HUNTER

After playing rugby in high school for three years for the Omaha United Club, rugby was the first thing that Hunter – “Baby-faced Assassin” – sought out at UNL. He recalls, “The guys like Smid, Brady, Chicken, Kaleb, Dustin, Irish, Christian, Zac, DC, Trevor and many more were very welcoming and immediately made you feel like part of the team, and I have some very fond memories of that rugby house my first semester.”

Unfortunately, that also meant he had a rough semester academically transitioning from high school to college so he had to take a break from rugby in the spring to get his grades in order, but came back the following summer and played the rest of his time at UNL between 2006-’11.

Hunter said, that he can’t overstate how much he appreciated Coach Russo, JP, Tommy, and Woody as they helped him grow as a person and into a formidable front row rugby player in the limited time he was able to call them his coaches. He reminisced “So many teammates over those 5 years had a major impact in my life but there are too many men to name off here, many of which are still some of my closest friends no matter the distance between us”

After graduating, he decided to move to NYC on a whim and while there joined Old Blue Rugby. After couch surfing for a month he was very lucky that a room opened up in the apartment of a few of the team captains (Murphy, Murray, and Luke Hume) and he was able to move in with them.

He earned “Man of the Match” after his first game on their D2 side which got him bumped up to their D1 ARP side for the remainder of that fall season and even had a few starts as Prop.  He left NYC after only four short months and had to say goodbye to Old Blue, but the club, “holds a special place in my heart for how welcoming they were and how professional the program was run” said Hunter.  He continued, “I was definitely in the best shape of my life out there and probably at my peak as a rugby player.”

Upon returning to Nebraska, he took a year working toward his teaching certification and helped out coaching the UNL club for a semester or two in 2013/2014. He then played with the Omaha Goats for a few years until a knee dislocation put the kibosh on his playing career in 2016.

Some of Hunter’s favorite memories include:

The squad took a “spring break” tour in 2010 where they drove to Texas and had a week filled with matches against University of Dallas, TCU, Rice and a few others. Here the “Texas Two-Step” was born and according to Hunter, “lots of memories from that trip were had – A run in with a Jaguar, meeting Shooter Mcgavin, and the fabulous beaches in Galveston.” Of course the Jackalope Tournament each year. Then VEISHIA: “I don’t need to say much more than that.  If you know, you know!” The San Diego Invitational he says “was a great experience where I was introduced to the world of 7s and learned that it is not game suited for my limited skill set.  This was home to my Zulu in the Pacific Ocean on a chilly February night!” and then there was the Big XII tourney in Norman, where the team finished 3rd losing a tight game to a tough Texas A&M squad.  Hunter remembers this tournament fondly as “This is where I had the pleasure of spending an entire weekend under the tutelage of Niko for the first time.”

He recalls, “Another Honorable mention memory would be the Ruggerfest tournament in St. Louis, in 2008 or 2009. We took a beefy squad down to St. Louis in a combined trip with the UNL Women’s Team who was also competing. We mopped up some solid competition in bracket play before taking on Metropolis’ D1 squad in the final or maybe a semifinal. They definitely underestimated us as they got very chippy and irritated when we had a lead and they were on the ropes before some questionable calls from the ref and an untimely injury let them squeeze out a victory.”

Hunter is a social studies teacher and football coach in Elkhorn, NE.  He and his amazing bride Angela have been married for seven years and have three ornery children; Lincoln (4), Ellie (2), and Rory (7mo).

Angela played on the Women’s team at UNL and spent several years as the club president.  After graduating, she also worked as a team coordinator for USA rugby for the women’s IRB 7s tournament in Atlanta a few times. She is now the broker for Redfin in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota.