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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.”

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