New Trier Rugby achieves revenge win in state championship

After many school years, it can be difficult to list all the accomplishments of New Trier High School teams and student-athletes.

This year was no different. So, if you didn’t ready know, excuse this late addition for New Trier rugby.

NT rugby — a club team, not sponsored by the school — toppled Neuqua Valley 31-14 on May 31 to claim its first Rugby Illinois state championship since 2016.

The victory was especially sweet since Neuqua was the only team to beat New Trier this season, winning a 17-15 decision with an improbable 10-point burst in the final minute in the spring.

This time around, the New Trier squad was ready for revenge.

“We got there early, we prepared,” coach Phil Olson said. “They would have run through a brick wall. They were dialed in.”

New Trier, which plays its home matches in Wilmette’s Gillson Park, was 6-1 in the regular season and opened the eight-team postseason with a resounding 33-3 victory against Brother Rice. Then, the team traveled down to central Illinois to Georgetown, a town east of Champaign, to take on Notre Dame de La Salette.

The semifinal bout was a nailbiter, but New Trier converted a late try to take a 17-15 lead that it held on to, punching its ticket to the championship.

In the finale, rising New Trier senior Jayden Salazar — who Olson said “literally has never missed a tackle” — earned player of the match in his team’s victory. He scored three tries, one after he blocked a kick and recovered the loose ball.

Dylan Jeppe, Colton Berg and Charlie Gardella were among the team’s leaders this season. Rugby Illinois named Gardella the state’s player of the year. Another senior contributor, Nicky Mekhitarian, made it two state championships in his final year, after also contributing to the Trevians state championship soccer team.

New Trier Rugby has come on strong in recent years finishing as the state runnerup in 2022 and losing by one to the state’s eventual champ (Glen Ellyn) in the semifinals in 2023. The program went through a drought after its success in 2016. It was also runnerup in 2015 and third in 2014.

Olson said a big reason for the New Trier’s climb to the top is the tutelage of coach Paddy Ryan, a professional rugby player with the Chicago Hounds.

Ryan, whom Olson and his staff recruited two years ago, played professionally in France and Ireland before coming to Chicago and has taken New Trier Rugby to “a different level,” Olson said.

One significant improvement was New Trier’s focus on lineouts, or inbounds plays.

“We started to dominate in the lineout,” Olson said. “We controlled the lineout and were able to, in really a big sense, control the game.”

New Trier Rugby’s varsity features 23 players, 15 of whom are starters. Most of the program’s players are New Trier High School students, but not all of them. Some come from other high schools, such as Loyola Academy, Stevenson and Libertyville, that do not necessarily claim a rugby club.

New Trier Rugby also fields a freshman/sophomore team and junior varsity team, when possible. The frosh/soph unit also won a state title, besting Chesteron in the championship.

New Trier Rugby is funded partially by player dues; however, Olson said that is not enough to cover everything, which is where private donations and sponsor Illinois Bone and Joint Institute come in.

“We’re in the youth stages and would like to have it eventually be sustainable,” he said. “But we can’t just raise dues exponentially on the kids.”

For more information on New Trier Rugby, visit the program’s website and Instagram page.

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