By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme) – Spear Reporter
SJSU club rugby celebrates their bowl win in Houston, Texas. | Photo courtesy of Matthew Cluin
Head coach of club rugby Nick Schlobohm was getting ready to tee off when he found out his team was headed to the championships.
SJSU won 17-12 against University of South Florida in the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) D1AA National Bowl Championships on May 6.
“We’re golfing and I get this emergency text from our league commissioner saying, ‘hey, emergency meeting Fresno State can’t go to the ballgame,’” Schlobohm said.
SJSU had now been given the perfect opportunity to step up as due to too many injuries Fresno State had to bow out. While the first year head coach was definitely put on the spot, rather than panicking, Schlobohm took it all in stride and immediately got to planning.
Before his rise to the position of head coach, Schlobohm had an extremely successful career as a rugby player.
Schlobohm played for Saint Mary’s College, where he won three national championships. In 2014, he was also named to the USA Rugby all Playoff-Team. Following his playing career, Schlobohm coached regional youth rugby camps, eventually finding out about SJSU rugby unexpectedly.
“Last summer, I met one of the current players [at San Jose State] who’s graduating a couple of weeks from now. By chance, he was working at one of the grocery stores that I go to and I was wearing a rugby shirt. So we started chatting,” Schlobohm said.
The player he spoke to told him about their previous rough season and so Schlobohm began to think of ways he could help. At first nothing much came of it until one of his old coaches told him that SJSU was looking for a coach. Little did Schlobohm know though that the vacant position was actually for head coach.
Rather than backing down Nick went “all in” and got the job after beating out two other candidates.
“I’ve always been one to say, ‘take a leap of faith and just trust in yourself,’ which is kind of my coaching philosophy as well. But that’s exactly what happened,” Schlobohm said.
As previously mentioned the rugby team at SJSU was not in a great spot when he came in. There were financial issues and no real executive team at the time.
Schlobohm said he “hit the ground running,” with the first month and a half for him feeling like a “blur.” While the issues may have been apparent, Schlobohm also noticed something else about the club and that was talent.
“These guys can do some damage if we coach them up a bit,” Schlobohm said and so he got to work.
Setting up a solid foundation was important for him as head coach and so he sought to establish one.
“The first thing you got to do when you step into a new program is kind of start off a culture that’s gonna promote winning, but also obviously have fun doing it,” Schlobohm said.
With the foundation set he also had a goal in mind and that was to make the playoffs. An ambitious one considering their prior couple of seasons, but with their talent he believed it was certainly achievable.
They made the playoffs during the regular season beating high level schools such as Stanford, Cal Maritime, and UNR. However, they finished third in the playoffs, just missing the bowl game.
“At the beginning of the year the alumni were like, ‘hey, it’d be really cool if we were in a bowl game five to 10 years from now,” Schlobohm said.
Despite how little time they had with the bowl game only being a week away, the team did have one advantage.
“It was kind of perfect timing that happened then because we were able to announce it and say hey we’re going to compete for a trophy. We need help getting there,” Schlobohm said.
With the alumni there for the announcement a lot of them received the news directly and stepped up to help.
“It was one of the craziest things I’ve been a part of,” said treasurer and player Luis Hernandez. “You could just see all the previous guys buying into this new team and this new culture.”
In addition to alumni support, Ryan Fetzer, director of Spartan Recreation, helped connect rugby with further funding. All in all they raised a whopping $22,000 sending men’s rugby to the bowl game in Texas.
For the players it was quite the whirlwind of events as they quickly transitioned from getting ready for next season to preparing for the bowl game.
“You know, everything we just said last week, forget it,” said president and player Zachary Tabangcura. “It all happened very very fast. I was in shock.”
With only a week of practice the players had to put on their best showing and despite the short notice, spirits were high.
“That week of practices was probably one of the best weeks we’ve had,” said Tabangcura. “You could kind of tell the energy was different, guys started to realize we’re playing for something big here, we have a great opportunity.”
Then the moment finally came on May 6 when SJSU faced South Florida in Houston, Texas.
“We were waiting in this locker room and I was like ‘wow this is happening,’” said Tabangcura. “We are in Houston about to play potentially one of the top teams in Florida and this is our time.”
The game itself got off to a good start for San Jose as they scored early, but USF responded taking the lead 10-5. Right before the second half the Spartans took a slight lead and held that into the next half.
In the second half SJSU extended its lead 17-10 and never looked back, holding on to win the bowl game.
“I can’t even put it into words just like tears, and like jitters, and the nerves are getting out because we finally did it,” Hernandez said.
The rollercoaster ride had finally come to an end for club rugby and they had emerged victorious. From getting ready for the end of its season to hoisting the bowl trophy all in the span of a week.
“It’s something you always remember. You remember who you did it with and as coaches, that’s what we want to bring to the table for these players, because we know how it feels,” Schlobohm said.
Taking a leap of faith was something that this team did many times throughout its season. Whether that be from Schlobohm taking the leap to becoming a coach or the team getting themselves to the bowl game.
At the end of the day those moments where they took a chance paid off and now everyone involved will have memories to last a lifetime. Club rugby and Schlobohm’s story are not nearly over and if anything its just beginning.