By Gail Wood
Appropriately, Trevor Anderson’s story begins in Australia in 1991.
He’s only 17 and he’s on a six-month study-abroad program during his junior year at Centralia High School. And naturally, he’s on a rugby field, hearing for the first time the rules and strategies of a game from a group of Aussies.
“My whole time there, it was nothing but eat and sleep rugby,” Anderson said.
It was a life-changing moment. Now, 24 years later, Anderson’s enthusiasm for rugby hasn’t waned, bringing the sport to the South Sound and introducing thousands to the game. On a recent star-lit night, Anderson was coaching the Budd Bay Barbarians, the U-17 and U-19 rugby teams.
“We have a lot of good athletes in the South Sound,” Anderson said. “We’re just trying to grow it and be competitive with some teams up north.”
Consider it mission accomplished. For the past three years, Budd Bay’s U-17 team has won the state title. In addition to the three consecutive titles, there’s been some quality players developed through Budd Bay’s youth program. Leading that list is Scott LaValla, who is on the USA Rugby team and will play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup next year.
Because of rugby, LaValla, an all-league defensive end for North Thurston High School in 2006, graduated from Trinity College Dublin. Playing on the college’s storied rugby team, he was the first player from the United States to be their team captain.
While attending South Puget Sound Community College in the mid 1990s, Anderson got involved with a rugby club team at Evergreen State College. He’d eventually end up coaching the college’s men’s and women’s club teams. Eventually, when Anderson said he “got too old to play for Evergreen,” he started another club team, playing 7-man the first year. In the summer of 1998, the Budd Bay Club began.
“We got beat up quite a bit,” Anderson said with a chuckle. “In 2002, we figured the best way to feed into our men’s team was to start a youth team.”
For help, Anderson reached out to a friend and mentor, Peter Sullivan.
“I was able to snag him and got him interested to start the program,” Anderson said. “Pete really built that program up and got up to good numbers.”
In 2010 when Sullivan left, Anderson took over. Now, Dr. Phillip Northcraft, a long-time coach who coached the University of Washington’s club team in 2004-05, is now the director of rugby with Budd Bay.
“He loves it,” Northcraft said about Anderson’s commitment to rugby. “He’s passionate about it.”
Dan Nillashaw is another coach who has worked with Anderson. Nillashaw is now coaching in Yelm, building a program there. For over 20 years now, a playfield where a rugby practice is occurring, has been Anderson’s home away from home.
Now 41, Anderson doesn’t play on a team. Unless, there’s one particular kid playing – his son, Kylar. Anderson’s daughter, Ryann, a senior at Olympia High School, is on the Washington all-star team and will play in Las Vegas in February.
“Rugby is something my two kids and I thoroughly enjoy together,” Anderson said. “These two have been going to rugby games since they were in diapers. Kylar was always around the game. I coached him in high school. Now he’s out of high school and he plays on the men’s team.”
As a coach, rugby has always meant more than the final score.
“I’m excited about the group that I’ve got this year,” Anderson said. “They’re led by some solid individuals who are not only strong on the field in rugby. We’ve got a lot of guys who do the extra-curricular stuff outside of the lines.”
That off-the-field work is what Anderson said “galvanizes the club and makes us who we are.” The motto for the Budd Bay Club is helping and making a difference in the community.
“We do things with our kids out in the community outside of the rugby field. We help,” Anderson said. “We go to food banks and help where we can.”
A couple of years ago after an ice storm, players and coaches from the Budd Bay Club helped clean up branches at Wolf Haven in Tenino.
“We just continue to look for avenues to get kids involved in something bigger than themselves,” Anderson said. “That’s a motto we’ve gone by for a number of years.”
A big project they’re working on now is cleaning up the five acres the Budd Bay Club bought near Tumwater that will eventually be their playing field and club house.
“We try to connect them with something more than rugby,” Anderson said. “We want to try to produce a good citizen and produce a good human being as well. We have been successful on the field, but I feel we’ve been just as successful off the field. That’s special.”
