A beating sun overhead, San Francisco State University’s Cox Stadium was the setting for yesterday’s men’s rugby football club’s Alumni Game. Old faces returned to a familiar campus and an all too well-known community. 

“It’s a full circle moment,” alum Josh Overton said. “My wife got her master’s here and to come back here with my family and continue playing, and hopefully one day [my son] could play on the team himself. It’s a cool feeling.” 

The annual Alumni Game, held in Cox Stadium for the first time in the club’s 20-year history, saw the former Gators snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, narrowly edging out the current team in the eleventh hour. A match with off-the-pitch banter and loose scorekeeping made the fixture more about the brotherhood than the result itself. 

Jeffrey Schmidt, the club’s first-ever captain, spoke about his emotions seeing multiple generations of rugby Gators share the school’s home ground for the first time. 

“Having Cox be on our schedule is major. We went from playing in the villas between the towers in Park Merced. We didn’t have the funds to actually rent a field from the city, so we just had to show up to parks and make it happen,” Schmidt said. “Having this support system and having Cox approved for us is monumental. I love the school showing appreciation for us.” 

The match gave alum the chance to finally step foot on grounds previously barred to rugby matches and practices. Donny Gregg graduated in 2015 and shared his thoughts on what it meant to him and the other alum.

“[Cox Stadium] was off-limits to us when I was playing,” Gregg said. “We petitioned every year to try to at least play one game, be it an Alumni Game, a season game, or a rivalry game. They said no every year. So I’m glad that the current team persisted and finally got it. It means a lot to all the alumni and me.” 

Head coach Otto Wacker brushed off the defeat, sharing that the growth of his team compared to last season’s was more important than winning.

“This year, all the alumni were like, ‘Wow, your team is really amazing,’” Wacker said. “And for me to hear that as a coach, [it] means the world.”

Overton voiced that this class had been better than the last. He also talked on the banter the two teams shared on the pitch.

“Every Alumni Game gets harder and harder,” Overton said. “I joked about how good my performance was despite my age and having two kids. It’s all love, though, between alumni and current guys.”

Club president and graduating senior Kiril Gupta reflected on his final year and the impact the alum group has had on his development in his own personal journey. 

“It’s been such an awesome time. Time flies when you’re having fun,” Gupta said. “The alumni are our rock. If we’re struggling financially, the alumni step in. If we need help with stuff, there’s always an alumni that’s down to come in and help us out. The alumni are pretty much like our extended family.”

For graduating senior Alec Shelton, his fourth Alumni game as a member of the rugby club meant more compared to ones in previous years. This in large part, due to where it was being held at this time around.

“It’s amazing because I mean the first Alumni Game we had, it was my freshman year, it was at the field in front of Mashouf, and that was no field to be playing on,” Shelton said. “So from my freshman year to having this right now in my senior year, it’s an immense feeling and I’m very grateful to have this.” 

Overton shares that he looks forward to growing the strong brotherhood the rugby club has built up and what it means to be a Gator.

“It’s a family. It’s a brotherhood,” Overton said. “The founders are still here and are involved so much. You see everyone in alumni chats; they champion us to support and donate. They’re not even playing, and they’re still showing up. I look forward to doing so myself. The Gators have always been there for me, even when I was rehabbing. My uncle used to coach here for the team. So yeah, Gators rugby is definitely in my blood.”