The Northwest Conference Rugby Championships were staged at Bend’s Pacific Crest Middle School on Saturday. Six colleges from the Northwest – Central Oregon Community College, Washington State, Idaho, Western Oregon, Gonzaga and Oregon Institute of Technology – battled for the conference title.

In the end Washington State made its way through the four matches of 7-on-7 pool and tournament play, and took down OIT 35-21 in the championship match.

COCC had a tough draw in pool play. It was put into a three-team pool with Washington State and OIT – the two teams that eventually played for the title. After pool play and without a chance to play for a title, COCC took down Western Oregon 28-26 and Gonzaga 19-14 in its final two matches to cap off the season.

“We felt really good about that,” said first-year coach Max Bennett. “We are riding high on a really good climax for the season. That is just a really great tournament for us. We weren’t really able to have a team last year, to really being able to compete our butts off and win two of four matches.”

The wins were one thing, but for COCC, getting back to playing and hosting these tournaments was the major victory for the program that had slowly lost participation.

This year, COCC completed both its 15’s season (15-on-15) during the fall and just wrapped up its 7’s season on Saturday. Last year, there were not enough players for a 7’s season.

“We have a lot of guys who are very committed,” said COCC’s Charles Manthe, who is in his first year playing rugby. “We have guys who played sports in high school, know what it is like to be part of a team and they wanted to channel it into something else. This is what they have chosen.”

The COCC rugby program was started in 2012 by Woody Bennett, a long-time rugby coach who coached at Oregon State, and coached football at Crook County from 2008 to 2010.

Max Bennett is the nephew of Woody Bennett, and Max played on the inaugural team 13 years ago.

“He started the program and I’m trying to carry on the legacy,” Max Bennett said.

One thing that was created this year for COCC rugby is momentum. At the start of the school year in the fall, the team was starting from ground zero without a single player signed up.

Bennett began seeking out athletic-looking students to join, and once a couple of them signed up, those players began recruiting more and more players.

Eventually they found enough players and were able to compete. Even though very few, if any, knew the game, the players stuck with it through the year and grew to enjoy the sport.

“I feel like we have all really bonded together with us being committed to the sport,” Manthe said. “We all want to be at practice. ”

Considering how this season played out, Max Bennett believes the program will only grow stronger in the coming years.

“The vast majority of our guys will be back in the fall,” he said. “Fortunately we won’t have to build from scratch; that was the challenge this year. To have at least 10 guys back next school year will be huge for us. Not only do you not need to recruit 20 guys, you only have to recruit a handful of guys. And you have guys who know the game.”