The Anthony Wayne ( Mad Anthony) rugby club was founded in 2004. There were 3 founding fathers that started the club, Myles Knechtges, Will Seigfred and Zach Switzer. These 3 individuals had played on Findlay High School's first year ruby club and decided the following year to start a team at their own school.They were able to recurit 19 individuals with 11 of those players being seniors, 5 juniors and 3 sophomores. The club won the first game they ever played against Northville 8 to 3. The first year team ended the season with a 3-6 record.

 

 The 2nd year club (2005)  didn't see much success in the victory column. Three returning players decided to go to their own home school of Perrysburg and start their own team, leaving only Zach Switzer as the only senior with any experience. The club did consist of 3 freshman ( Mike Robbinette, Tyler Switzer and Sean Ford) who became the first players to play all 4 years of high school rugby. Zach ended his playing career with 24 stiches in his forehead complements of  his own teamate Dana Benner.

 

The 2006 and 2007 clubs had a lot of determination but not much rugby experience as the records indicate. Adam Foltz graduated being the last member remaining from the first year's team.

 

Finally the 2008 club started  to see some success as it was really the first club with a majority of its players having some rugby experience as this was the final year for Mike, Tyler and Sean.One downnote to the season was that the club experienced its first serious injury when  Stephen Jarrell  found that he had torn his spleen during a game and was hospitalized for a couple of days in serious condition. Luckily, Stephen made a full recovery and showed true rugby character by  coming back out  the following year.

 

The 2009 season  ended as our first winning season for the club. The team success came mainly due to the speed of Nathan Dipillo, Jay Rezabek and Joe Cowell. But there was also a lot of rugby experince provided by Brandon Macfarlene, Eric Philliaps,Brian Williford,and Shane Krempa. Nathan, Brandon, Eric and Brian were all 3/4 year members of the club. This year's team was made stronger with the addition of  many players mostly from Sylvania and Bratch Eldred, our first Maumee player joining our club. Shane Krempa also designed the club's logo that is now on every shirt and jacket.

 

 The 2010 season started with many question marks. The squad only had two seniors with rugby experience Cody Switzer and Bratch Eldred and the team was made up of mostly sophomores. But these sophomores had some  talent and more importanly help established a  great chemistry between players that helped  the club to its best season ever. The only downer of the season was losing our first round playoff game, but with everybody coming back next year the future looks very good.

 

 The 2011 season was our best overall  with a league record of  5- 1. Adding the games that were played in  Cleveland brought the overall record to  7-1.- This was the club's first year of having over 30 players. Having this many players made us a much better team. The most dramatic game was the Lakeview game which was won on a penalty kick with no time left. Of course nobody will ever forget the Findlay game.  It was a shame that we weren't included in the playoffs. We can have the satisfaction of knowing that we beat two of the teams that did make the playoffs and was Findlay's toughtest opponent losing only by 2 pts.  This was the final year for Jaried Bonino and Andrew Brown who played all 4 years. These two along with James Gragg and Taylor Burkett will be tough players to replace come next year.

 

The 2012 season will be known as the yo-yo  (up and down) season.  This team was given a challenge right off the bat as we were switched from division 3 to division 2. The  team learned the hard what a difference there is between the two divisions.

As we sufferred our worst defeats  in our team history against two division 2 teams,  But on the bright side, we  had a winning season. This makes 5 years in row of have a  winning season.  We also gave came back to beat a very strong Findlay team and we made the playoffs. Sadly, we made the trip to the playoffs with only 12 players. I know if we would have had everybody we could have won our first playoff game ever.  We will miss Nate Tye, Alex Hertel, Todd Perry  who were 4 year starters for us. Also departing were  Mike Southard, Jazz Clark, Tyler Norwick, Evan Kenny and Kaleb Stuart

 

The 2013 season was our first year in the Ohio Rugby league. Since 2004 the team had always been in the Michigan League.   Highlights of the season were winning our 2 games at the Cleveland tournament, our Toledo game that was stopped by the ref for reasons that will never understand and placing 3rd in the league. The team accomplished a first in team history  by winning our first round state playoff game against Perrysburg.. Sadly we weren't as lucky in the 2nd round against Toledo.  This Senior class was the biggest class we have ever had and they had the best overall record of any class.

The coaches will greatly miss John Blaskovic who was first player that we have ever had from St.Francis,Reza Rahimi.

Quinn Mclcanhan,  co-captain Alec Meyers. and 4 year starters  Keith Sarver, Nate Bradfield, Dakota Sorosaik, and co-captain Garrett Switzer  who started his rugby career by being our  touch judge with our first club back in 2004

 

 The 2014 season started out with a bang as the team won their first 3 games of the season. We made the annual trip to Mentor and won our first two games. One of the  highlights of the games was Noah  winning a kicking contest. Then we made the journey to play Berkey who were the defending D-state champs and racked up a win , Then we lost our next 4 games,which caused us to have our first losing season since 2008. The future looks bright we only lost 5 seniors, Noah Schurr, Ryan Schroeder, Jeff Fedrick,Ryan Gardner, and our first St.Francis player Sean Culkowski. Noah and Ryan played all 4 years

 

The 2015 season was a  tough season as players numbers really hurt us. Many games were played with just having 15 players and even though we had a veteran backfield our pack was composed of  mostly of new players. But the players we did have showed a lot of heart and never quit.  Highlights of the season were playing a team from Indiana and finishing 3rd in the league which qualified us for the playoffs. The team was led by captains Brad Ballard and Joe Mayer who ended his career with a separated shoulder. Garrett Dickey, Matt Emahiser, Mike Hamlet , Evan Zelina along with Brad and Joe were all 4 year vets who will be greatly missed.  Also graduating were first year players Grant King, Grant Volschow,Sam Dunmyer and Aaron Roberts who ended being our leading scorer for the year.

 

The 2016 season was full of first year ball players out of the 18 players only 4 players had ever played rugby before. Those 4 players were  Jim Anderson ( 2 year vet)  Andrew Benschoter (3 year vet) and 4 year vets James Thompson and Austen (Blondie) Baver. The record wasn't  great but each game was a learning experince for our new players. The highlight of the season was beating Perrysburg!! and watching Andrew Benschoter running the penalty plays at Mentor. He is still probably sore from all the hits he took.  

 

The 2017 season was very rewarding as we were D3 Lake Erie division champs which got us into the D2 playoffs. We lost our first playoff game to Black Pirates 35-7  who ended up being state runner up.  We had a great senior class but the sad part only 3 out of the 9 seniors had any Rugby experince.  Those three  were Noah Queen (3yr vet) Jaiden Valerie (2 yr vet) and Clay Deppen.  And Clay wasn't able to play due to suffering a serious knee injury the year before. The rest of the senior class players were our speedster  AJ Gyurasics, Louis Pawliski, Jacob Rahe, Casey Simpson, Robert Whitman and Connor Zaborowski. It's shame that these players hadn't played all 4 years. Just as they were starting to understand the game and look really good the season was over. Darn !!!!

 

The 2018 season was very rewarding as the team finished with a 7-5 record. Which was the best record since the 2011 season. What made this record amazing was the fact that we only had 2 seniors on the team, Spencer Rork and Austin (Scooby) Roth but both were 3 year vets and were great leaders & players.  Highlights for the season were beating a St.Eds team for the first time, smoking Perrysburg B side and making it to the playoffs for the 2nd year in row. We will greatly miss Spence and Austin next yearly but I'm sure they will eventually make it  to the sidelines as coaches.

 

The 2019 season record was 4-5. Even though we had a losing record, it was a very successful season. We had a very large senior class 14 members but 9 of these players were playing for the first time for Mad Anthony. We will greatly miss  4 year vet and captain Zach Atkinson, along with kicker Mike Harris. Highligths of the season were:  winning the Mentor tournament and beating a St.Ignatius team for the first time in our club history. Beating Perrysburg on a last second penalty kick. This game was also televised on Buckeye Cable. Finally we made the playoffs for the 3rd year in row. We lost the playoff game to eventual state champ Avon

 

The 2020 season- the only word to describe this season it sucked because of Covid virsus the season was canceled. We had the makings of being a good team - With Captain Max Fausnaugh who received a wrestling schlorship to Duke University, Kicker Griffin Black, and speedster  Ronnie Mitchell it would have been a very  exciting year.

 

2021 season- no season due to covid 

 

2022 season- Were back !!!  but it felt like our very first season 2004. As we only started with 2 players, Jacob Spry and Collin, who had any rugby experience. Both of these players were on the team as sophomores. We ended of the season with 15 players. With 5 of those being seniors-  Besides Jacob, and Collin we had 

 

Season records

2004     3-6

2005     0-7

2006     0-6-1

2007     2-6

2008     4-5

2009     6-3-1

2010     7-2

2011     7-1

2012     5-4-1

2013     4-3

2014     3-4

2015     2-5-1

2016     1-5

2017     4-5

2018     7-5

2019     4-5

2020      0-0  no season

2021      0-0  no season

overall record-59-72-4

 

For past game results  go to  the scores  link and clink on the season you want to view