby team there. Rugby has been a constant part of his life ever since.
“Even back in the early days, we saw that kids were getting to go to college on scholarships for rugby,” says Ben. “We did not have a pathway for our kids to get to the next level, so it has been a slow build to open the opportunity for scholarships. And kids are getting scholarships now.”
Currently, a number of players from Liberty North and Liberty are practicing as part of a special 18U KC Blues team, which includes athletes from a dozen schools in the Metro. They will play in late July in USA Rugby’s North American Invitational. At this tournament, “each one of these players will be seen by 30-40 college coaches that will have one more opportunity to give them an offer before school starts,” says Ben. “There is really a good opportunity for kids to continue their education.”
Recent graduate from Liberty North, Cam Kirkland, to the great surprise of his mom, went from playing no sports in high school through his sophomore year, to being named First Team All-State and team Captain of the Liberty North team, his senior year. As Cam explains, “I transferred from Liberty to Liberty North and coach Brodie saw me walking down the hallway at school, and he said, ‘you are a big dude, you should come out and play. You could be good at rugby.’”
“When I first started rugby and I held the ball, I was like why am I here? This is going to be stupid! But I got to know everyone and the coaches, and right after my second practice, I was just determined to condition, and I would stay after for hours and do conditioning.
Eventually, he wants to work as a paramedic and firefighter. He is enrolled at Metropolitan Community college. After the North American Invitational, Cam intends to travel to Australia at the end of the year to play for the Gungahlin Eagles, a rugby union club based in Australia.
“The coaches are amazing. Without Brodie, I would never have known about the sport – now I get a chance to go around the world,” says Cam.
Another recent graduate from Liberty North, Holdun Seely, will also be traveling to Australia in the hope of turning pro in rugby. Holdun grew up wrestling, playing basketball, and football. He played for three years as a defensive end and safety for the Liberty North Eagles.
“Aggression and going all-out at 100% are things I brought with me from football,” says Holdun. “Physically, rugby is more exhausting than football. You have to be at the right place at the right time and communicate while you are running. In football, you could focus on one job and one assignment. In rugby, the play doesn’t stop. It was a struggle in 15s to get in cardio shape. You can get even more gassed in the sevens. For training, it helps to run the cross-county course and run mileage every day. Also, you have to lift weights. I work out twice a day if I can.”
Drew Evans played four years of rugby at Liberty North after he found out about the team from a fellow wrestler. He plans to play for the rugby team at the University of Missouri this coming Fall, where he will study math and mechanical engineering. “Rugby teaches you observation, communication, trust, and all the basic life skills,” says Drew.
Playing for the Liberty North girls sevens side is Kaitlen Cherco. She is going into her junior year, and third year in rugby. “I liked the idea of rugby because I could not play football,” says Kaitlen. “The first year, we did not have enough players for the girls team, so we had to unite with Liberty to make a team.”
“The practices and fun times you have at practice are what I like the most about rugby. That’s what keeps me coming back,” says Kaitlen. “You just have to keep going. In sevens, it is so demanding physically, but you have to keep going.”
Incoming Liberty North senior, Wyatt Hensley, also plays football and rugby. He was part of the Junior Kansas City Blues team that played at the high school nationals last year, with the top 24 teams in the nation. He is on the school debate team and eventually wants to study law. He also wants to pursue rugby in college and maybe into the pros as well.
“I have found out in rugby that the people that practice more than others, regardless of the talent, will perform better in games. I have kind of taken that to heart this past year,” says Wyatt. “This past year I have gotten a lot better at the game. Ben and Brodie are both really good coaches and really understand the game. We are a competitive team now, and we play nationally ranked teams. This is the first year we did that, and we hung in with a lot of them. That’s pretty good.”
What are the keys to a successful rugby team? “Especially with high school teams, the parent’s support is everything.” says coach Ben. “You can only do as much as parents are willing to help with. A strong parent group will let you as a coaching staff dream up whatever you want to do. For the North American Invitational, a group of parents came together to make sure we could send a team.” Also important to the success of a rugby team is getting tough minded players. “There is a certain mindset that rugby kids have,” says coach Ben. “ They are the ones that run till they puke on a long run and will give themself a bloody nose in a pushup contest.”
The sport of rugby has received strong support from Liberty public schools. “The Liberty public school system is unique and amazing,” says Ben. “A lot of school districts have taken a stance, just out of caution, really more than anything, or policy, that they won’t recognize rugby at all. Not only has Liberty public schools recognized rugby at North and at Liberty, they said they have seen what our kids do, and they know it is a sport, and they treat it like one.”
Coach Ben sums up the life lessons to be learned from the sport of rugby: “It is a 70-minute test of will in the 15s game. In the sevens, we play 14-minute games, but you play four games in a day. In all this, you can’t give up, no matter what. Your brain will tell your body to give up long before your body is ready. And rugby is a game that will remind you of that every single time you look your opponents in the eye.”
According to the great French rugby player, Jean-Pierre Rives, “The whole point of rugby is that it is, first and foremost, a state of mind, a spirit.” Certainly, one can find that spirit in Liberty living among the coaches and players–a tough-minded group of individuals that know how to battle adversity and prevail. Kudos to all their hard work.
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