Granite Bay Rugby wins the National Championship

For the first time since 2016, the Granite Bay rugby team has won the National Championship with a 29-9 win against Belmont Shore on May 21 in Elkhart, Indiana. "Exciting is an understatement," coach Chris Miller said. "Emotionally, I was exhausted and the first two days of the tournament were gut-wrenching with two very close and physical matches. So, in the final, it was just the culmination of the hard work and the adversity the kids overcame. The boys were tired but determined to finish the season right." Granite Bay finished their season 14-1 and were ranked number one in the nation for 12 weeks in a row. They defeated their opponents by an average of more than 30 points per game and their only loss came against De La Salle by two points in the NorCal Final. "Nothing against them but the boys knew they gave that game away," Miller said. "We should have won and I think it taught the boys about perseverance and resilience." In their first game at Nationals, Granite Bay defeated the South Orange Country Raptors 20-17 before defeating the San Diego Mustangs 17-7 in the semifinal matchup. This set up the National Title game against Belmont Shore from Long Beach. The Grizzlies got on the board first just over three minutes into the match as senior Haydn Williams juked left and used his speed to dive into the try zone. Jackson Launey scored the conversion kick and it was 7-0 Granite Bay early. "As I caught the ball, I noticed their 13 and 15 running up super fast, so if I were to throw it to my inside center, he would have got hit," Williams said. "I decided to take it and drew the opposing player right and then cut left, and stiff-armed their number 8 to get around. From there on out, it was all open green for me." Thomas Koi scored the next try at the 7:30 mark of the first half using his speed to get by defenders and put the Grizzlies up 14-0 after the Launey conversion. Belmont scored three penalty kicks in the first half while Launey converted a penalty kick for the Grizzlies and it was 17-9 at halftime. Granite Bay scored yet another try as Koi dumped the ball off to Julian Niulala, who slid in to score five points, and Launey added another two from the conversion. Finally, it would be Launey with the final try of the game before the final whistle blew and the Grizzlies could celebrate. "We had a great squad this year and it was the perfect way to end the season," sophomore Frank Cusano said. "When the final whistle blew, it was a great feeling of relief just knowing that all the work we put in this year paid off. Ten years from now, what will stay with me most is that I made relationships with guys that will last a lifetime. That's the great thing about rugby is everyone has to come together and trust each other if you want to be successful, so a bond of brotherhood is made between teammates." The Grizzlies returned back to the Sacramento International Airport on the morning of May 22 with a number of fans greeting them and congratulating them on their huge achievement. Granite Bay rugby is a club team that is made up of mainly juniors and seniors from local area schools such as Granite Bay, Rocklin and Del Oro High Schools.