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Coaches
The coaching staff at WSC took a brand new "expansion" team
with absolutely no knowledge of the game and captured the
league title in their very first season for both men and
women.
2002--Present
Head Coach & Founder
Darrin Barner
Club Founder and Head Coach Darrin Barner has played rugby for 14 years before stepping away from the game when he was Captain for the Fort Worth Old Boys when they played the Kenyan Exiles in Dallas in 2002. Barner played for the Storm Lake Iowa Albatross a Division 3 level team from 1989-1994 when he was employed by Wayne State College as the Intramural Sports Coordinator.
Barner then played for the Fort Worth RFC from 1994-2002 after taking a position with Northwest Airlines and moving down to Fort Worth, TX. Along with a National Championship with the Fort Worth RFC in 2000, Barner and the rest of the players from Fort Worth had a very strong program and was a top 20 team in the USA from 1996-2001.
Barner has been to 17 countries and is always game for a tour overseas. He has taken in a few International games in both the Southern and Northern hemisphere, along with some World Cup games in Wales and England when they hosted the World Cup in 1999.
Barner was able to get the Official Steinlager Goal Post Pads from the New Zealand All Blacks VS Argentina game when Barner, with other players were under the stadium at a VIP party after the All Blacks victory. Barner also had a brief rugby tour, and had a few days with Kim Erikson the President of the Norwegian International Side in Norway in 1998, during some rugby time in Oslo, Norway.
Barner has taken the playbook from Fort Worth, and has modified it to the college level for Wayne State. Barner credits his former coach Mike Kwedar, with all the victories won by WSC when it comes down to the X's and O's. Coach Kwedar after building Fort Worth to a national powerhouse in the late 1990's, moved on and coached Baylor University and in one year, had the Baylor Bears win the USA collegiate title the year after he stepped away from coaching the Fort Worth men.
Coach Kwedar's playbook and practice drills that were used when Barner was a player, is now the playbook for WSC.
Coach Barner lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and still flies up to Wayne every week for 2 or 3 days to help coach the club during the season. With over 100 flights up to WSC the first 4 semesters, the dedication and the future of the team is defiantly is high on his list of priorities.
Tom Shickel
2002-2003
Scrum Coach
Coach Tom lived in Norfolk, Nebraska and made the drive over to Wayne when practices were scheduled.
Coach Tom coached the "Tight Five" and has a great talent at the Prop position. Coach Tom moved from Chicago to Norfolk in 2001 to help out a friend opening up a new business. The domination of the WSC scrum pack is all because of Coach Tom.
Schickel met Barner the first time at the exhibition game in Norfolk between Nebraska and Oklahoma University in October of 2001. Coach Tom gave Barner his word, that if Barner could start up a college side at WSC, he would step in and help coach.
Unfortunately, Coach Tom in the summer of 2003, moved back to Illinois and rejoined his old team the Chicago South Side Irish, as he finishes up his Doctorate Degree at the University of Illinois.
Coach Tom and Barner actually played against each other in 1999, when Barner's Fort Worth team played the Chicago South Side Irish in a playoff game to advance to the "Sweet 16", with Barner's Fort Worth side winning late in the game. Something that Coach Barner reminds Coach Tom, very frequently.
The dispute on how the game was won is still in the air, when Barner constantly tells Coach Tom that Fort Worth won the game off of skill, and Coach Tom claims it was won just off of pure luck. An argument that goes on each time they see each other and will continue until they are very old and gray. Or should we say just old? Both of these coaches being in their mid 30's ads a bit of spunk to the college side and neither one is scared to strap the boots on to demonstrate some tackling drills.
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