Dover-Sherborn youths and members of the New England Rugby Club pose with their medals and banner at the Bay State Summer Games on August 1. Photo by Brad Nathan.
By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Residents of Dover, Sherborn and other surrounding communities seem to have found a new passion in the sport of rugby.
Throughout the past several months, Dover-Sherborn youths have been taking to the pitch for the New England Rugby Club. The club practices and plays matches at Laurel Field in Sherborn and was founded by Brad Nathan.
A native of Walpole, Nathan is an alum of Framingham State ('09), where he played rugby and served as the team's starting hooker (the position responsible for throwing the ball in at line-outs). Nathan now serves as the club's director and also coaches rugby as an assistant at Algonquin Regional High School.
Along with Nathan, NERC has five coaches on staff who played rugby in college: Ben Wallace (Franklin & Marshall - Pennsylvania), Jenny Sack (St. Joe's - Philadelphia), Susie Frechette (St. Joe's - Philadelphia), Grayson Sack (Keene State) and Jack Kilgallon (Princeton). Another coach for NERC, Edward Gostick, recently graduated from Algonquin Regional and helped the school to its first-ever Division II state championship this past spring.
During the past six months, Nathan and his staff helped the club conduct a spring training program in April and May, followed by completing a summer season from June until early August. New England Rugby Club finished the summer season second in the state of Massachusetts at the Bay State Games.
For funny and incisive sports analysis as well as video highlights of games, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter and Instagram handles @flano0.
