September 21, 2007 - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
September 21, 2007 - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
September 21, 2007 - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
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12 <strong>September</strong> <strong>21</strong>, <strong>2007</strong> Sports www.smumn.edu/cardinal<br />
Dembiec thrives in dual coaching role<br />
BY CANDICE NORRELL<br />
Sports Editor<br />
Rugby: a gentleman’s sport played<br />
by barbarians. Interesting enough to get<br />
anyone’s attention, but what exactly is<br />
rugby?<br />
Rugby was invented in Rugby,<br />
England, in the early 1800s and is the<br />
precursor to modern-day football.<br />
Played on a 70 by120 meter field, each<br />
team consists <strong>of</strong> 15 players, and the<br />
game is comprised <strong>of</strong> two 40-minute<br />
halves.<br />
“It’s played much like soccer or<br />
hockey in that it is a free-flowing game<br />
with little stoppages,” said <strong>Saint</strong><br />
Mary’s <strong>University</strong> Hellfish Co-captain<br />
Jared Ortgiesen.<br />
Teams score when players run into<br />
the “Try,” or endzone, and touch the<br />
ball to the ground (now we know why<br />
it’s called a touchdown in football).<br />
Each “Try” is worth five points with a<br />
kick following it worth two points.<br />
The ball is progressed down the field<br />
through a series <strong>of</strong> punts and lateral<br />
passes, as it is illegal to throw the ball<br />
photo from internet<br />
Dembiec coaches both men and<br />
women in soccer, sometimes<br />
spending nine hours on the field.<br />
BY ALEX CONOVER<br />
Cardinal Staff<br />
<strong>Saint</strong> Mary’s <strong>University</strong> Women’s Soccer Coach Tony<br />
Guinn stepped down from his position two weeks before<br />
the start <strong>of</strong> the season. This left Athletic Director Nikki<br />
Fennern in a tough situation.<br />
Many options were discussed, but it was ultimately<br />
decided that the best person for the job was already at<br />
SMU: second-year Men’s Soccer Coach Chris Dembiec.<br />
“Nikki and I talked, and we agreed that the best option<br />
was to use someone who already knew the girls,” said<br />
Dembiec. “I was happy to take the job; I volunteered.”<br />
Coach Dembiec, who played soccer at Marquette and<br />
coached at the high school level, is coming <strong>of</strong>f a 4-12<br />
debut season with the men’s team last year.<br />
“It’s clear that he’s very busy, but he views it as a<br />
challenge,” commented Connor McHugh, a freshman on<br />
the men’s team. “It just comes down to time management.”<br />
Dembiec’s situation is not unique. There are already<br />
three other schools in the MIAC that have the same<br />
coach for both the men’s and women’s soccer teams:<br />
Rugby players express love <strong>of</strong> the game<br />
forward. Play is restarted either by a<br />
lineout, in which players are hoisted<br />
into the air after the ball is thrown out<br />
<strong>of</strong> bounds, or by a scrummage, or<br />
scrum, after a penalty is committed.<br />
Over 30 men are on the team this<br />
year, the team’s tenth year at SMU.<br />
“We are looking better than ever…and<br />
are looking forward to winning the<br />
[Division III] championship,” said<br />
Ortgiesen.<br />
Senior Captain Josh Barrett said that<br />
the game <strong>of</strong> rugby is his passion and<br />
that he loves “everything that has to do<br />
with rugby. There is not a second <strong>of</strong><br />
the day that I don’t wish I was playing.”<br />
Ortgiesen added that the thing he<br />
loves most about the game is the camaraderie.<br />
“I have never made so many<br />
friends doing anything else. I know<br />
people from all over the Midwest and<br />
even as far as Louisiana, Hawaii and<br />
California who I have either played<br />
with or know through the sport.<br />
“It’s the only sport where you go out<br />
on the field and beat the crap out <strong>of</strong> a<br />
guy…punching, scratching, kicking,<br />
getting stomped on…and when that 80<br />
minutes is up, you go and say to that<br />
other chap, ‘Hey that was a nice cleat<br />
mark you left on my back! Remember<br />
when I punched you in the face and<br />
stepped on your hand?’ And that guy<br />
laughs and tells you that it was a hell<br />
<strong>of</strong> a game. I haven’t found that in any<br />
other sport I have watched or played<br />
and I think it’s amazing,” said<br />
Ortgiesen<br />
Before each game, the team warms<br />
up and sings their fight song. “Last<br />
year we also started the tradition <strong>of</strong><br />
saying a Hail Mary as a team before<br />
games,” Ortgiesen said. “We have<br />
never lost a game where we prayed<br />
before the match as a team.”<br />
Though the team is still in the<br />
process <strong>of</strong> scheduling games, they are<br />
looking forward to playing Winona<br />
State, their rivals for the last three<br />
years. Upcoming home games are<br />
scheduled for Sept. 29 and Oct. 6. The<br />
Hellfish won their first game 24-10<br />
against Viterbo on Sept. 15.<br />
Bethel, Concordia-Moorhead, and Macalester.<br />
“We just had to move some things around,” said<br />
Dembiec. “For instance, we had to reschedule a<br />
women’s game last week because I was out <strong>of</strong> town with<br />
the men’s team. There were lots a little glitches at first,<br />
but we’re all adjusting to it.”<br />
It was perhaps most frustrating before the season even<br />
started.<br />
“During two-a-days, I was on the field for nine hours<br />
a day,” Dembiec said. “Along with the flooding <strong>of</strong> our<br />
fields, it was a stressful pre-season.”<br />
Even with all the conflicts, however, both teams are<br />
already starting to see results. The men’s squad opened<br />
up the non-conference schedule 2-2-0, and the women’s<br />
team is 5-1-0, outscoring their opponents 24-1 in their<br />
first four games.<br />
“Coach has high hopes for us this season,” said Marie<br />
Allen, a freshman for the women’s team. “The men’s<br />
team, too. We’re both young squads, and we can’t wait<br />
to see where Coach can take us in the next couple <strong>of</strong><br />
years.”