One of the best rugby teams in the nine-year history of the program at Wilbraham & Monson Academy will take to the pitch for its final home game Wednesday, May 2, versus Albany Academy at 4:45 p.m.
The Titans stand 3-0 and have beaten their opponents by an average of 31 points, including a 40-point victory over Kimball Union April 28 in a home contest.
"This is one of our stronger groups, and definitely a physically tough group of forwards and a talented and experience-wise group of backs," said Wally Swanson, who coaches the popular program with Tim Harrington '73.
"We have a significant increase in athleticism, and also a group of experienced guys who are able to lead. We're able to do some things creatively with kicking, and we have a deep roster so we can get subs in and the quality of play is maintained."
The quality of play has been very high all season, with scrum half Kizuki Koyasu '20 making the decisions offensively for WMA on the field. First-year player Ties van Haastrecht '18 has proven to be a dangerous fly half, and Will Crocker '20 and Shohei Ishikawa '19 carried their impressive play from 2017 to this season.
"We don't have a lot of players who came into the season knowing how to play," Kizuki explained. "We have a lot of new players but they are doing a great job. They tackle very well and they run so fast. Our team isn't that big, but our backs are really quick. I think that's our strength. I think we're doing really well."
WMA did more than very well against Kimball Union, putting on a dominating performance en route to a 66-26 victory.
"We had good running," Kizuki said. "We were able to kick and go get the ball, which made it easy to score. Our tackling was very good. We were able to get the ball from them and that made the score really high."
Kizuki and Rohan Heron '19 serve as captains for the Titans.