AFCEC engineer leads Air Force rugby team

  • Published
  • By Shannon Carabajal
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Editor's note: The Air Force rugby team finished 2-1 in the Aspen Ruggerfest tournament. Though the team didn't place, the players gained valuable experience and the coaching staff is now selecting players for the Air Force team that will face the Royal Australian air force in a rugby challenge next year.

An engineer with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center is gearing up to lead the Air Force 15-a-side rugby teams in the 46th Aspen Ruggerfest Sept. 14 - 15 in Aspen, Colo.

For Maj. Wayne Kinsel, deputy chief of the AFCEC Facility Engineering Directorate's mobility and support branch, the tournament is both a chance to have fun coaching the sport he loves and an opportunity to identify top Air Force players vying for a spot on the all Air Force team.

In the Ruggerfest tournament, Kinsel will coach two Air Force teams made up of players from all over the Air Force. The players will only have a few days of two-a-day practices to gel as a team before the tournament begins so they have their work cut out for them.

"When these guys come in, we teach them the fundamentals, the basics of the game plan and we give them some tools that they probably haven't seen locally. We reiterate it and we have to do it very quickly," Kinsel said.

To keep their skills sharp and maintain their conditioning, the major said team members also play in local rugby clubs.

"We encourage them to play for the best rugby team near the installations they're at, be that overseas or stateside," he said.

Kinsel started playing rugby at the Air Force Academy in 1997 and played on the Air Force team from 2000 until 2009. After playing the sport for 13 years, he transitioned to coaching in 2010. He misses playing, he said, but loves coaching a sport he thinks epitomizes teamwork.

"I think it's the best team sport in the world. We have 15 people on the field trying to do something together. That's what really attracted me to it. If you don't have everybody working together and working for a common goal, you're not going to win," he said.

Air Force rugby is part of the Air Force Sports Program. The program gives Airmen an opportunity to compete in many sports at different levels, from base intramurals to the national and Olympic team, said Steve Brown, chief of Air Force Sports.

"The program is important to morale, esprit de corps and service pride," Brown said.
The Air Force rugby program is a dominate force in 15-a-side rugby. The service won the Armed Forces Championships eight years in a row, from 2004 to 2011. After the 2011 season, the Armed Forces Championships switched to a seven-a-side rugby format to match the Olympics.

Seven-a-side rugby is a variation of traditional rugby. Instead of 15 players on a side, teams are made up of seven on each side. The matches are shorter, and played at a much faster pace. Maj. Andy McQuade coaches the seven-a-side Air Force rugby team.

With Kinsel at the helm of the 15-a-side rugby teams, he looks for tournaments that don't conflict with the seven-a-side team schedule and is using the Ruggerfest as a tryout for Airmen trying to make an Air Force team that will face the Royal Australian air force in a rugby challenge next year. This will be the third match in the ongoing rivalry that the U.S. team leads 2-0.

"That's their sport. Americans are not known for rugby so to beat the Australians twice in their own sport has been a big accomplishment for our program," he said.

In addition to bragging rights, the winner will take home the Paul/Milne Shield, a trophy honoring pilot Francis Debenham Milne, RAAF, and Joseph E. Paul, USAF, two of four C-47 crew members killed in combat during World War II.

Kinsel is excited about the future of Air Force rugby. He said there is a lot of talent and three players - Capt. Eric Duechle, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.; Tech. Sgt. Cameron Freeman, Ramstein AB, Germany; and Senior Airman Marcus Satavu, Bradley Air National Guard Base, Conn. - have been asked to try out for the U.S. National Rugby Team, an accomplishment that could lead to a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

For more information about the Air Force Sports program, visit www.usafsports.com.