Intervieview with USA Rugby's Coach of the Year

Here is an exclusive interview filed by one of our field correspondents who caught up with USA Rugby's Coach of the Year, John "Chin" Klien from DSHA RFC:

What did this award mean to you?
It's hard to put into words. I never thought I'd receive a national award when i first started. I never thought my team's would be as successful as we've become. It's truly an honor to be chosen from among so many great coaches around the country. I hope this award continues and that more coaches are recognized for their efforts in building programs across the country. There are so many deserving people out there and I'm thankful USA Rugby and World Rugby Shop were generous enough to recognize these efforts.

How long have you been involved with Wisconsin Girls Rugby?
11 years, since the 1998-9 Season-You've been involved in Wisconsin Girls Rugby for all but the first two years of its existence.

How has it changed?
It's changed dramatically, and grown from one team to ten.We began playing college sides, since there were no high school teams to play. We sometimes travelled 4 hours to Carmel or Noblesville, Indiana for our one high school match. Scheduling has become much easier.It's an organization now. Us coaches meet on a bi-annual basis and discuss how we can make this league better. Before it was just about building a league. We had coaches leave DSHA to develop teams and other new teams crop up on their own. We've given a lot more girls the opportunity to play a sport we all cherish and hopefully that is passed on to them and will be passed on to others.The rugby game itself has changed so much. It went from such an offensive game to such a defensive game. The level of play for H.S. Girls has increased and continues to increase. The athletes who play now have changed so much. We're getting top level athletes.

You were there when Wisconsin hosted the first girls National Invitational Tournament (The NIT) in 2000, a grassroots movement to improve competition, with six teams attending from the Midwest (DS, Wayzata), West (Ft Collins, Summitt), MARFU (Doylestown), and Pacific Coast (Kent). Looking back, what do you think of that event?

Awesome! From a perspective of now, it was the start of high school girls rugby growing throughout the entire country. It gave young ladies the opportunity to play for a national championship. It was an incredible effort among the grassroots coaches that really wanted something more to play for. It's just grown every year. Wonderful start. It gave girls a unique opportunity that not many H.S. sports offer. Traditions from that first one were continued for many years. We always had a great dinner banquet with all the teams. It was always a two day tournament We always tried to get the best teams from the country there. Grassroots coaches always talked to each other to get the best competition there possible.Now it's been recognized by USA Rugby and become an event that nearly 200 teams want to compete for.

How did USA Rugby's sanctioning change things?
It's given us an opportunity to have the best referees present. In addition, the event is given more recognition because it is going on with the boys event. From that aspect, it's more legitimized nationals, and it should be. The competition has been fantastic. You always see close, competitive games to get there and in the final. This means its' a very competitive sport that keeps growing and growing.The dinner banquet is no longer present.

Where do you see the girls game going from here on?
So much will depend on the women's college game. How it's promoted to a varsity level sport on a wider basis. If there's someway to get an advancement, if we can get 20 varsity college teams, it will change even more dramatically in the next fifteen years.I think more girls will start giving back and returning to help grow the game. We've already seen that recently with a few of our teams being coached by alumnae. The more we can get players to give back, the more numbers will increase.Hopefully this will become what soccer became over the last 30 years. We're only 11 years into this, In 15 years maybe we can be where soccer is. We've grown so much in only 11 years. So much better and legit. And that's in thanks to all the grassroots coaches who really believed in doing the most with their opportunities. It's been fantastic to be a part of

How did playing rugby at Marquette University influence you as a coach?
Marquette's the reason behind it all. I learned so much from MU rugby, from the coaches I had, from the relationship I had. It's the reason I started coaching. My experience i got from Marquette, I try to pass on to the young ladies I've coached: an unbelievable experience, one I'll always cherish. I hope I've been able to promote that type of commitment and atmosphere, that type of success. I've also tried to learn from the not-so-best moments of MU rugby, so those don't occur while at DS. You always try to learn from your defeats, your miscues.

Favorite pro coach: Robbie Deans. The Crusaders coach. So successful as a club coach; he developed a successful team, year in year out. You knew every time you face Canterbury you have a game on your hands and that's awesome. The best of the best. He's changed the game. His teams were always champions, yet not all his players were all-blacks.