Dixon High Varsity Rugby Club's Blockbuster Season

It has been a year of unprecedented success for the Dixon varsity rugby club. With a perfect 6-0 record in league, the Rams has earned themselves a spot in the California State Cup Tournament next month, not too shabby for a program entering into only its fourth year.

On Saturday April 14, Dixon beat the 2011 National Champions, rugby powerhouse Jesuit High School, by a score of 38-28 in a game that ushered in a changing of the guard in the division. The victory clinched Dixon one of eight berths in the USA Rugby National Invitational High School Championships in Utah on May 18 and 19.

“Last year we took second place in the Pacific Coast Regional Championships behind Jesuit,” said Dixon head coach Robert Salaber. “They went on to win the national championship in Utah. They are the standard. They’ve always been ranked in the top 10 in the nation, and they’ve won several national championships. Beating them this year was a huge accomplishment for our program.”

The Dixon varsity club consists of a 20-man roster, ranging from sophomores to seniors, most of whom have played together for at least three years. One of the main components of their success is the fact that they only lost four starting players last season, returning 11.

In a league comprised of Jesuit, Bellarmine, Christian Brothers, Bishop O’Dowd, De La Salle, Piedmont, and McClatchy, Dixon has dominated all, outscoring their opponents 321 to 86.

Now, with one game left in the regular season, the Dixon squad is putting their noses to the grindstone, knowing that the hardest stretch of games is yet to come.

“We only practice two times a week, which isn’t a lot, but we ask the kids to weight train and most of them do that through the high school,” said Salaber. “Now that we’re in the state cup and the national championship our boys are up at 6:00 running a couple of days a week.”

One of the things that greatly benefited Dixon this year was their annual club trip. The entire team traveled across the pond to England and Wales earlier this month to tour the countryside and play rugby with clubs in Penturk, Birmingham, and North Hampton, even managing to win two of the three matches.

“It was a great chance to learn a faster paced hands-on-the-ball style of rugby, which I think really helped us not only with our skills but also with our confidence,” said Salaber. “I think we really stunned the players, the coaches, and their families because they just don’t think that America is a place where you have good rugby.”

Coach Salaber played rugby himself at UC Berkeley, widely recognized as the nation’s premiere rugby program, as well as overseas in New Zealand after college. He prefers to use a mixture of collegiate rugby with a little of the Kiwi style when he coaches.

“Our style of play is very dynamic,” said Salaber. “We like to move the ball around, quickly recycle the ball, and get it wide to our backs and let them have a run. We let our forwards run with our backs so everybody knows how to handle the ball, and everybody knows what they need to do.”

Dixon will face Bellarmine Friday at 6:30 p.m., at Hall Memorial Park in their final regular season match. The team encourages all Dixon residents to come out and support the club, even if they are unfamiliar with the sport. As one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, it might just be worth learning about.

“Probably two-thirds of our players play football,” said Salaber. “I think you’ll find that the best football players on the Dixon High team are rugby players. The things that they’re learning in rugby makes them much more confident on a football field because they have to make split second decisions in rugby all the time. The two sports are very complimentary to one another. You have to be tough to play rugby and make tackles without pads on.”