As the 2025 winter term unfolds with its snow and freezing temperatures, the Central Oregon Community College Rugby team remains focused and continues on their preseason preparation path.

The rugby team doesn’t have an official preseason, but friendly matches set up by head coach Max Bennett with other schools and clubs. This way the players can play and stay sharp for the upcoming spring season.

This is a crucial time for the team too, as they are transitioning into a different playing format for the upcoming spring season. Going from 15s to 7s format, which means there will be only 7 players on the field from each team instead of the normal 15 they’ve been accustomed to.

The team kicked off their preseason on Jan. 6, the Rugby team held their first winter team meeting and committed to keep practicing on fundamentals and to sharpen their ever-growing skills. Coach Bennett wasted no time organizing several friendly preseason matches for his players.

“For the most part what I’m trying to do is, you know keep our guys focused and focus on getting in shape,” said Bennett, also mentioning this preseason is for the players, “But also, you know our guys love rugby and so we just wanna play rugby.”

The Rugby team has sought out high-level competition in this preseason to sharpen their skills. Setting up four friendly matches around Oregon. Club president Charles Manthe, third year Oregon State University-Cascades psychology major, explained that the teams approach to the offseason was to play as many games against great teams, to get on field experience for their upcoming season.
“Getting that experience With teams that are at, you know, are just at a higher level than some of the competition that we have in the season, that’s huge and that’s gonna separate us from the pack,” said Manthe.

Manthe emphasized that their approach was different from other teams, “other teams in our league they’re not they’re not doing that you know they might be training but they’re not playing they’re not going every weekend and going to play and we’re still looking to find as many high-level matches as we can.”

Manthe reflected on the fall 15s season, highlighting the rapid progress the team made on and off the field. “I’m more so happy with the fact that we were able to improve so much in such a short period of time And we also just created a really great community and brotherhood really fast that I don’t think that happens to the extent that it did with us that quickly.”

Team officer Dashel Ferguson, also pointed out the team’s growth. He said that the winter preseason is a continuation of their success they had from fall, “the normal season and did very well for our team… so just to see us grow as a team and as a program and as individuals playing rugby, It was really exciting.”

Ferguson pointed to their game on Feb. 2 against OSU as a turning point for the team. “We were able to slow the game when we needed to,” he said. “We made much fewer stupid mistakes. We didn’t do anything risky—we just played our game. We made the right decisions. We communicated. Everything kind of came together in a way.”
With their final 15s match against the University of Oregon on February 22, the team will soon turn its focus to sevens.

Ferguson is optimistic and ready for the challenges that come with learning this new playing format. “We’ll definitely do a lot better than we did at the start 15 because we know the rules, I’ll actually play the game but you know seven is a whole different sport,” said Ferguson.
Club president Manthe also commented on the 7s format “yeah, so we’re gonna start training to try and be the best we can in sevens but we’re trying to focus on these upcoming friendly matches that are 15 aside.”

Manthe and Ferguson both admired the team’s dedication, with Ferguson adding “People who are leaders are leading people are more committed now, we see that we can be a very successful rugby team. I think people are really excited to see where that can go, and I think most people are very committed to what’s gonna happen.”

Manthe sent a clear message about the COCC rugby team’s future: “Oh man I think the teams in our league, they’re gonna know who we are next season.”