Bryan Beach, '99 Named to Wake Forest Rugby Foundation Board of Directors

Bryan Beach, '99, MS '00, one of Wake Forest rugby's most accomplished players, has been named to the Board of Directors for the Wake Forest Rugby Foundation. Bryan was a standout player at flyhalf for the Demon Deacons and moved on to have a decorated playing career with the Atlanta Renegades after graduation. Bryan has hung up the boots and lives in Atlanta with his wife, Beth, and their two (sson to be three) young children. Below are some excerpts from the media coverage of Beach's on-field heroics in the late '90s.

Do You Know These Guys?

Wake Forest Men's Rugby Circa 1982

Disappointing Day 2 at Atlantic Coast 7s

Wake Forest let in a try in the first minute of its quarterfinal match against NC State and never recovered, losing 29-0 to the eventual champion Wolfpack. wake then went into the Challenger semifinals and had a rematch against UNC. Wake got tries from Brendan Shea, Tommy Kinzer, and Jack Zimmerman, but fell to the Tar Heels 28-17.

NC State defeated UVA 24-17 to win it's second consecutive championship, while Maryland defeated Florida State for 3rd place. UNC won the Challenger bracket over Clemson.

Wake now will begin the transition to 15s rugby and will play University of Tennessee on October 29.

Up and Down Day Lands Wake in ACI Quarterfinals

Wake Forest showed brilliance at times but sturggled at times en route to a 2-1-1 opening day at the Atlantic Coast Rugby Sevens Championship. Wake opened the day with a mistake filled first half against Maryland and found themselves down 19-0 at halftime. Some personnel changes sparked a furious second half comeback and tries from Ryan Tacon, Tommy Kinzer, and Matt Storck allowed Wake to salavage a 19-19 tie.

Wake rested some key players for its second match against Duke and was lucky to escape with a 19-12 win. Duke played inspired rugby and are much improved from last year. Tries from Bryce Lambert, Tommy Kinzer, and Tim Bishop saw wake to the victory.

Wake's third game of the day was against the Virginia Cavaliers. After falling behind 5-0, Wake scored a brilliant 100 meter try by Ryan Tacon to go up 7-5. Virginia scored again to make it 12-7 and although Wake dominated the seond half, they were unable to capitalize on a few key opportunities and ended up with a disappointing loss.

Wake went into the final game of pool play against North Carolina, who had sailed through the day unbeaten. A loss would mean that Wake would have to play Sunday morning in a playin game. After falling behind 7-0 within the first minute, Wake turned in the performance everyone had been waiting for, running in 29 unanswered points in an almost flawless performance. Ryan Tacon, Jack Zimmerman, James Watson, Brendan Shea, and Tommy Kinzer all scored tries in the win.

Wake finishes 3rd in their pool and will play defending champs North Carolina State in the quarterfinals tomorrow at 10:50am.

Wake Forest Squad for Atlantic Coast 7s

Wake Forest has named it's squad for tomorrow's Atlantic Coast 7s Championship in Greensboro. The team is led by seniors Ben Cohen and Matt Storck and is very young, with 10 freshmen and sophomores. Sophomore Matt McCurdy was a late scratch due to an injury suffered in practice this week and was replaced by fellow sophomore Paul Shumaker.

Wake Forest ACI Roster

Ben Cohen, '12
Matt Storck, '12
Jeff Millar, 12
Will Hank, 12
Brendan Shea, '12
Ryan Tacon, 14
Bryce Lambert, '14
Sal Scifo, '14
Tim Bishop, '14
Paul Shumaker,'14
Jack Zimmerman, '14
Tim Zage, '14
James Watson, '14
Tommy Kinzer, '15
Christian Gutowski, '15

Wake Preps for ACI with Scrimmages at Furman

Sophomore Ryan Tacon will lead a young Wake Forest 7s Squad

Wake Forest will travel to Greenville, SC this weekend to play eight 7s matches at Furman University as preparation for the upcoming Atlantic Coast Invitational. The team will bring a squad of 22 to Furman and the final roster of 15 for the ACI will be announced on Monday. Other schools participating in the Furman scrimmages are Tennessee, Clemson, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Greensboro, and Furman.

The schedule for Saturday is below:

9:00- Furman v Wake
9:20- UNC-W v Clemson
9:40- UNC-G v UNC-W

10:00- Wake v. UNC-G
10:20- Clemson v UT
10:40- UT v Furman

11:00- Wake v UNC-W
11:20- Clemson v UNC-G
11:40- UNC-G v UNC-W

12:00- UT v Wake
12:20- Furman v Clemson
12:40- Wake v Clemson

1:00- UNC-G v Wake
1:20- UNC-W v UNC-G
1:40- UT v UNC-W

2:00- Furman v. UNC-G
2:20- Clemson v. Wake
2:40- UT v Clemson

3:00- UNC-G v UT
3:20- UNC-W v Clemson
3:40- UT v Wake

4:00- UT v UNC-W