Back Bay grows

Bryce Alderton

The Back Bay under-19 rugby team came up short in its season finale,

but the growth of the first-year squad can hardly be denied.

From eight players who started practicing in the corners of

parking lots at season’s beginning, the number of Sharks swelled to

28 by Saturday’s contest against the powerful Los Angeles Cougars at

Peninsula Park.

Back Bay players and coaches didn’t need to look very far to see

the promise of what the team could become.

The Cougars (16-1), who will represent Southern California in the

national championships in two weeks, scored the final 18 points and

ended Back Bay’s season with a 25-7 victory in front of roughly 100

spectators, many of whom toted their lawn chairs until finding an

ideal viewing spot on a pristine afternoon.

“If you lose, why not lose to the best,” Sharks’ Coach Jeff

Bonnett said. “In the past we’ve come back from stuff like that.

We’ve won games, 67-0, but it’s better to take on teams like this.”

The Cougars are in their fifth season and their coach, Chip

Howard, is an ex-United States national team member.

“They are big, they practice every day and they are all quick,”

Back Bay’s Fernando Lara said. “They know the game and have a good

combination of size and speed.”

Back Bay’s Joe Vuki, a senior football defensive end and fullback

at Western High last fall, took a handoff and raced 10 yards across

the goal line -- worth five points -- in the 17th minute of the first

half. Each half is 30 minutes.

David Del Fante, a starting cornerback and reserve place-kicker on

Corona del Mar’s football team last fall, converted a 10-yard kick

through the goal post for two points and a 7-7 tie.

L.A. took the lead for good five minutes later when center Phil

Rosenberg took an underhanded toss from Nick Regas and beat defenders

to the corner of the goal line for the eventual game-winning points.

Back Bay (11-4), which lost twice to the Cougars this season,

spent nearly half of the final 30 minutes on L.A.’s side of the

field, but couldn’t outrun Cougar pursuers.

Zak Sepulveda and Bijan Ahmadi both made pushes toward the goal

line for Back Bay, but were knocked out of bounds.

“They play well as a team,” Vuki said of the Cougars. “They came

out ready. We tried our best.”

Similar sentiments could also be said about the Sharks, who jelled

with a mix of players trying out the sport for the first time and

those who have played it since grade school.

Vuki, a resident of Buena Park, started playing when he was in

fourth grade in his native Tonga Islands in the South Pacific.

Contrast that with players such as Lara, a Newport Harbor student

who began playing rugby about two months ago to get in shape for

football.

“I’m liking it,” Lara said. “I’ve met a lot of new people and I’m

trying to learn everything about rugby and the culture behind it.”

Bonnett said willingness to learn and unselfishness were two

traits that contributed to the team’s success.

“These guys are like sponges, absorbing anything,” Bonnett said.

“The thing that makes this team special is when I substitute a guy

onto the field, the guy coming off the field is happy for the other

guy going on. No one is saying, ‘Me, me, me.’”

Bonnett also spoke of team captain Delano McKenzie and Cameron

Eaton in high esteem.

The sound of bagpipes radiated through the sea breeze during a

pregame ceremony.

Back Bay players locked arms and gently jogged in tandem a few

feet behind the bagpipe player.

“It is a team sport, you can’t play as an individual,” Bonnett

said.