WEST OTTAWA — An undefeated season and a state championship. That’s about as good as it gets.
And that is how good it got for the Traverse City Alliance co-op rugby team as they battled it out against Detroit Catholic Central to win a rough-and-tumble match by a 14-5 final at West Ottawa High School on Thursday, claiming a Division 1 title and capping off an unblemished season at 9-0.
“We stress two things — effort and attitude — and our guys brought it, tonight,” Alliance head coach Cornel Olivier said. “We kind of had a slow start, but our guys came back and scored and played really good defense to have an overall really great game.”
DCC went up 5-0, but the Alliance scored 14 unanswered points to win the championship.
Kingsley’s Caleb Bott and Traverse City Central’s Michael Caughran each had a successful try for five points, and Traverse City St. Francis’ James Thuente converted two kicks for four points as the Alliance defense — led by “Man of the Match” Max Goethals — held the Shamrocks’ offense in check for just one successful try.
“No matter what, we always kept our heads up,” Bott said. “This is the best feeling in the world.”
The Alliance reached Thursday’s final with a dominating 81-5 win over Howell in the quarterfinals and then a 40-22 victory against Rockford in the state semis to earn their shot against DCC. They took full advantage of that opportunity and proved to be the stronger team Thursday.
“It was one hit after another,” Goethals said. “I would get up off a tackle, and then there was another coming. That’s just how we play.”
“On offense, we have a strong kicking game, and that’s what we went for,” Bott added. “Downfield, there’s a lot of open-field tackles. Even on offense, it was hit after hit. You’d just have to keep getting up and running more and more to make it to the try-line.”
Scouting reports told the Alliance coaching staff that DCC had a reputation of being undisciplined, and the Alliance were able to exploit that and force the Shamrocks to get a red card and play with a man down after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the final 10 minutes of the game, all but sealing the championship win.
“It was a pretty physical game, and DCC was ready for us, too,” Olivier said. “We made too many mistakes and couldn’t get the machine running like we usually do, but we ended up pulling it off.”
For Bott and Goethals, it is their second team state championship this school year after winning a Division 6 title with the Kingsley Stags football team in November.
“I feel amazing,” Bott said. “Through all of our sports, we’ve put in so much effort in football, wrestling and rugby. For me, this one means the most to me. I put in a lot of work these last three years, and I know all of my teammates have.”
“I’m pretty jacked up,” Goethals added. “Two state championships. I’m really glad we were able to do that. We came into this season knowing we were up this year. We put all the pieces together one week at a time and just got it done.”
Bott said that rugby proved to be a tougher game to play than football.
“The conditioning with it is rough. The game is just nonstop,” he said. “With football, there’s plays that give you breaks and timeouts. There’s no timeouts in rugby. It’s just continuous, and you don’t have a coach telling you what to do. It’s all on the guys out on the field to make the decision, call the plays and do what needs to be done.”
Now, both Bott and Goethals are hopeful that the game continues to grow in northern Michigan.
“The sport, over just the last year, has grown exponentially,” Bott said. “Our team had maybe 17 kids last year, and we started this season with over 30. We still are trying to get more kids to come out. We’re spreading the word about the sport.”
Bott said he is hopeful this state championship will “bring a lot of eyes onto our team and bring out a lot more kids to keep growing this sport.”
“I just pray that this sport gets more recognition,” Bott said. “If you like hits in football, this is your sport. I think it’s a lot safer. There’s no pads, but there are so many rules with tackles, you have to follow those very strict rules for safety. If you’re a lineman in football and want to carry the ball, come out to play rugby. You get to carry the ball, and you will have so much fun.”
And a state championship might come along with all of that fun. That was the combination the 2024 TC Alliance wanted and then went out and earned.
“This has been just tremendous,” Goethals said. “Just me and my boys winning it.”