A year ago, Jesuit crashed the national single-school rugby party for the first time.

But it went only 1-2.

Now, beginning today, the Blue Jays have a chance at redemption, albeit at a different level.

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Jesuit's rugby team goes through final drills before this weekend's rugby national championship tournament in Pittsburgh. The Blue Jays are competing in the multi-school division.

Jesuit, 13-0 on the year, missed out on the single-school berth because of a scheduling conflict. So the team went a different route, qualifying for the national tournament in the U-19 multi-school division.

Play begins today in Pittsburgh with two games, one at noon and one at 5 p.m.

“The top three, maybe the top four teams in the multi-school division in the South region were probably the best three or four teams there,” Rummel head coach Trip McCormick said. “For a single-school to win in a multi-school division is pretty remarkable.”

McCormick, though, shouldn’t praise only Jesuit. His Red Raiders also have qualified, meaning the New Orleans area is being represented by two teams in the tournament – Rummel in the single-school division and Jesuit in the U-19.

But while Jesuit is a group that consists of a large amount of seniors, Rummel is not, boasting a roster chock-full of underclassman.

“They’re a small group of guys,” McCormick said. “This is probably the smallest in numbers of anybody who played in Louisiana this year, which can be a drawback. But it’s an advantage – in a sense, the guys do all the reps together and get to know each other.

“It’s all about chemistry, really.”

Due to a previous engagement, McCormick won’t be able to join the team in steel country. Instead, Kevin Kern will lead Rummel. Kern will take over for McCormick as head coach next year.

According to Kern, though, it won’t matter who is coaching Rummel. The players on the field are the important part.

“They’ve come a long way,” Kern said. “We brought them along the way. And rugby is pretty much a sport where they coach themselves on the field.”

On Tuesday, the team took in its final preparations prior to the flight up to Pittsburgh. Though the team was loose, McCormick constantly barked out lessons and directives.

By the end of practice, the players had what McCormick was teaching down. Not bad for a rag-tag bunch of teenagers.

“We’re all just people who couldn’t make the football team and came out and played rugby at school,” Rummel captain Rene Lowe said. “Now, towards the end of the school year, we were the talk of the school because we were going to regionals.

“Then we won regionals and everybody was just mind-blown.”

Rummel’s games today are at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Over at City Park, practice went much the same. Jesuit was getting in one final practice. Head coach Robert Markel put the team through drills early.

He thinks his Blue Jays have a good shot at bringing home a national championship. Experience in last year’s tournament will help.

“The guys who went, they know what it takes,” Markel said. “They’ve seen some of the better teams. They know if we play our best, we have a chance to win all our games.”

Said captain Trey Tomes, “Last year, we were kind of ducks out of water. We really didn’t know what to expect. It’s much more of a controlled environment than we’re used to.”

This year, the Blue Jays have put their experience to good use. Jesuit has loaded the scoreboard with more than 600 points while keeping opponents off, giving up fewer than 50 points.

By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com

Rummel's rugby team practices Tuesday as it prepares for this weekend's national championship tournament in Pittsburgh. The Red Raiders will go for the single-school championship.

“This team is playing rugby about as good as you can play it – I’m talking men’s, professional, everything,” Markel said.

And now the team can do something the football team, basketball team and even baseball team can’t – win a national championship.

“We realize we always go out and support baseball, football, soccer, wrestling,” Tomes said. “We’re so proud of them for doing what they do. Then we look back and say we won state the last couple of year kind of quietly.

“We realized, instead of being an underdog that no one knows about, people are talking abut us now as a national power, which is unique to Jesuit.”