The DeMatha Rugby team is one of the school’s newer programs. Created in 2005, the team is still searching and working for their first championship.
The Rugby team struggled the past couple years. In the 2022 spring season, the team went 0-4 according to DeMatha’s yearbook. But that was a rebuilding year with a lot of young players. In 2023, they improved with a 3-3-1 record with big wins against Alexandra City HS, The Heights and St. John’s, making
big improvements because of the hard work they put in the offseason.
But in the 2024 spring season, the rugby team struggled again, finishing 2-4. The team beat Alexandria City and Good Counsel but lost games against St. Johns, Gonzaga, The Heights, and Landon.
These were all hard fought games and could’ve gone either way. The team needed to be over .500 to make the playoffs but fell short of that mark. One senior on the team talked about injuries that plagued the team, which led to some players “losing hope for the team.” He thinks there is a good deal of talent on the team, but they “need depth and people that are willing to play and go above and beyond for the team.”
The Rugby team is losing 12 seniors this year, all of whom were key pieces to the team in the past few seasons. One of them is Daniel Jackson, who is committed to Mount St. Mary’s University and will play rugby at the next level. The program also lost its head coach, Mr. Mark DePrato. So the program is in search of a new head coach to replace Coach DePrato and good players to replace the seniors who graduate in two weeks.
