The Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) has been a national and international power in the tough sport of rugby and could be a factor in the 2016 Olympic Games. Yet their sport is one few people in the U.S. completely comprehend. The club\u2019s 15-player and seven-player teams have captured 12 national championships and sent many of its players into international competition as members of the USA Eagles. Internationally, they perform before thousands of spectators in huge stadiums. Here, they may play on obscure fields. The Sevens are now on a high since the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has voted to include its brand of rugby in the Olympics.\u00a0 OMBAC players George Conahey, Jon Hinkin, Craig Hartley, Jason Raven, Kevin Daizell, Eddie Schramm, Chris Wyles and\u00a0Todd Clever have captained the USA Sevens team, in addition to 26 others who have performed Four on the current Eagles team. Of course, most people in San Diego identify OMBAC as the organizer of the annual Over The Line tournament in July on Fiesta Island. But the club\u2019s legacy is being at the top of its game as ruggers.\u00a0 Hartley, entering his 11th season as coach of the Sevens team, is enthusiastic about this year\u2019s entry into tourney wars. They begin in June and conclude with the nationals at San Francisco\u2019s Treasure Island in late August. He said he was excited about his young returning\u00a0players and the addition of some San Diego State University graduates who he said could put the team over the top. “We had a big turnover last year and had many newcomers who were new to the game, but they managed to reach the Sweet 16,” Hartley said. In fact, OMBAC has missed reaching the national title bracket only once since 1985. Hartley, who has also served as an assistant coach on the USA Sevens, has begun workouts at the Chargers practice field and Point Loma\u2019s Robb Field. Mondays and Wednesdays are reserved for conditioning. “Sprint as hard as you can, run into other people and get off the ground multiple times for seven minutes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy,” said Hartley, a one-time National Football League player.\u00a0 \u00a0 He agrees it takes special athletes dedicated to a sport that encompasses some football techniques without the benefit of pads and is done within two quick seven-minute halves. “It\u2019s exciting with a lot of scoring,” he said. “These are tremendously fast athletes in one-on-one situations. They have to be exceptional tacklers with passing and catching skills.” \u00a0 OMBAC\u2019s last national championship came in 2006 and it has also won in 1985, 1995, 2001 and 2002. Before it can even get to the national championship, OMBAC will play in eight tournaments around the nation. “Most games are played in fields set up for stadium capacity like Treasure Island last year, where 4,000 people showed up,” Hartley said, providing a contrast to the 65,000 fanatics at the Hong Kong International Sevens on March 28. OMBAC traces its origins to 1954, when it was founded by Mike Curren and a few beach buddies to foster athletic competition. Today, the club boasts some 450 active members and supports a wide variety of events such as rugby.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) has been a national and international power in the tough sport of rugby and could be a factor in the 2016 Olympic Games. Yet their sport is one few people in the U.S. completely comprehend. The club\u2019s 15-player and seven-player teams have captured 12 national championships and sent […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"OMBAC rugby prepares to do battle on national stage","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11593,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-no-images","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}