Wheeling Jesuit Rugby announced their fall schedule today, kicking off their inaugural season as a Division 1 Varsity sport. The Cardinals open up at home on September 8 against cross-state rivals, West Virginia University.
“I’m very excited about our first ever home game.” said Head Coach Eric Jerpe. “It should be an exciting year for the community and WJU Athletics. The game of rugby is hard hitting, and fast paced. We’ll do all we can to show fans why it is one of the most popular sports in the world”.
WJU Rugby will play a combined Fall and Spring schedule leading up to the USA Rugby Collegiate Playoffs held in May.
Fall season highlights include a match against the Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Md. (Sept 29), and national powerhouses Ohio State (Oct 5) and Penn State (Oct 13). Penn State is coming off an impressive 2011/12 campaign where they reached the national quarterfinals.
“These matches against OSU and Penn State will really give our new team a good indicator of where we need to be as a program.” said Jerpe. “Our goal is to compete at that level every week.”
On Homecoming weekend (Oct 20), Notre Dame College comes to Wheeling to square off against the Cardinals. Notre Dame College is also a recently formed Varsity Team according to Jerpe.
Also highlighting the schedule are two qualifying tournaments for the USA Rugby College Sevens National Championship in December, the first being held at Bowling Green State University on September 1. Rugby 7s is the version of the game being played in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
To learn more about the game of rugby, visit www.usarugby.org and click on “Play the Game on the left hand column.”
For more information on WJU Rugby visit: http://athletics.wju.edu/
9/1/2012 Bowling Green University 7s Championship Qualifier A Bowling Green, OH 9:30 a.m.
9/8/2012 West Virginia University H Wheeling, WV 1 p.m.
9/15/2012 Millersville University A Millersville, PA 1 p.m.
9/29/2012 University of Maryland A College Park, MD 1 p.m.
10/5/2012 Ohio State University A Columbus, OH 7 p.m.
10/13/2012 Penn State University A State College, PA 1 p.m.
10/20/2012 Notre Dame College H Wheeling, WV 6 p.m.
10/27/2012 John Carroll University H Wheeling, WV 6 p.m.
11/3/2012 University of Delaware 7s Championship Qualifier A Newark, DE 9:30 a.m.
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