With the season underway, the men’s rugby team has high expectations for what they want to achieve this year, both as a team and as individuals.

Last season, the Wildcats were close to winning Varsity Cup, but lost in the semi-finals. That has now driven the team to be better this year, with winning a championship as the focus.

Senior fly-half Scott Dean feels good about this year. He believes the rest of the team is excited to really get into the season.

“​We have a really good schedule leading into playoffs, so we will be very well prepared when the time comes,” Dean said. “We just need to keep getting better each week and each training session.”

Dean also has the winning state of mind.

“​I just want to win. My goal is to…win a national championship,” Dean said. “I don’t know what it’ll take to get there because I’ve never done [it] but I think the team and I are on the right track this year, so we just have to keep working every day.”

Much like Dean, senior wing Jake Spiller has the same motives and ambition.

“​We have a large number of returning players as well as a talented freshmen class that will have a big impact on our season,” Spiller said.

Spiller believes a huge aspect that will help them have a successful championship run this year will be their new coaching staff.

Head “​coach [Todd] Thornley not only offers a new pattern of play, but he also holds each player accountable to buy into the team’s goals which will carry us a long way,” Spiller said.

The goal this season is to win the Varsity Cup.

“Although that is easy to say, it will take an entire team effort to put in hard work on and off the field,” Spiller said.

Senior lock Tyler Enfield believes they are going to win.

Our “​one and only goal is to win [the Cup]. We will do this by standing by our core principles and trusting the process.”

Enfield mentions that  everything for the team has changed in a good way since having Thornley as their head coach.

“This year we are doing the basics better than any other team and lean heavily on our big and hungry forward pack. We’ve become way more cohesive as a unit through better team culture implemented by Coach Todd,” Enfield said.

CWU’s next game is against Valley RFC on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Seattle.