by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Glendale City News
by Marco Cummings
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
The sport of Rugby shares a common DNA with American Football, dating back to the late 1800s when both sports added the aspect of carrying the ball in hand to the laws of the game, branching both sports off from their common ancestor: association football (the sport now known as soccer in the United States).
In the U.S., participants in the two sports often try their hand at both, and one need not look far outside of Glendale to find prime examples. Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon tried his hand in the NFL with the Denver Broncos in the mid-1970s before becoming enamored with rugby in the British Virgin Islands. Current Glendale Raptors captain Zach Fenoglio played both rugby and football at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora before moving on to coach both at his alma mater.
The newest addition to the Glendale Raptors’ roster has been forged in a similar mold. Raptors second-row man Ben Landry joins Glendale after a year of pursuing a dream to play in the NFL. The former Seattle Saracens and USA Rugby player earned an invite to a Seattle Seahawks minicamp as both he and the team looked to determine whether his rugby skill set would translate to the biggest stage in American football.
Physically, it was an easy transition to make for the 6-foot-6, 270-pound Landry, who featured at tight-end in the American game.
“As far as running routes and blocking, that was just athleticism that I do every week playing rugby,” Landry explained. “That wasn’t a big change for me at all.”
He also had the benefit of a ringing endorsement from one of the biggest names in the NFL, his longtime friend and former high school teammate, J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans.
“Ben is such a hard worker, and he’s extremely, extremely mentally tough,” Watt said in an interview with ESPN, adding, “He’s a brute force kind of guy.”
Work hard is what Landry did, but he faced numerous challenges along the way in pursuit of his NFL dream.
“The biggest challenge was basic football I.Q.,” Landry explained. “Learning the playbook and stuff like that. You watch NFL on T.V. and you really don’t see how intricate all the play calling and all the audibles at the line are until you get in that situation.”
In the end, his year-long journey didn’t pay off with a much-coveted NFL contract. But he did reap the rewards of the intense NFL training he underwent during that period.
“I’d have to say the physicality is an interesting take,” said Landry. “When I trained for the NFL I really trained for strength, speed, and acceleration. In rugby, you train for aerobic capacity and conditioning. As I’m sitting right now, I’m bigger, faster and stronger than I’ve ever been in my entire life and I’d have to contribute that to a year of trying to prep for the NFL.”
In Glendale, Landry has been reunited with his first love and passion in sport. A rugby player since the age of seven, the Pewaukee, Wis., native was first introduced to the game by his father and uncle, who both played for Milwaukee Rugby Club back home.
“For me it’s always been football in the fall, basketball in the winter and rugby in the spring,” he said. “Rugby is my first passion. [The NFL] was an awesome experience, but going in to that, I put a timeline on that opportunity. I said, I’m going to devote a year to this to give it an actual shot, a solid go, a good effort. If nothing accumulates, then I’m going to head back to rugby. That was always kind of my plan.”
In Glendale, he’s been reunited with a sport he loves but also a familiar head coach in Glendale’s David Williams. The pair developed a rapport while both part of the USA Eagles and members of Denver’s PRO Rugby team, the Denver Stampede, during its inaugural season last year.
“He’s your head strength coach, he’s your head skills coach and the head coach during trainings at night,” Landry said of Williams. “So, you really work with one man and his all-encompassing idea of the entire program. One guy being able to do it all really builds a team atmosphere.”
Williams has likewise welcomed Landry as an important addition to the Raptors.
“The team and I are only too happy he chose to come back to Denver,” said Williams. “Lando brings a lot to the daily training environment with his training attitude and just being a top bloke that strives to be the best he can be. He has gotten straight back into rugby training and analysis, which is a testament to owning his role within the team and doing his job.”
While Landry’s long-term goal is to make it back into the mix in the USA Eagles player selection pool, his job with the Raptors maintains a singular focus: bringing a Major Rugby Championship to Glendale.
“We’re finishing up this season and we have a championship game in June that we’re planning on playing in, and we’d love to win.”
by Mark Smiley | Mar 24, 2017 | Glendale City News
by Kurt Woock
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
GLENDALE, CO – MAY 18: Rugby Skills Clinic at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado on May 18, 2016. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
The Glendale Raptors has emphasized youth programs since its founding. Programs offered through the Glendale Raptors Rugby Academy are a good way to bring the sport to a new audience as young players learn rugby skills and rules through games, drills, and scrimmages. Youth programs are also a way to foster health, independence, and confidence. Trained coaches create a positive environment where children can learn to play safely while they learn to love one of the fastest growing sports in the United States.
Last year, the Glendale Raptors Rugby Academy tried something new. They developed and ran a one-day clinic during which young athletes spent an entire day honing a particular skill — tackling. The tackling clinic allowed young athletes to dive in deep, working with Raptors players and coaches, to learn how to tackle safely and more effectively. The clinic was popular not only with rugby players, but also with youth who play football. Rugby tackling skills have been embraced by the Seattle Seahawks, among other types of athletes, including kick boxers, soccer players, and cross country runners. Responding to the demand for more programming like that, the Academy has developed a lineup of specialty clinics, six in total, to offer this spring.
This year’s clinics began on March 8 and run through May 25. Every other Wednesday evening, a different skill is taught. The particular skills that will be taught include: tackling; catching, passing, and decision making; running support lines and assessing options during gameplay; kicking; effective backline play; and forward play, scrums, and line-outs. Jenna Anderson has worked with youth programming at Infinity Park since 2008 and is currently program director. She said the programs are designed for all skill levels. The amount of individual skill building exercises and small group drills allows a range of skill levels to train at once. In fact, one of the clinic’s biggest selling points is the high level of coaching that young athletes receive on an individual basis. David Williams coaches the Raptors men’s elite team, and he’ll be there. So, too, will be Mark Bullock, the Raptors’ longtime director of rugby and a pillar of rugby in the U.S. Multiple Raptors players, who must gain certification to coach, will also be on hand.
For rugby players, these clinics are a no-brainer. Any sport requires repetition to gain proficiency. Training under the direction of some of the top rugby coaches in the country is a proposition few other youth sports can offer. That immediate, high-level personal feedback allows young athletes to quickly raise their games. Ideally, a young athlete would attend all six of the clinics at Infinity Park. Even if a skill is outside of a young rugby player’s traditional position, broadening one’s complete skill set is important, especially at a young age. As Anderson points out, it is “good to have more tools in your toolbox.”
Attending these clinics is also a boon to athletes in other sports. Anderson said that middle school and junior high are key times to introduce students to the value of developing skills in multiple sports. She said there is a trend of students who attempt to “specialize” in a sport sooner than they should. At a young age, becoming a well-rounded athlete will pay higher dividends in the long run than specializing early, a fact that applies to any sport, not just rugby. Although it might seem logical to assume that a student who devotes 20 hours a week to a particular sport will have a leg up over another student who devotes 10 hours to two different sports, the opposite is actually more likely: Avoiding specializing too early actually increases the likelihood for success in the sport a student might eventually end up specializing in.
Students who develop skills in more than one sport don’t separate the things they learn in each into silos. Instead, the mental and physical skills they pick up in one sport can be applied to all the others. Think of it as cross-pollinating. A football player might become a stronger tackler after learning about tackling in the rugby tradition. A basketball player’s sense of court awareness could develop more deeply after learning how rugby players attack and defend. The possibilities are endless. Anderson said that football players might have obvious interest in the clinics, particularly the tackling and kicking clinics, but she has seen plenty of athletes whose primary sport doesn’t have a clear connection to rugby but who nevertheless attend, broaden their larger sense of athleticism, and have fun while doing it.
Clinics cost $20 per session and each clinic takes place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights at Infinity Park. Anderson said the clinics are a great lead-in for the Try League Rugby, also offered by the Glendale Raptors Rugby Academy. In this league, players can apply skills they developed at the clinics while playing 7-a-side, or Olympic-style, rugby. Players 5 years and older can sign up for Try League, which begins at the end of April.
by Mark Smiley | Mar 1, 2017 | Glendale City News
by Kurt Woock
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
Imagine working all week to make something, only to have someone tear it apart. Now, imagine that happening over and over. That might sound like a punishment suffered by a poor sap from Greek mythology, but Noel Harryman calls it his job. And he likes it. Harryman is the manager for turf operations and Infinity Park. He leads a team from Glendale Public Works who ensure that the more than 10,000 square meters of Kentucky bluegrass at Infinity Park are green, neat, trimmed, and ready to take a beating.
Infinity Park’s rugby pitch is designed to be flexible. It can host private events, it becomes movie theater seating in the summers. But Harryman said his job has one clear central purpose, “My job is to make sure it’s ready for play.” To do that, Harryman combines chemistry, hydrology, botany, and a big dose of sweat equity. And he does it well; Infinity Park won the 2016 Sports Turf Managers Association award for best sporting grounds in the country.
Anyone familiar with the Sisyphean task that is caring f
or a lawn knows that the straightforward tasks involved — fertilizing, watering, cutting, weeding — bely a much more complex operation. Having a lush, green lawn is a fixed goal, but the obstacles that stand in the way are, like a game of whack-a-mole, ever changing. Weeds one year, bugs the next. A few months of drought followed by a week of heavy rain. Every year is different. Unlike a homeowner’s yard, however, Harry-man’s proficiency is judged by thousands every week.
During the season, Harryman is on the field daily. A week before a game, Harryman and a few others walk every inch of the field. They bring with them a mixture of pre-germinated grass seed, fertilizer, and sand. They look for patches that are wearing thin and apply the pasty mix. The mixture takes hold quickly and will yield grass in a matter of a few weeks. Monday, they give the entire field a full mow and another check for spots that need attention. Depending on the time of year, Monday’s mow might be followed by an application of fertilizer. Tuesday is a practice day, so field maintenance is low, but Harryman must check the field after for any damage done during practice. Wednesday brings another mow.
Thursday the field is prepped for painting. Friday is another mow followed by painting the field, a task that takes three people a full day. Saturday (game day) begins with another spot check for anything abnormal. On a good day, this might be a quick task. But a surprise snowstorm might necessitate an all-hands-on-deck snow removal (something that happened multiple times last year). After the game, the crew fills divots, and mixes a new batch of pre-germinated grass seed, and the cycle begins anew.
A few differences between home lawn care and rugby lawn care emerge. First, there’s a lot of mowing. Three mowings a week keep the lawn uniform. Harryman said that a standard home lawn has a height of 2.5 to 3 inches while Infinity Park’s field is a trim 1.25 inches. The shorter height provides a better playing surface for players and can increase the density of the grass over time.
Harryman also waters the turf using a method more precise than a sprinkler on an automatic timer. He calculates the field’s precise water needs based on temperature, soil measurements, and other variables. He aims to have the soil about 80-percent saturated with water, enough to ensure the plant receives the water it needs while leaving enough absorption potential in the event of rain (or snow). “One of the worst things you can do is play on a wet field,” he said.
Another benefit to not fully saturating the field is to encourage individual grass roots to drive down deeper, which makes the entire field stronger and more resilient. Harryman said that calculating the grass’s needs before watering results in less water usage relative to most home lawns.
Harryman also conducts semi-annual long-term maintenance. Three to four times per year, he takes soil samples to determine levels of various nutrients. After each test, he concocts a custom fertilizer that will bring the soil up to optimal nutrient levels. In one year, the field receives about 40 fertilizer applications, which switch between liquid and pellet. Each spring and fall, the entire field is “bulk seeded,” as opposed to the spot-fills that take place during the season, which ensures a thick turf.
The grass on a sporting field is often overlooked unless it’s in bad shape. But, like the underwater portion of an iceberg, it is crucial to supporting something that everyone can see and appreciate — the game itself. Even if the lawn doesn’t receive cheers from the crowd, the team that works on the grass knows that they’ve played an integral part in making the Infinity Park experience possible.
Joshua Bertrand, the director of public works for Glendale, said that the field represents something symbolic in addition to performing its functional role. “If fans rush the court at a college game, the NCAA fines them,” he said. “In high school, schools can get in trouble for the same thing.” YouTube is filled with videos of NFL security crews tackling fans who step foot onto the grass. “But at Infinity Park, fans and family are all invited onto the field. This happens after every game. It’s an accessible resource. It’s a unique part about Infinity Park. Most stadiums don’t have that.”
by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Glendale City News
by John Arthur
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
Since the club’s founding more than a decade ago, the Glendale Raptors have been a pillar of community involvement, most notably through their extensive involvement with Glendale youth. Raptors team members and coaches spend time volunteering at Children’s Hospital every year, offer free and low-cost youth rugby clinics and programs, as well as a Rugby Academy where local youth can build rugby skills from kindergarten all the way to the professional level. The Raptors’ commitment to involvement with Glendale is an especially important aspect of the club’s overall mission, and not simply because it engages young people with positive mentors and promotes fun and fitness. Youth rugby programs have the added benefit of increasing awareness for the fastest growing sport in the United States, creating a new generation of players, coaches, and fans.
One of the most successful youth programs in 2016 was Rugby in the Schools, an offering spearheaded by Raptors Youth Programs Coordinator Jenna Anderson. Rugby in the Schools introduces the game through Rookie Rugby, a non-contact, educational format, specifically designed for presentations and instruction in school PE classes. Playing games and running drills, Anderson, alongside Raptors players and staff, introduces local schools to rugby’s inclusive nature, ensuring every child participates for the entire program period. Because rugby is often unfamiliar to local youth, everyone starts on an even playing field; as Anderson puts it: “We go in and it’s a clean slate. Everyone participates. Everyone is interested and every single child plays. Learning something new, as a group, is really important and really special.” Students experience the fun and excitement of rugby, as well as the importance of inclusion and good sportsmanship.
Anderson has led youth programming for the nine years since being brought into the Raptors club in 2008, but notes that 2016 was an especially busy year. The Raptors worked with 16 different local schools, and also held eight separate sessions elsewhere, including clinics at Glendale’s Infinity Park and for local nonprofits, as well as field days at local summer camps. According to Anderson, “2016 has really taken off. Teachers have shown a lot of interest in having rugby as part of their curriculum.” In addition to the host of benefits Rookie Rugby offers participating schools and students, the programming is and always has been entirely free of charge.
Rugby in the Schools is focused on communities surrounding Glendale, although dem
and exists all along the Front Range. In 2016, Anderson and the Raptors were a presence across metropolitan Denver, in both public and private institutions, though she admits the popularity of Rugby in the Schools has forced her to turn down requests from institutions located outside of the metro area. Working in physical education classrooms from kindergarten through 8th grade, she and players from the Raptors Men’s, Women’s, and Under-20 teams interacted with as many as 500 students per school. Engaging every interested student at each school, Anderson and her assistant volunteers spent between one and four days per location completing programming.
It’s difficult to point to any one reason why Raptors youth rugby programs blossomed in 2016. Clearly there are significant benefits for both the young participants and the schools they attend, but there is also something more. Rugby’s meteoric rise in popularity stateside in the last several years has been incredible, with Glendale at the epicenter of the sport in the United States. The reemergence of rugby in the 2016 Olympic games, combined with the Raptors’ successes on and off the pitch, have played a role as well. What is clear is that rugby is, in Glendale and the rest of the country, a sport that’s here to stay — and one that players and fans of all ages take great pride in.
Asked about her favorite part of Rugby in the Schools, Anderson says, “I love going and seeing kids who already play for the Raptors. They know we’re coming and they wear their Raptors shirts and it’s obvious that they’re really proud to be rugby players. It’s wonderful to see kids passionate about the sport.” The growth of rugby’s popularity in the United States shows no signs of slowing, and the work that Anderson and the Raptors are doing in community classrooms demonstrates that the next generation of players and fans is here to stay as well.
by Mark Smiley | Nov 21, 2016 | Glendale City News
by Kurt Woock
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
GLENDALE, CO – SEPTEMBER 15: Fall After School Rugby at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado on September 15, 2016. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
Infinity Park is Colorado’s home for rugby. On the weekends, you can find the best players from around the country on the pitch. Throughout the week, you’ll find it’s just as busy with its burgeoning youth rugby program, the Glendale Raptors Rugby Academy.
The youth Raptors Academy at Infinity Park is unique among youth athletic programs. The Academy works in conjunction with the Glendale Raptors men’s and women’s teams, drawing from among their ranks the people who become coaches for the youth program. Children as young as 5 and as old as 18 have the rare opportunity to go to an international rugby tournament and, a few days later, be coached by the same players they were cheering for. Jenna Anderson, the program coordinator for Raptors Academy, said she takes pride in the level of investment that the program makes in the coaches, and that the player-coaches make to become better at coaching. Each coach in the youth rugby program is certified through national programs in order to be equipped to teach the sport effectively and safely. This fall, Anderson sent a few coaches to a higher-level, full-day course through USA Rugby that gave them the tools needed to teach advanced tackling techniques.
That long-term view toward coaching is a microcosm of the entire Academy. The individual camps and teams aren’t designed to be one-offs. As a young athlete grows up, his or her rugby experience is designed to build on and expand upon years of experience in the program — it’s not simply more of the same, year after year, only with taller kids each time. Anderson said this year she saw, for the first time, an age group graduate out of the program having started at its earliest level, age 5. Developing well-rounded athletes takes a concerted effort over time, and the Raptors Academy has a blueprint to do just that.
The program had a successful fall season and has plans to keep that momentum moving forward, through the winter and into the spring. A few highlights:
Fall After School
Fall After School Rugby had about 85 boys and girls from kindergarten through eighth grade participate. Children between 5 and 7 played flag footba
GLENDALE, CO – NOVEMBER 21: Youth Rugby Camp at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado on November 21, 2015. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
ll while older children were divided into two-year groups and learned to tackle.
Practices were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, for the first time, offered Saturday scrimmages for anyone in the program. Thanks to a new partnership with Rugby Colorado, youth participants from many programs were able to apply what they learned in practice in a fun, new environment.
Anderson said many outgoing eighth graders have plans to continue playing rugby in high school with the skills they’ve developed at Infinity Park over the years.
Winter Indoor
This will be the third year for winter indoor. The program, which meets on four weekends in November and December, is all non-tackle and held in the gymnasium at the onsite Glendale Sports Center. Anderson said the winter indoor program helps athletes develop specific skills and improve conditioning during a time when the weather usually doesn’t permit outdoor play. The program can be a boon to young athletes looking for the boost they need to meet goals, like moving from a B team to an A team, or moving into the starting lineup. “Kids are already thinking about playing at next level, in college, in high school, and this program will help them.
Anderson said the program is also a good opportunity for a player new to the sport to pick up a few rugby basics before joining a league in the spring. “We work on a lot of movement skills,” she said. “Many kids can’t run and catch at the same time. Kids love making plays. Being able to catch and run will make the game infinitely more fun.”
School Visits
In order to bring the sport to as many people as possible, Anderson tries to make at least two “field trips” every month to neighborhood schools. While there, she runs mini clinics that give students an opportunity to try out some of the skills and learn the basic rules of the sport. She said that since the Summer Olympics, where rugby sevens made its Olympic debut, more and more students are already somewhat familiar with the sport and are certainly intrigued. “Seeing how fun it is, how fast-paced, how fit everyone is: It’s really capturing the imagination of families and kids.”
by Mark Smiley | Oct 21, 2016 | Glendale City News
by John Arthur
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
Over the final weekend of August, while central Colorado basked in late summer sun, the Serevi RugbyTown 7s Tournament roared in Glendale. In its fifth year of competition, the three-day tournament featured 20 teams (including teams from all five U.S. Military Branches) playing for a $10,000 winner-take-all purse. Rugby 7s, a quicker variation of traditional 15-a-side Rugby Union play, features two seven-minute halves and puts the importance of a team’s speed, strength, and stamina at the fore. From August 26-28, the RugbyTown 7s Tournament saw 62 matches, with the underdog Glendale Raptors clawing their way to an impressive second place finish overall.
The excitement for rugby was palpable in Glendale, with thousands of fans in attendance, but the success and growth that the Serevi RugbyTown 7s Tournament enjoyed was no accident. The organization, planning, and execution of the event are the product of the acumen of a highly skilled and dedicated staff, with Director of Facilities and Stadium Operations Kieran Nelson at the helm. Working alongside her colleague, Stadium Operations Manager Michael Hoff, Nelson has produced hundreds of local community and private events, as well as national and international rugby games and tournaments at Infinity Park.
A Colorado native, Nelson spent her college years in the Pacific Northwest, working in politics, human resources, and fundraising before transitioning into event planning at Infinity Park. Asked about what goes into planning an event like the RugbyTown 7s Tournament, Nelson shrugged, “What doesn’t? We begin planning a year in advance, and everyone in the City of Glendale is involved with the production of an event like this. It’s amazing the amount of effort and teamwork required. It takes a village.” Responsible for virtually every logistical aspect of the tournament, Nelson’s role is paramount. “This is probably the premier 7s tournament in the country. Every year we outdo ourselves and take it to a new level — we’re creating new rugby fans.”
This year, the RugbyTown 7s Tournament was accompanied by Glendale’s Bruises and Brews Beerfest, which featured 20 breweries and attracted nearly 1,500 attendees. Beer and rugby: two Colorado staples that certainly go better together.
For an event at Infinity Park, Nelson coordinates the staffing of guest services, security, and in-stadium food and beverage vendors, determines layouts, tent locations, and all necessary event rentals, while also working closely with the marketing team for promotion. Infinity Park Event Center staff coordinate the logistics for the VIP reception and post-tournament banquet, working closely with the stadium staff to ensure everything runs smoothly from beginning to end. Glendale Public Works maintains the fields, including the award-winning stadium pitch, practice fields, city parks and the Festival Plaza.
Deputy City Manager Linda Cassaday oversees the entire tournament, from initial invitations to tackling the arduous task of coordinating travel and lodging for teams, referees and staff who fly in for the tournament. City employees all dig in to assist with everything from managing incoming deliveries to set-up and filtering through all the invoices and payments that need to be made pre- and post-tournament.
As Nelson says, “This is truly a team effort.” With just herself and Hoff as full-time stadium employees, an event like the Serevi RugbyTown 7s Tournament sees the number of contracted staff balloon to as many as 250. While a typical Raptors game might require 40 guest relations and security staff, with an additional 20 personnel working on webcast and audio/video production, daily staffing for the RugbyTown 7s tournament saw double those numbers — the scale and scope of Nelson’s involvement is truly impressive. “It’s exhausting to plan an event like this,” she said, “but I thrive on it. The minute the first teams start to arrive, the first tents go up — that energy creates a buzz felt throughout the city.”
Though she admits to enjoying every aspect of her work, the Director of Facilities does have a life away from Infinity Park. Much of Nelson’s time outside the office is currently spent coordinating another im-portant event — her daughter’s transition to college.
She and her husband also enjoy Colorado’s ever-growing craft beer scene and 
spending time with their pets. Asked about her career at Infinity Park, Nelson is reflective. She left a position she enjoyed with National Jewish Health to explore a contract event planning role at Infinity Park in 2009: “It was a huge risk for my family, but it fascinated me and we decided to take the leap. It was amazing from day one.” Never intending to become involved in this type of work, she loves her job and is, clearly, quite good at it. Nelson also recognizes the importance of Infinity Park, “It’s the keystone of all of the things that are happening in Glendale, and I’m proud to have been on the ground since the beginning. The growth has been incredible and it will only continue.”
With the continuing expansion of 7s tournament play, and rugby’s popularity in the U.S. climbing quickly, Nelson’s gamble on Infinity Park has clearly paid off. That pay-off extends to fans and guests as well, as any attendee of the thoughtfully and expertly planned events at Glendale’s crown jewel can attest.
