This coming winter, many of Redwood’s rugby players will storm the pitch playing for a new club called the North Bay Wildcats, exchanging the familiar black and red stripes that have become synonymous with the Marin Highlanders for a new dark blue kit.

The new team was founded this summer after Highlanders coach Dave Cingolani’s contract was terminated by the Highlanders Board of Directors.

Cingolani had coached the Highlanders varsity team for nearly nine years, winning numerous tournament titles including a victory at a tournament in San Luis Obispo this past year. The team has become a mainstay at the National High School Club Championship.

On July 22, however, the Marin Highlanders board of directors released a public memo detailing their decision to dismiss Cingolani. Parents of athletes on the team were summoned to a meeting on Aug. 5 in which the board summarized what had transpired, and explained their rationale for their course of action.

During an interview, current Highlander board member Gordon Wright, who formerly coached the program’s U14 team, supported the board’s decision but declined to elaborate on why Cingolani was fired.

In the wake of his dismissal, Cingolani helped establish a new Marin rugby team, North Bay Rugby Club, for which he is the varsity head manager. Juniors Alex Kosinksi and Sam Crolla have signed up to play for the new team next season, joining the exodus of former Highlander varsity athletes who will play for North Bay next season.

For many of these players, the decision to switch teams was swayed by a desire to continue playing under Cingolani. “If you play under Dave, you can play college rugby. You can walk onto basically any college rugby team,” said Kosinski who played for the Highlanders varsity team during each of the last two seasons.

Of the 12 Highlander athletes who graduated in 2013, 11 went on to play rugby in college beginning this fall, including four who are playing for Cal.

On Sept 12, the Highlanders announced that their new head coach will be Chett Garcia. Garcia, who currently serves as the football defensive line coach at Marin Catholic, will be assisted by Tony Petruzzella and Ron Rosser, both of whom played for the United States national team. In 2004, the three coaches were part of the Cal Poly rugby squad that achieved the number two overall ranking in the country.

In 2005, Gordon Wright helped create the Marin Youth Rugby Club, which merged with the high school program, the Highlanders, within three years. Currently, more than 200 boys between the ages of eight and 18 play for the team.
“My goal for the Highlanders,” Wright said, “is to expose as many kids to playing rugby as humanly possible. Which is why, unexpectedly, I see the development of another team as not necessarily a bad thing. To strengthen the U.S. as a rugby nation, it has to be done on a grassroots level.”

The Marin Highlanders began registration on Aug. 15 and the North Bay Wildcats opened for sign ups on Aug. 31.