Knappa grads lead WOU rugby team

Gary Henley, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
·2 min read

Dec. 10—It's hard to say if Knappa has ever produced any rugby players. If they have, there haven't been many.

Even so, few have advanced as far as Sean Pomeroy and Braedon Eltagonde.

Pomeroy is currently the head coach of Western Oregon University's men's rugby team, and Eltagonde is one of his players.

Both will be in Houston, Texas this weekend, when Western Oregon competes in the Final Four of the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) championship tournament.

The Wolves are scheduled to play Wayne State (Friday, 1 p.m., CST), at Aveva Stadium in Houston. The game will be one of two semifinals in the men's small school division. Win or lose, Western Oregon plays again Sunday.

As conference and regional champions, WOU qualified for the NCR championships. The Wolves will compete with the champions from the other three regions for the national title.

Western Oregon opened the 2021 season with a loss, but the Wolves have been on a hot streak ever since.

"We had a tough loss in a scrimmage vs. Oregon State our first game," Pomeroy said. "After that we won against Central Oregon Community College (51-5)," followed by a victory over defending conference champion Oregon Tech (36-17), an exhibition win over Willamette (101-9) and a 12-10 decision over Gonzaga to end the regular season.

"Our season went well," Pomeroy said. "Coming out of COVID I was a little concerned we would be able to field a team, but every day it seemed like a new face showed up to practice and eventually we had a team to play matches."

Pomeroy currently has 23 players on the team, including Eltagonde, a 2018 Knappa graduate.

As for Pomeroy, the Knappa graduate of 2011 tried walking on for football and track at Western Oregon, but ended up accepting an invitation to play rugby, a club sport at WOU.

And, he said, "I found the brotherhood I'd been lacking since leaving home. I played for WOU for about five years, and my last year in school I volunteered as an assistant coach."

In 2018 Pomeroy was named as head coach, and took the team to the regional semifinals, where WOU lost to the eventual national champions.