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 It’s not uncommon to see former Manistique High School athletes move
on to play football or basketball after graduation. But how many spend
their post-high school careers playing … rugby?
The answer is at least two, now that former Emerald football
players Craig Mattson and Tim Swanson are excelling on the field for
the Milwaukee West Side Harlequins – a club that recently advanced all
the way to the top eight among the country’s Division II teams.
Mattson, a 1998 MHS graduate, is the son of Janet and the late Ken
Krueger. He now works for the asphalt and construction company Payne
& Dolan, as head of quality control in Antioch, Ill.
Swanson,
the son of Kevin Swanson and Alicen Phillips, graduated from Manistique
in 2003. He also works for Payne & Dolan, as a density technician
based in Waukesha, Wis.
Both have been playing rugby for many years now.
For
Mattson, it all began during his freshman year at Northern Michigan
University, when he became a member of the NMU club. He went on to play
for the Moosemen for the next five years, four of those as team
captain. Along the way, he made the Michigan collegiate all-stars three
years in a row, was selected to be captain of that team, and was also
chosen to play for the all-Midwest college team.
When Swanson
arrived at NMU, Mattson spent a year trying to recruit him to the
squad. Once he agreed to give the sport a try, Swanson quickly showed
the other players how a relatively small athlete can use strength and
speed to control the field – no surprise to Emerald fans who remember
him setting the MHS rushing record, but most likely a surprise to his
new opponents.
“It was hilarious,” Mattson recalls. “These big
monsters would run at him, thinking they were going to flatten him, and
he would lay them out every time.”
Like Mattson, Swanson eventually became a member of the Michigan collegiate all-star team.
Flash
forward a few years, to 2008, when Mattson decided to jump into a
pick-up rugby game at a local college. Among the other players that day
was a recruiter for the Harlequins, and Mattson was soon on his way to
becoming a member of the Milwaukee club.
Like many teams, the
Harlequins follow an “open” concept, where players of any experience
level are invited to join practices, play on the developmental team
and, if they’re good enough, work their way up to the starting side.
That
process didn’t take long for Mattson. He began to play after just five
games, and by the end of the season he had not only secured a starting
role but was also named rookie of the year.
He notes that Swanson is almost certain to capture rookie honors this season.
Over
the winter, Mattson pursued his love of the game in Europe, spending
four months living in Wales, where he played for a semi-professional
team.
“It was a bit of a chance, really,” he says. “Our team has
gone over and toured Wales a few times, so the general manager had a
few connections with a team out of Bedlinog, just outside of Cardiff.
He sent over some highlights, and a few months later, there I was.”
Like the Harlequins, the Welsh club followed an open concept.
“I
played with the developmental side quite a bit – keeping in mind that
their developmental squad could whip most American teams,” Matt-son
says. “I managed to see some time with their starters, and if I had
been able to stay longer, I would probably have cracked the starting
22.”
Back home again, Mattson joined Swanson and the other Harlequins for another season of rough and rugged competition.
By
the end of the campaign, the club had won the Midwest championship, was
ranked seventh overall in the country, and had earned a spot in the
“Sweet 16” round of the national playoffs in South Carolina.
If
that sounds impressive, it is – especially when you consider that there
are at least 11 Division II teams playing in just the Chicago-Milwaukee
area and approximately 700 teams at that level nationwide.
At the playoffs, the Harlequins found themselves facing Tampa Bay in the first game.
By
that point, after scoring a try (the rugby term for touchdown) in both
of the previous two contests, Swanson had worked his way up to a
starting position on the playoff squad.
“That was quite a big
deal,” Mattson says. “Most rookies don’t really get that kind of
chance, due to politics and whatnot. Seriously, though, the way he hits
and runs the ball, there wasn’t much choice for them.”
Mattson himself scored a try in the first playoff game, and the HarleCopyright quins went on to beat Tampa Bay 34-10.
They
then found themselves facing the number-one ranked team in the country,
a club from Lancaster, Penn., with a trip to the final four in Colorado
on the line.
Milwaukee played a solid game for the first 30
minutes and trailed by only 14 points at the half, but ended up losing
the contest 44-10 .
Ask most Americans what they know about
rugby, and they’ll tell you it can be a physically brutal sport, but
few truly understand just how tough the players have to be.
Mattson,
who had dislocated his hip just prior to the playoffs, took an even
bigger beating in South Carolina, winding up with a re-broken nose and
an “out-of-joint femur.”
Swanson fared even worse, coming out of the Sweet 16 with a “bloody head” and a concussion, cracked ribs and a back injury.
The
battered Harlequins tried to regroup over Memorial Day weekend, when
they faced the Chicago Blaze for the Chicago area championship. It was
a game they were expected to win handily, but it didn’t work out that
way.
With some players still injured and others gone for the
holiday, Milwaukee found itself taking the field without six of its
starters.
“Even with our subs in we only lost by 14, but it was a team we should have killed by 50,” Mattson says.
That
meant the Harlequins had ended the year ranked sixth nationally but
just second place within their own league. That could have been
considered a disappointing finish, but for those
who play because they enjoy competition, because they love the game, it
was just a minor setback.
“Oh, well,” Mattson says. “There’s always next year.”
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