LA Giltinis camp could be first of several pro rugby ventures on Maui, in state
OLINDA — The players on the Los Angeles Giltinis rugby team were making sure to take in the sights at practice last week.
They were using the polo field at Kaonoulu Ranch behind Oskie Rice Arena, wrapping up a month-long training camp that was their first as an expansion team in Major League Rugby.
Giltinis head coach Darren Coleman said the team’s first camp was a success.
“It’s been a really productive camp,” Coleman said on Tuesday, one day before they held their final practice session here. “Obviously a combination of amazing facilities here at the polo grounds, really hospitable people, besides the onfield rugby training. We’ve had great team-building experience in getting to sample all the delights that Maui has.
“Yeah, when people say you’re going to training camp and they hear Maui on the end of it, then they’re almost sure to come.”
Coleman said that the training camp could become an annual happening.
“We stumbled across it a bit because of the COVID restrictions in L.A. but we’ve had such a great experience there’s nothing to say we couldn’t do it again,” Coleman said.
Los Angeles assistant coach Stephen Hoiles said the team got good work in to prepare for its season opener on March 20 against New England, which features Mauian Vili Toluta‘u as one of its star players.
“Only time will tell, but we think it’s going really good,” Hoiles said. “It’s been enjoyable, we’ve gotten
the chance to sort of sit back and reflect that we’re going to start the first-ever season of Giltinis rugby, so you’ve had a month on Maui — it’s a sit-back-and-pinch-yourself moment.”
Hoiles said the environment in the Upcountry sunshine helped offset the bubble setting of their living quarters at Sugar Beach in North Kihei.
“We’ve been able to spend a lot of time together, a lot more time than if they were in L.A.,” Hoiles said. “Everyone’s out here without family at the moment — it’s been a lot of time spent away from the footie field. That’s an important part in a new team, to be able to spend some good time away together.
“We’ve got some good training done and we’ll know soon where it’s placed us because we’ve got some games coming up.”
Kevin Battle, the team manager and director of operations for the Giltinis, said the training camp “has probably exceeded our expectations in terms of trying to put the team together.”
He couldn’t have ordered a better atmosphere than the 30minute drives back and forth from South Maui to Upcountry for training each day.
“Anytime you want the team to grow together as a unit the best thing we can do is travel together,” Battle said. “Whenever we’re on the road, we have to travel and do a camp together, that’s where the boys have to start to rely on each other and can only depend on each other.
“With us being here on Maui for the last 30 days, a month, especially as a start-up team, it’s been unbelievable. Obviously this place is touched by God, this is God’s country at its best.”
Battle wants to make the connection between Maui and the Giltinis stronger — they want to continue the preseason work here and start an academy to help develop the remarkable amount of young talent on the island.
“I can tell you that I’ve been running an academy, one of the
U.S. development academies in Santa Barbara for the last 11 years, and I went to local folks here with Maui Rugby like Jack Breen,” Battle said. “We’ve been out to some of the youth training and seeing the immense talent and enthusiasm.
“Just knowing that we have an opportunity to parlay kids being able to grow and get better in the game, as well as grow in their education and open the doors of opportunity and excuse to keep coming out here, I mean, why wouldn’t you?”
An ownership group from New Zealand had a 90-day window to place an MLR team in Honolulu, but was unable to come up with the $10 million needed to meet a Sept. 1, 2020 deadline for the 2021 season.
MLR commissioner George Killebrew said the presence of the Giltinis on Maui and the possibility of a franchise on Oahu in the future could lead to preseason matches being played on Maui.
“I think rugby would do great in Hawaii,” Killebrew said on Wednesday from his office in Chicago. “I was born and raised on Oahu, so I have a very intimate knowledge of Hawaii. … So, I’ve got my fingers on the pulse for a couple reasons: One, I think it would do great in Hawaii; two, that’s where I’m from, so I’m a little biased. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Killebrew, who took over as league commissioner in 2019 after 27 years in the front office of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, is fully aware of the tough times that have befallen several other professional sports teams in the 50th state. With the need for a venue after the recent demise of Aloha Stadium, things get even more daunting for an MLR team to be based here.
“I’m very familiar with the history of professional sports in the islands,” Killebrew said. “We’ve had professional football, we’ve had professional baseball, we’ve had professional tennis, we’ve had professional soccer, none of which have been able to make it. Most of those failed because of travel costs, things like that.
“I just remember growing up as a kid going to Kapiolani Park and seeing the (Hawaii) Harlequins play. … I think it’s the one professional sport that I can think of that could really flourish in Hawaii because of the love of rugby there.” Giltinis player Nick Boyer, a U.S. national team member, said that conducting the team’s first training camp here should become a tradition.
“Being on Maui is something nobody expected, really, moving forward with the season,” Boyer said. “But it’s been a real blessing to be out here, a lot of boys getting a lot of experience off the field. And then obviously being up here on the polo grounds has been an amazing venue as well.”
Maui Rugby youth player Helmut Baschleben-Finau, a senior at King Kekaulike High School, was in attendance at the Giltinis practice on Tuesday.
“It’s crazy, I mean some of them are just really big,” said Baschleben-Finau, who grew up in New Zealand. “It’s good to see them come and play. I just think the opportunity for us rugby kids just seeing, like, what we can do, what we can do with rugby.
“They are so much bigger than us, but it’s just good to see them and see that there’s hope for rugby on this island, to keep going forward with rugby.”