Team History
In the fall of 1999, John Sutherland (Big Toe) organized a great tour to Ireland for the World Cup. John, who also helped coach the youth program in the summer, wound up bunking with a relative newcomer to Morris Rugby, Craig Chapman (Chappy). Ten days, four rugby games, and plenty of great Irish stout provided a perfect opportunity for Feury and Sutherland to sell the youth rugby idea to Chappy and by the end of the trip, Craig had pledged to start a second program up in Montville.
Chappy used the same template Feury used to secure fields and players for his new program and managed to attract close to 30 kids for Montville's first season in the summer of 2000. The Denville program expanded to 50 players, which enabled us to add a third division, thus making things more competitive. The season ended in what can be considered the first "Junior Jersey Cup" when Montville hosted Denville to a fun day of rugby and camaraderie.
Since that first summer of 2000, some 300 different kids have played for Montville. Kids from Butler, Boonton, Mountain Lakes, Fairfield, Wayne, Roseland and as far away as Brooklyn NY have also donned the green jersey.
Of all the kids who have played David Gibson is being remembered fondly this summer as his initials will be displayed proudly on all our 2006 practice T-Shirts, David was one of our charter members and he left us way too early this past fall. Since moving on to the high school team David always tried to come back during the summer to help out with the kids when he had the time. Coach Craig is very proud of the fact that David as a 16 year old high school sophomore became the youngest player to score a try for The Morris Men's club as he got into a B side game for Morris in the fall of 2004. Our memorial scholarship fund called "The Gibby" has been set up to give Morris high school rugby players money for college or to further their rugby education. As many of us have told his proud parents and family and in reference to his memory, David, " we've got your back".
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