Kalamazoo celebrated its 25^th year as a club, and they’re taking their party to the DIII national championships, the farthest the Michigan side has ever advanced. The team had stints in DI and DII as the club was developing, but found a home in DIII, and during the last three years has really started to come into their own.

“There’s no secret to our success,” Kalamazoo captain Adam Dudycha said. “We have a group of about eight old boys who’ve been playing together for about 10 years now. We’ve added some newer talent, guys from Western Michigan University, where some of the guys help train and coach when we get the chance. They’ve been a good feeder club for us.”

Dudycha is among the core of old boys and is joined by key veterans Jeff Mohney, Andy Gyorkos and Vakautafefine Fonua, to name a few. The club’s gotten a boost from newcomers like Ryan Burdette, Dan Hetrick and Jason Vincent in the forwards, while backs like Zach Engel have taken the last couple to get the backs moving in the right direction.

“We’re a forward-type of club,” Dudycha said of Kalamazoo’s style. “We like to keep the ball in the pack, do what we can there, then get some overloads and people out of position before getting it to the backs. The Midwest is forward-oriented rugby, with the pack doing a lot of the brute force work.”

In the past, Kalamazoo has struggled with back-oriented teams, like the Chicago Riot. The Riot like to work the ball wide quickly, something Kalamazoo learned during the teams’ opening league match last fall.

“We were set on our heels during the first half of that game,” Dudycha remembered the loss. “But we figured it out and eventually tied it up. It was more handling errors and mistakes on our side that fueled our defeat. We can handle those teams. Our forwards get around quite a bit, and our backs tackle well.”

After that opening-round defeat last fall, Dudycha assumed it’d be another one of those up-and-down seasons.

“But then we just kept on winning,” Dudycha said. “The turning point came against Erie [in the Midwest semifinals], the deciding factor of whether we’d go to nationals or not. We had a big break from our last game of the fall in November, which was our second round of playoffs and that gave us our conference championship. Erie was tough and we won by three points on a penalty kick. We managed to get that win, and then it set in that we have some talent here.”

Even though Kalamazoo is making its first trip to nationals, the team has high hopes.

“We want to win like every other team out there, and we’ve got a good chance,” Dudycha looked ahead to the team’s Round of 16 match against Montgomery. “We’re not here out of luck; we’re pretty good, like the other teams. We’ll go in with that knowledge and play our best, then what happens happens. Would be great to get to Colorado [for the final four], and we have a chance. It all depends on how that first half of the game goes.”

Should Kalamazoo get past South champion Montgomery, the team will face the winner of North Bay (Md.) vs. Old Blue (N.Y.).

In a DI playoff of question-marks, the biggest question-mark has to be the OMBAC/Dallas/Denver/Santa Monica bracket.

All four teams have huge plusses to their games. All four have noticeable issues. None dominated their league, but none played badly, either.

OMBAC has a very effective backline and lots of depth (more on that later), but it’s been their back row that has performed as much as anything. Led by Joe Fontana, OMBAC’s forwards expect to have the measure the Dallas Harlequins.

What the Harlequins can offer is plenty of questions. They beat every team in Texas except Austin Blacks (lost 15-10, and tied 20-20), but there’s some question as to whether that means anything. The Texas league is not especially strong, and it’s clear that against a tougher defense – the Austin Blacks – they struggled to score points.

Even so, they blew out Provo to make it this far. Provo probably was flagging after a good fall season, so who knows how tough that was? Certainly the Harlequins forward pack got enough ball to get their backs to spread the Provo defense. OMBAC will be much more mobile, and tactically a more varied team than Provo.

Still that’s a tough game to predict. Same goes for Santa Monica against Denver Barbarians.

Santa Monica has a very smart backline, with wing Kelly Serfoss starting to collect tries. Flanker Taylor Manavian was an effective tackler for them against a big EPA Bulldog team in the Round of 32. That augments an experienced group that includes Ali Ross, due back from injury.

They take on a Denver Barbarian team that has been improving throughout the season. Catain Logan Collins has brought the team together while Coach Michael Mangan is working his way into the head coaching role. Lance French and Mangan have been leading the team as a tandem during the transition, and with that change it’s somewhat surprising to see a team play better as a unit.

But that’s what they have done. Max de Achaval remains a superb points machine. Kyle Hitt and Phil White are playing well in the backs, as is Taylor Howden.

It likely comes down to which set of forwards can get the most ball. Both teams are capable of scoring a lot of points, so it’s likely good goalkicking and good defense at the right time could turn the game.

This entire part of the DI club bracket is guesswork, then. All four teams are capable of winning two on the weekend.

Note - teams with USA-potential players may be without those athletes for Sunday. If a player has been invited to camp, he will not play on the second day. Players such as Zach Pangelinan, for example, will be missed.