THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, March 27, 2015

Five years ago at North Idaho College, a 19-year-old freshman named who went to Notre Dame De La Salett Academy in Olivet, Ill., named Stephen Populuf decided he and two other NIC freshmen wanted to bring back the school's rugby club.

That club that started out with 15 players played against schools such as Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., and in its debut, the Cardinals won.

TODAY POPULUF, who was the Cardinals' team captain back then, is set to graduate this spring from the University of Idaho with a Bachelor's of Science in management and human resources. Nowadays, NIC is in its first season in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference, a 22-team conference that includes universities around the region such as Gonzaga, Idaho, Washington State and Eastern Washington.

This season NIC, which is in the 14-team Northwest Cup division, lost their season opener on Feb. 28, 76-0 to WSU Tri-Cities, then on March 14, NIC picked up its first win, 24-17 over Idaho. NIC is now 1-2, with its next game April 4 at home vs. Whitman at NIC. Central Washington University is the only one in the conference to offer scholarships in rugby.

"I think it's great," Populuf said. "I'm glad to see something we started blow up into something pretty big. That's what we wanted to do, is to be able to join a conference."

Back in 2010, Populuf was new to dealing with student government, which had to approve the club. After a few months, the rugby team was able to practice, come up with a schedule and go out and play. The first coach was Joe Malloy, a Washington State graduate who learned the sport while working in China. Malloy coached until 2013.

"The Coeur d'Alene men's rugby team was trying to recruit guys from NIC to get the NIC team started," Populuf said. "I had played rugby for four years in high school, so I knew a lot about the sport. They appointed me president of the club and I took over the team from there. It was a long, four-month process to get it approved. Initially, we only had 10 to 15 people who signed up. We were never in a league, we were an independent club. We played four or five games and won one versus Whitman."

THE CURRENT coach is first-year man Adam Mortensen, 38, who moved in 2007 from Albuquerque, N.M., to Coeur d'Alene to be closer to his sister, Lund Wood. He works at NIC as a maintenance manager at the physical plant. Until this season, Mortensen was a player on the team since its inception. Since the team is part of a club sport, students and staff members can play on the squad. Mortensen took over for Robert Gibson, who coached the team last season.

"Prior to 2010, some students tried to start a club," Mortensen said. "But it never got off the ground. I saw some flyers (in 2010) and I knew it was something I could get involved in. I'd never played the sport before, but I thought it'd be fun. I was a lock, who plays in the second row and my teammates lift me up to catch the ball."

The first-place team from the Northwest Cup division will play the first-place team from the NCRC championship division, which consists of schools such as the University of Oregon, the University of Washington and others. Second-place teams play each other and so on. The first place team wins a cup, the second-place team wins a bowl, third wins a plate and fourth wins a shield.

The costs vary but run from $150 to $275 per player, with cleats ranging from $30 to $150. Players must pay $50 for insurance and to join USA Rugby, then approximately $40 or so for shorts and socks. The club owns the jerseys, which are given free to players for the entire season.

"What makes us different is we are pretty reasonable," Mortensen said. "We petition the student government for travel funds. What is nice about this sport is the camraderie. The home team feeds the opposing team after every game. As chippy as it can be, as angry as some players are sometimes, we get along with each other. And 75 percent are brand new to the sport. Part of what we want to accomplish is to get involved in the community. We've been lane monitors at the Special Olympics in our region each of the last two Novembers."

CALIN WALT is a 24-year-old who played football at Lakeland High, graduating in 2008, before he traveled around parts of the world. The 6-foot-1 sophomore is one of the Cardinals' best players, one of just two returners on the team and he has scored on two tries this season.

"I wish I had it in high school," Walt said of rugby. "I fell in love with the sport. To be able to go to war with each other is awesome and it's a community. I'm hoping to get a scholarship and play in Oregon."

Walt was hooked on the sport once he saw a poster that copied an old-time classic.

"There was an old Uncle Sam poster, saying 'We want you', but instead it was for rugby," Walt said. "I was down. There are no pads, it's a brutal sport but it's pretty awesome."

The team captain is Will Strothe, born in England and who went to high school in New York.

Two girls are on the team - freshman Jordan Munroe, who played tennis for Post Falls High, and sophomore Darcy Green, who graduated from Coeur d'Alene High.

THE SPORT is fairly similar to football, except there is no forward pass and any player can carry the oblong-shaped ball. There are two 40-minute halves and is normally played on a field that is 110 yards long.

There are 13 players on each team. The forwards are typically the bigger players who tackle and are similar to offensive linemen in football. There is a scrum half who is like the quarterback, located between the forwards and the half, or speedy backs who carry the ball more often, at times, than the forwards. The scrum half is involved in directing his team's play and is normally among the team's best passers. The ball carriers pitch the ball backwards to teammates, in order to avoid getting tackled or drop the ball on the ground.

"As long as you control the ball, you can run forward or backward with it," Mortensen said. "Once you get tackled, you have one or two seconds before you have to place the ball on the ground. Then your teammates have to knock defenders off of the ball carrier, which is called a ruck."

A scrum happens when there is a restart of play after someone drops the ball or it goes out of play. Players pack closely together with their heads down in an attempt to gain possession of the ball.

Tries, similar to touchdowns, are when players cross the in-goal area and they are awarded five points. A conversion is two points and teams must kick it in between the goal posts. A penalty kick is three points, and teams can decide whether they are close enough to make a kick attempt.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at [email protected]