REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) – The Rexburg Yeti Rugby Club and the Portneuf Rhinos played a friendly match in Rexburg today at Evergreen Park. Spokesperson and head coach of the Yetis, Salima Faasavalu, explained to me how the talent pool in Idaho is probably bigger than you think.
“Rugby in Idaho, the talent pool is very big,” Salima said. “There’s a lot of people here that have gone on to play for represent the USA national team and such. So the talent pool is here.”
Even in the heat today, the match drew a nice crowd, something that Faasavalu said has been a goal of theirs for a while.
“It’s great to see the community come out. We’ve been we’ve been trying to get support for them for a while,” he said. “It’s also great because a lot of these guys, they work full time, or at least if they’re the Rexburg players, they’re full time students too. So it’s very hard to find the time. But when they do, they come out and they bring all the support they have with them.”
On the opposite touchline, head coach Amilkar Gonzalez is at the helm for the Portneuf Rhinos. He explained to me the sheer variety of individuals they have on their roster.
“We have guys that are firefighters. We have guys that are welders, we have guys that work, labor jobs,” Amilkar told me. “One of our oldest players, he’s still out here playing rugby just for the love of the game.”
One of the things Amilkar shared with me was the camaraderie and sense of community that has developed among the players.
“After every game we get together, have a little social, we’ll have some drinks and, you know, do a little barbecue and just chat and talk. And usually at the end of every season… we’ll have a little get together.”
While these two coaches were competing opposite each other this afternoon, they are both on the same team when it comes to growing the game of Rugby in Idaho.
“I mean, the next five years… I would like to see both of our teams that we have right now have a solid group,” said Amilkar. Faasavalu echoed a similar goal, saying “the ultimate goal for would be for these, these two clubs to have pretty set numbers and also for maybe other clubs to pop up as well.”
