ATHLETICS
Rebuilding a Brotherhood: The Rise of Spartan Rugby
By Sean Woodland Photos by Lizeth Lafferty Photography
Sometimes you have to hit the bottom before you can bounce back. Nearly six years ago, the San José State University rugby team was on the verge of folding due to the COVID pandemic. Today, the program is nationally ranked and one of the most successful club sports on campus, thanks to a group of alumni who decided to help bring the team back from the brink.
“If there was nobody at the time that would have stepped up like we did, it would have folded for sure,” says Lance Crannell, ’95 Industrial Technology, board chairman of the Spartan Rugby Alumni Association.
“In 2021, the team didn't win a game,” says Spartan rugby player Kevin Hernandez Sr., ’26 Justice Studies. “There were games where the coach didn't show up. Basically, no one really cared about the program.”
“I wanted the club to grow, succeed, and create a pathway for players to not only develop in the game of rugby, but to develop as young men with bright futures,” says Mike Annab, ’98 Behavioral Science, ’08 MA Education. “I had the idea that we needed a team of alumni who could direct the development of the program. The idea for the Spartan Rugby Alumni Association was born. We received our 501C3 nonprofit status in 2022, and our charter board was established.”
Tyler Garcia (in air) and his SJSU rugby teammates at a 2025 game.
The Spartan Rugby program began in 1971 and was founded by former faculty member Ron MacBeath. Originally from New Zealand, MacBeath wanted to bring the sport to San José State. Spartan rugby enjoyed some success in the ’80s due to several SJSU football players joining the team. In the ’90s, the program became more of a social club. That continued into the 2000s before the program faced the prospect of folding in 2020.
“During that time, the number of players started to drop, players weren’t recruiting as they typically do,” says Crannell. “It was starting to fall apart. That’s when Mike Annab and myself and a couple of other board members said, ‘Let’s just form an actual nonprofit to just work on the program.’ The program was in the red zone. It had no money, no leadership. The players were not really engaged in the program. We had a coach looking for the exit door. So, the first thing we wanted to do was get a [new] coach.”
Thanks to close connections to the great Bay Area rugby community, Crannell and Annab found Nick Schlobohm. Schlobohm had won a pair of national championships with Saint Mary’s College of California and brought the exact mindset necessary to turn Spartan rugby into a winning program.
“Nick Schlobohm is an exceptional rugby mind and a former player with a national title-winning rugby team, which means Nick understands what it takes to be a champion,” says Annab. “Nick had been developing his coaching skills with a Bay Area men’s club, and was primed to take on this challenge. During our initial meeting, we found Nick to be a man of vision, character and personal discipline that would translate to a winning program. And we were right.”
Schlobohm’s efforts led to the program’s first undefeated season in 2024. The team’s first national ranking came shortly after that.
“The new coaches turned everything around,” says Hernandez. “They had practice three times a week, filmed sessions. They were holding us accountable for missing practice. If we didn't go to practice, or if we missed a team lift, they would hold us accountable for that by making us run and condition.”
Crannell and his fellow alumni are making sure success isn’t isolated to the field alone. They are helping players get the tools they need to keep winning after they hang up their cleats.
The 2025-2026 SJSU Rugby team.
Sam Michotte, '27 Physics, (center) serves as the team president.
“Our program is unmatched in our ability to create good rugby players and good men,” says Crannell. “We’ve started a program called ‘Beyond Spartan Rugby’ for our rugby players to teach them financial literacy, college and career planning, be mentors for them and connect them with alumni in their fields of study. This is a mentorship program. This is a brotherhood. This is something holistic. It’s not just rugby for rugby’s sake. It’s rugby plus getting a kid a degree in a field they want to do at an income that they can really be proud of at the end of the day.”
Achieving success is one thing. Maintaining it is another. Because of that, Crannell and the rest of the Spartan Rugby Alumni Association are already working on getting the program to the next level. Crannell is trying to get the rugby team to become part of the athletics department, lining up donors to purchase a new scoreboard for the club sports field where the team plays its games, class prioritization for rugby athletes and housing assistance.
“In 2031, the Rugby World Cup is coming to the United States with venues on the West Coast earmarked,” says Crannell. “One of them being in the Bay Area at Levi’s Stadium and in the South Bay at PayPal Park. That’s just five years away. We need to meet the moment. We need to invest in rugby now so by the time the world comes to us and the spotlight shines on us, we have our act together.”
Five years is not a long time. Thanks to the Spartan Rugby Alumni Association, the rugby program has already proven it can achieve a lot in a short period. And this time, they’re not starting from the bottom.
“We need to meet the moment. We need to invest in rugby now so by the time the world comes to us and the spotlight shines on us, we have our act together.”
— Lance Crannell
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