Glendale, CO is now Rugby City, USA

Glendale, CO

OK, perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement, but not much. Rugby is, after all, the official sport of Glendale, Colorado. With a population of a little over 4,600 Glendale sits right in the middle of Denver – the Mile High City actually surrounds Glendale on all four sides.
And with a neighbor like that you need something to help you stand out. Among other things, Glendale picked the sport of rugby. With former USA U19 manager Mike Dunfafon the Glendale Mayor Pro Tem, and former USA U19 and Denver Barbarians head coach Mark Bullock now working for the city, a plan was drawn up to build a rugby stadium in the town, and to promote and support rugby as the official sport of the municipality.

“Glendale is a very international city,” Bullock told GoffonRugby. “The city has been looking for something that reflects that and gives us a unique identity.”

For some years that identity was softball. The population would come out of their apartments and townhouses to play softball every weekend, and while that faded somewhat, rugby is expected to take its place.

They have appropriated funds for a multi-million-dollar rugby stadium, complete with seating for 3,000, a turf-grass-mix pitch, changing rooms and a 2,000-square-foot clubhouse.

In addition, Bullock was brought on as Director of Rugby, certainly the first such post given in the USA by a city government, and Bullock in turn brought in former All Black and his good friend Geoff Old as head coach of the new Glendale Rugby Club.

While work continues on the stadium, which could be ready next year, the rugby has begun in earnest. Old and Bolluck held open tryouts for the team in August and ran a group of experienced and very inexperienced players through an intense three-hour session.

“We got perhaps fewer players than we expected but more experienced players than we expected,” Bullock said. “We got a lot of players who played in high school and just hadn’t found the right fit yet. Or they really didn’t know where to go.”

From that they created a very young club that has started playing a series of friendlies around the region. Their 74-10 victory of the Air Force Academy C team was an interesting lesson for Bullock and Old both, as they saw the team perform well above expectations.

“Had we known more fully what we had we’d have probably played the Air Force B side instead,” Bullock said.

Cedric Thompson, who is almost completely new to rugby, showcased impressive speed and scored three tries. But there are some players with plenty of rugby behind them, inlcuding former University of Northern Colorado standout prop Mike Tafel, No. 8 Ryan Chapman, Tyler Mintz, who played for the USA U19s under Bullock five years ago, and previous SFGG 7s speedster Dewon Reed.

Old and Bullock took some of the newer players with their Kudu team to Aspen Ruggerfest, and they have been amazed with how quickly the players have taken to the task at hand.

It helps, of course, to have an infrastructure of a city, albeit a small one, supporting you.

“We’ve got the city behind us, and that’s great,” said Bullock. “But we also know we have a lot of work to do. The citizens of Glendale are paying for this, and so we have a responsibility to them.”

On the horizon then is full participation in the Eastern Rockies DII league, probably in the spring, and then the opening of the stadium, which could well become a venue for some important championship and even international games.

Glendale has also made forays into women’s rugby, but instead of forming a club out of whole cloth, they have instead decided to adopt the Harlequin Olde Girls as their city club. This will work well for the Olde Girls, who have been a good team, but haven’t yet cracked the upper echelon. Part of that comes down to the need to travel to find stronger competition, and support from the city could help that.

“It’s kind of amazing what’s going on,” said Bullock. “But the City has been great and we’re determined to make it work.”