Numerous Keelhaulers featured at All-Star Shield Challenge

VALLEJO, Calif. – More than 300 players from over 100 schools were selected for one of eight regional all-star and five rising star teams when the National Collegiate Rugby's All-Star Shield Challenge recently took place in Houston.

In addition to senior Jacob Jenkins, who earned a spot on the All-Tournament First Team, senior Jonah Wolfe and junior Jerry McLarnon were named captain and vice captain of the Pacific Coast Grizzlies — a squad that featured all three Keelhaulers on its roster. Senior Andrew Cavinta also received an invitation but was unable to play due to injury.

Said NCR CEO Jeremy Treece, "The All-Star Shield Challenge brings together the best players in college rugby. We are excited to give these talented student athletes a platform to showcase their talents and compete alongside other top-level players."

As NCR's flagship event, the Shield Challenge "provides a rare opportunity to see some of the best and emerging college rugby players test themselves in a highly competitive environment."

With all three Cal Maritime cadet-athletes playing key roles throughout the weekend, the Grizzlies advanced to the tournament final, and entered the final five minutes of that game tied at eight until New England Red pulled away to edge the West Coast-based team.

Even though the Grizzlies did not end the weekend with their desired result, everyone enjoyed this unique experience, which took place at AVEVA Stadium — home to Major League Rugby's Houston SaberCats — featuring the country's top rugby talents from all collegiate levels.

Including all three Keelhaulers, the 27 players that comprised the Pacific Coast Grizzlies' roster competed for schools based in California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Nebraska.

"I felt super excited when I found out about my spot on one of the teams. I remember talking to Coach Hiatt before I arrived, and in that conversation, he told me that playing rugby at Cal Maritime would provide the opportunity to travel and play at a high level.

"As a member of the Grizzlies, we were one of the biggest teams, roster wise, that competed in this event, and the only one that represented the West Coast," said McLarnon.

Once notified by members of Cal Maritime's coaching staff, the magnitude of this opportunity quickly hit the Mashpee, Massachusetts native.

"This is a huge honor, especially as a non-senior, to receive knowing the number of schools and representatives competing throughout the weekend. This is not something I thought of during the season — you only worry about the next game and prepare accordingly — because I was focused on classes, Cal Maritime's schedule and my teammates"

All-Star Shield Challenge participants received invitations in early December; for Jenkins, Wolfe and McLarnon, the delivery of this news took place during finals week, right before cadets could leave campus for the holiday break.

For McLarnon, this meant an immediate change of plans once he returned home.

"I focused a lot more time on cardio throughout the break. I lifted weights, found fields to run around and made smarter decisions during my free time than I would have otherwise. There were a lot of temptations, regarding diet during the holidays, and made smarter choices under the circumstances."

Since All-Star weekend took place in mid-January, McLarnon flew straight to Houston and met his Cal Maritime and Pacific Coast teammates shortly after he landed.

"It was hectic getting everyone organized for our first team meeting since there are two airports in Houston, it took a lot of planning for event organizers to gather everyone from the team for our first group meeting.

"I immediately recognized two players from Sonoma State, Humboldt State and a few from other schools when they walked into the team hotel for our first meeting. Everyone is competitive, but we all understood the situation: We needed to build chemistry and trust one another right away because the team that gels the quickest will likely become the most successful team.

"Everyone was super excited to be there and play, it was an awesome environment."

The Grizzlies' first practice took place on a Thursday, two days before competition commenced, on a practice field at AVEVA Stadium's property since the stadium was being prepped for a packed slate of weekend games.

"The coaches were super helpful. Two were from the Claremont Colleges in Los Angeles and another was a former Humboldt State player, Jacob Nelson, who is a forwards coach that also serves as a strength and conditioning coach for professional teams.

"We had a two-a-day (practices) on Thursday, an early meeting and pool training session with Jake and our last practice before games, which took place that afternoon, on Friday."

Due to the number of games involving all eight teams throughout a two-day timespan, two 20-minute halves were played instead of a traditional 80-minute competition.

"We played three games on Saturday and Sunday, which is still a tough setup even though the overall length of games is cut in half. You play for an hour, then forced to rest, which means everyone tightens up during the break. Before we knew it, it was time for everyone to start warming-up for the next game, play that game, wait, and tighten up again," said McLarnon.

"This was a cycle we needed to handle properly to avoid the risk of injury. It's tough to stay loose when you face an hour break immediately after competing."

The junior Keelhauler also admitted that "by the sixth game, my body felt the effects from all that action within a short amount of time. Adrenaline played a big role both days since I did not feel any pain once games started. I played the entire game each time since one of my teammates suffered an injury, it was very tiring but fun. There were a few of us that played every minute, I wanted to compete for them as well since we all faced similar situations."

During that Saturday's pool play, the Grizzlies faced New England Red (one of two teams from that region), Mid-Atlantic (Maryland and neighboring states) and Tri-State (New York, Connecticut, New Jersey) in their final game on Saturday. Sunday's action featured a more traditional format — win and you move on, lose and your weekend is over — since the previous day's pool play determined overall rankings.

"Against New England White, we did not start strong, which led to coach giving us a pep talk at halftime. Once we smartened up, we played well and won that game. Our next opponent was Southeast, which included a lot of players from various colleges in Florida. That was one of our best games because we set the tone early by scoring; this was the only game we held the lead early and did not have to battle back and come from behind," said McLarnon.

"That led to a berth in the championship game, and a rematch with New England Red. We came out and scored a try, but we committed a lot of penalties and unforced errors, which led to a loss by a score of 13-8."

The Grizzlies' end result was impressive considering 2022 marked the first year the tournament was open to players of all divisions. Instead of facing other small college teams, as had been the case in the past, the Grizzlies battled against teams that included Division I and Division II players on respective rosters.

Explained McLarnon, "When it was small college-play only, the Grizzlies were two-time defending national champions. I was bummed that we lost, thankful for the experience as a junior, and felt for all of my senior teammates since that was a tough way to end a rugby career.

I took a moment after everything ended to walk around the field, soak everything in and appreciate what took place. I thought about how far my own personal rugby journey took and how thankful I was to even have the chance to play here. Being from New England, I had a couple buddies on that team, so I walked over, took a few photos with them and chatted for a bit. It was great to have a chance to catch up with them because my rugby experience came full circle because I was playing against them."

Once the Grizzlies returned to the locker room following that championship game, many players (which included all three Keelhaulers) faced a quick turnaround since event organizers scheduled flights back to respective universities throughout the evening.

It was during that trip to Northern California with his Cal Maritime teammates, and the days that followed, when everything that took place throughout the preceding days sunk in for McLarnon.

"As a group, we were proud to represent Cal Maritime on a national stage. The other two competed for the Grizzlies since they were true freshman and we all had a lot of fun representing the Keelhaulers."

The All-Star Shield Challenge also provided an opportunity for McLarnon to look back and fully appreciate one of most important decisions made in his life.

"I am from Massachusetts — there is a maritime academy there — but wanted to travel and play rugby at a high level, so I took a chance when I decided to come [to Cal Maritime]. To play at that tournament was rewarding because is proved that my gamble paid off."