{"id":2447078,"date":"2019-08-01T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T04:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/despite-youth-aspen-rugby-finishes-as-league-champions\/"},"modified":"2019-08-01T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T04:16:00","slug":"despite-relative-youth-aspen-rugby-club-finishes-as-mountain-league-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/despite-relative-youth-aspen-rugby-club-finishes-as-mountain-league-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite relative youth, Aspen rugby club finishes as Mountain League champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5900900900901\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-310662-254\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times | The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"12\">\n<p><strong>The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times | The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"12\">\n<p><strong>The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/rugby-atd-080219-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/despite-youth-aspen-rugby-finishes-as-league-champions\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/despite-youth-aspen-rugby-finishes-as-league-champions\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">With a roster built on relative youth and inexperience, this could have been a difficult summer for the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/ben-mitchell-takes-over-as-aspen-rugby-coach\/\">first-year coach Ben Mitchell<\/a>. However, outside of one rough weekend up in Steamboat, it\u2019s gone surprisingly well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt went by so quickly, but it\u2019s been a really enjoyable summer. It\u2019s been my first taste of coaching and I really enjoyed it. I think the whole team has had a really good summer,\u201d said Mitchell, who came to the United States from Ireland and plays for the Austin Elite Rugby franchise. \u201cThis season it\u2019s been more of a developmental sort of summer, but at the same time we\u2019ve won the majority of our games and a lot of players have developed really well. It\u2019s been really satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Gents are 9-2 overall this summer with a single game remaining, a Saturday rematch against Vail. That game is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Vail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen started the season 5-0, which included wins over Steamboat Springs and Vail, before a rough showing at Steamboat\u2019s annual Cowpie tournament on July 13. The Gents went 1-2 while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/steamboat-rugby-beats-boulder-to-win-cowpie-aspen-goes-1-2\/\">Steamboat went on to win<\/a> its home tourney. So far, that\u2019s the only blemish of the season for Aspen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe just didn\u2019t show up with the right mental attitude that weekend and it really hurt us, but that performance wasn\u2019t a reflection on the overall performance for the summer,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWe wanted to show who the Gentlemen are, and we didn\u2019t show that in Cowpie but we really showed that in Ski Town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen had a week off to regroup before it went to the annual Ski Town tournament, hosted by Breckenridge this summer. The team played with an edge, beating Glenwood Springs and Breckenridge before rolling 44-15 over Steamboat in the final for the championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt was rewarding to see us bounce back after a really disappointing showing in Steamboat,\u201d Aspen player Rex Christensen said, \u201cand to come back and beat them with a strong performance in the final.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Christensen, a 2011 Aspen High School graduate who went to school at the University of Southern California, is among those younger players this summer. But, unlike many who may only be in Aspen for a few months each year, he truly understands what is at stake on Saturday against Vail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Having already clinched the Mountain League championship, Aspen isn\u2019t playing for any trophies or titles. But, it would mean a 10th win and would mean finishing the summer with a win over its biggest rival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The teams played once this season on July 6, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/gents-rally-to-beat-vail-stay-undefeated\/\">Aspen winning 46-43 at Rio Grande Park thanks to a late penalty kick by Chris Campbell<\/a> after the Gents mounted quite the second-half comeback against Vail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe obviously want to come out with a win and we got even more motivation that it\u2019s against Vail,\u201d Christensen said. \u201cBorn and bred here, I\u2019ve always been a diehard anti-Vail person. We\u2019ve done a lot to try and elaborate on the Aspen-Vail rivalry beyond just the pitch to a lot of these new kids. It was good to get a win the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After Saturday, the Gents will go on hiatus until they host the <a href=\"http:\/\/aspen-ruggerfest.com\/\">52nd annual Aspen Ruggerfest<\/a> tournament from Sept. 19 to 22. The Ruggerfest teams are typically a different group of players from the summer team, with a handful of holdovers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Mitchell said he plans to coach the Gents during Ruggerfest. But first, there is unfinished business with Vail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey will be coming hard for revenge. It will be a good battle on Saturday,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a few guys go back to college over the last couple of weeks, so we are down a few numbers. It will be a tough battle for us to go against Vail, who are going to be strong again. But we are really looking forward to it. It\u2019s always a great matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/despite-youth-aspen-rugby-finishes-as-league-champions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Rio Grande Park in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times The Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club warms up with a game of touch during practice on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 08:10:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}