Major decision takes Troupe to rugby pitch

Sawyer Troupe reached the pinnacle of high school wrestling on Feb. 10, pinning Bozeman High’s Hudson Wiens in 2 minutes, 37 seconds in the State AA heavyweight finals.

Weighing 217 pounds, Troupe went unbeaten his senior season despite giving away serious ballast to opponents — Wiens, he said, weighed in at 278 at State. But now he had his first state championship, in his final match as a Flathead High grappler. The wrestling programs at Wisconsin, South Dakota State and Cal State Bakersfield had shown interest. It was an exciting time. And then. ...  

“Last second I was like, ‘You know what, I’ve been wrestling going on 13, 14 years,’ “ Troupe said this week. “Maybe I’ll do something different.” 

Which is how Troupe, along with Missoula Sentinel product Patrick Sale, ended up at Central Washington on a rugby scholarship. While CWU is Division II in everything else, rugby is a Division I sport at the Ellensburg, Washington school.  

Todd Thornley, in his ninth season as coach, has a strong program: The Wildcats were the top seed in the West Region for the D1A National Championships this past spring.  

Connections through Josh Dean, the head coach of the local Black and Blue high school rugby program, helped Troupe get noticed — as did a stint on a Montana Selects team that participated in the Great Northwest Challenge in Missoula June 21-22. 

Organized by — among others — JD Stephenson, the director of the Montana Youth Rugby Association, the Selects did more than participate: They took second, to Northern California. In the center of it all was Troupe, who played hooker and helped Montana go 4-1. 

“We’ve only had this Selects team for two years,” he said. “I wonder what might have happened if we’d had it when I was a freshman.” 

Troupe only recently arrived on campus, by the way. Central Washington is on quarters, for those of us old enough to remember UM’s pre-semester days. By international rugby standards, Troupe figures, he is a neophyte. He started in the sport in sixth grade. 

“Which compared to some of these guys is not that crazy,” he said. “I thought Montana was good, but Pat and I got here and were extremely humbled. And I’m happy that happened.” 

For the longest time, he and Troupe were combatants.  

“Usually, Flathead and Missoula played in the state rugby finals,” Troupe said. “We're 2-2 against each other. We went from rivals to best friends. Pretty cool.” 

He’s thankful for friends, for CWU’s accredited business school, and for the men, like Stephenson and Dean, who guided him on this path. 

“I don’t know how we got so fortunate for all these people to come here,” he said. “We just have these amazing coaches. I just want people to realize rugby is a real thing. I think if it was as popular as football, we’d be the best in the world.” 

The sport has allowed Troupe to, in his words, “Do my own thing.” A lot of people figured Troupe would be wearing a singlet in college, including him. 

“I even surprised myself,” he said. “I just had kind of epiphany one day: ‘I’ll do something different, and not what everyone else wanted me to do.’ ” 

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-758-4463 or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.