Aidan Tyksinski, Editor
If you happen to drive through Doylestown, Pennsylvania on a weekend, go past the famous Fonthill Castle that looks out of place today and end up passing Maennerchor Field - chances are you will see 30 guys or girls playing a sport that seems as dated as the castle. The sport being played is rugby, and the club that calls the field home is on the cusp of its 50th anniversary.
The Doylestown Dragons Rugby Football Club (or Doylestown RFC) was created in 1974 when a group of rugby players from Doylestown played rugby with Blackthorn RFC. Realizing the 45 minute drive to Blackthorn's home field near Philadelphia three days a week was too much, the players decided to start their team in Doylestown.
Today, the rugby club has grown from just having a men's side to including youth teams, both high school girls and boys teams and also a women's team. The current president of the men's team, Brian Kelnhofer, started out playing for the club's youth and high school teams and is now back playing for the men's team.
"I think it speaks for rugby," Kelnhofer said. "Kevin Riley and Brian Stella are the two guys who I walked into [the sport with]. They were great friends when I was a kid and they said, "'We need more people,' and I was hooked from the jump." Today, Kelnhofer, Riley and Stella have continued the bond they forged as kids and all play together on the men's team.
The team struggled in the fall both in terms of finding enough players and capturing wins. However, they started the spring with a roster of over 20 players and finished the season undefeated, with one of the wins coming against their old foe Blackthorn.
The head coach of the team, Jeremy Ault, credits hard work for the team's success. "We have been working on our skills and the fundamentals in the winter," he said. "You can never not train enough of the fundamentals. Since we went to outside practices, we have been wanting to work on our game plan since this is a different style, whether you are familiar with it or not."
Something all members of the club were happy to touch on was what it means to be a part of Doylestown Rugby for the 50th anniversary, as well as the club's reunion that will be coinciding with the anniversary.
"It's a privilege to say that I will be moving forward as the head coach of a club that has been around for half a century. I think that is something that will definitely be on my resume, but until then I think it will be important to see that growth and development from the younger guys," said Ault.
"I think that this celebration is bringing a lot of people out of the woodwork who want to come back and get involved," added Julian Bellman, the communications and marketing chair of the club and Vice President of the men's team. "As a club, we are setting up a lot of infrastructure to be able to keep track of records and management of past and current players to have better communication with everyone. So, I think having everyone come out for the 50th and get involved that way and update their information, they will be able to stay informed."
As for the future of the club, everyone involved with the men's team was very optimistic. "The numbers have been increasing," said Bellman. "We have a new head coach (Ault) and a new president (Kelnhofer), who are both doing a great job in their positions with building team morale, getting players out and teaching the game to new people."
"We want more bodies, more time together and just building the right culture," said Kelnhofer about his goals for the club. "Because when you do that, everything else follows."
When asked if he wanted to add anything else, Kelnhofer gave a quick pause, smiled, and said the same slogan that has been said for 50 years.
"Go Dragons."
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