Rugby Field Yields Thran a Backfield

With starters Andy Bell and Alex Huh graduated, Harvard’s running game might have been out of luck. But Coach Gary Thran found replacements on a rugby field.

The tailback job will go to Marty Holly, a linebacker last fall and a fullback on the school rugby team in the spring. After watching Holly in the middle of a few scrums, Thran liked what he saw.

“He’s going to be carrying the ball 90% of the time in our offense,” Thran said.

Harvard’s offense this season will be an old-fashioned single-wing, which emphasizes the running game. Thran decided to implement the offense this summer after a search for a competent quarterback was unsuccessful. But for the single-wing to be successful, a durable ball-carrier is needed.

Holly (5-11, 187) impressed Thran with his ability to run with the rugby football, move laterally and spring to his feet after having his clock cleaned.

“It’s the kind of thing where you’re playing football without pads,” Thran said. “For a young man to put himself in that position, he has to be pretty brave.”

Holly wasn’t the only one being mauled this spring. Mike Huskins was in the middle of a few scrums himself. Neither Holly nor Huskins had ever played rugby, but they learned fast.

“It’s a little like football,” said Holly, a junior. “But when you’re on the football field, sometimes you want to be free of your pads and hit people.”

Huskins (6-0, 200), a senior who plays guard in football, played forward in rugby, a position similar to an offensive lineman in football. He also enjoys the contact.

“I love it,” Huskins said. “You get a lot of elbows and a few bloody noses, but it’s not really as violent as football.”

Huskins, smashing on the rugby field, will be used as a fullback in the single-wing.

“In rugby, everybody has a chance to carry the ball,” Thran said. “Huskins could run over people and score. It was a real eye-opener.”

With guards and linebackers running with such zeal on the rugby field, every oversized student with an iron jaw is likely to try out for rugby in the spring. But it’s not the ability to flatten people that Thran is looking for.

“It’s the intensity,” Thran said. “It’s how they stay in the game and don’t let up that’s important. Play doesn’t stop in rugby. It’s the intensity we hope will carry over into football.”

But isn’t rugby dangerous? If running backs get carried off the rugby field with battered faces, Harvard’s single-wing could be clipped.

“In four years, we’ve had one shoulder and one knee injury,” said Lee Carlson, Harvard rugby and assistant football coach. “It’s mostly just scrapes. Without a helmet, you don’t throw your head into anybody.”

Said Holly: “In football you’re out to take someone’s head off. Rugby is more arm-tackling.”

Bad-back attack: Canyon’s Chris Hauser won’t be throwing his body at anyone this season. It’s in a brace.

Hauser, a starting defensive back and backup wide receiver, cracked a vertebrae during the summer and will be out for the year.

“I can’t bend, but I can partially sit down,” said Hauser. “I’m supposed to take a lot of calcium, and without moving it’s supposed to mend together.”

Hauser, a junior, was understandably disappointed when his doctor and parents advised him not to play this season. Especially since he’d been practicing for three weeks and his back hadn’t bothered him enough to make him want to quit.

“It was a very prudent decision on his part,” Canyon Coach Harry Welch said. “Some kids will disregard a doctor’s advice and say ‘I’m going to play anyway.’ ”

Hauser indicated the injury is not as bad as it sounds.

“But after 12 weeks, it still might not be healed,” he said. “Then I’m going to do what I want to, no matter what. I’m definitely going to be back next year.”

Super sleeper: When Westlake volleyball Coach Dave Rubio quit to accept the coaching position at Cal State Bakersfield, Athletic Director Bob Fisher advertised for a replacement.

Yet Fisher received little feedback on the ads until Nick Super walked into his office.

Super, a custodian at Westlake, suggested that Fisher contact Super’s daughter, Diane, and her friend, Paulette Wight. Both, Super said, were experienced players, and more importantly, available.

Fisher followed up on the lead and hired the pair as co-coaches.

“Sometimes that’s the way you get them,” Fisher said. “Somebody knows somebody who knows somebody else.”

Wight attended Royal High and Cal State Northridge. Super played at Liberty College in Lynchburg, Va.

“Judging by the way practices are going so far, everything’s going pretty well,” Fisher said.

Fisher said the only drawback is that Wight and Super are walk-on coaches. Westlake has committed itself to hiring more on-campus coaches and has released several walk-ons.

“Sure, we’d like to have every coach teaching on campus,” Fisher said. “But practically speaking, when you have 45 coaches it’s a hard goal to achieve. But we’ve had success with walk-ons. Look at what Mike Williams did.”

Williams, a walk-on soccer coach, led the team to the Southern Section semifinals last year.

Rebuilding Lancers: After Thousand Oaks placed second in the 1986 Southern Section 4-A girls cross-country championships, Coach Jack Farrell expected a strong squad this year.

After all, five of the Lancers’ top six runners were scheduled to return. Only Farrell’s daughter, Christy, who placed third in the 4-A championships, graduated.

Jena Haggenmiller, Angie Lovell, Amee Edwards and Mandy Kossoris, the Lancers’ No. 2 through No. 5 runners, were expected back.

Since then, however, Lovell (seventh in the 4-A championships) and Edwards (27th) have moved to Oregon, leaving Farrell in the midst of a rebuilding year.

“We were like a good basketball team without a bench,” Farrell said. “We had five great starters but no reserves. With Angie and Amee gone, we’re going to take our lumps. We may have a five-minute gap from our first girl to our fifth girl.”

Last year, the Lancers had only a 1 minute, 42-second gap between their No. 1 and No. 5 runners.

Staff writers Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.