After their win against the South Pittsburgh Hooligans, the Denver Highlanders are advancing to the final four in the DIII USA Club Rugby XVs National Championships.

CBS Colorado caught up with Derek Smith and the rest of the team at practice this week as they prepare to face off against the Scottsdale Blues Saturday at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis.

“Once we won the championship for Rocky Mountain Rugby, I was like [exhale] ‘There’s a chance,’” said Smith. “I didn’t work this hard just to get second.”

He said there are a lot of great teams in Colorado, but the Highlanders’ mix of younger and more experienced players has been doing particularly well this season. Smith himself is a seasoned rugby player.

“I played football in high school. I played football at a small college,” said Smith. “But then I found the sport of rugby, [and] I’m like, ‘Oh, I can still hit people, and legally, and don’t have to play American football anymore? I can just play rugby? All I need’s a mouthpiece? That’s great!’”

There are a lot of reasons he loves the game. Smith said rugby combines the continuity of soccer with the contact of American football. American football and rugby have more in common than some might realize.

Smith explained, “So, historically, the reason it’s called a touchdown in football [is], in rugby, you have to touch the ball down to score a ‘try.’” A try is scored when the ball is grounded in the opposition’s in-goal area.

Another thing Smith loves is the respect the players have for each other.

He said, “The most respect, typically, [is given] to the referees. We don’t talk back. We say ‘thank you, yes sir, no sir,’ and that’s what I love about it. It’s the idea of respect for us and the other people playing the sport. Because we pay money to beat each other up.”

After certain infringements, or when the ball is unplayable, players will pack closely together with their heads down in what’s called a ‘scrum,’ attempting to gain possession of the ball. Smith said it’s important to have a good ‘sir’ to keep things safe.

“Sometimes the older guys that have been doing it a while, they try to get away with some stuff to be cheeky, if you will. So, you have to have a good ‘sir,’ or referee, that’s really kind of watching that scrum to make sure we keep it up and they keep it safe,” he said.

“And the scrum. They call it the ‘dark arts.’ It’s one big man hug. So, those guys in the front, the ‘props,’ they’re just trying to push each other back straight,” Smith explained.

Smith said this may be his last year, and he’s been training hard.

“I’ve been training for this, you know, working out in my classroom as a school teacher, and the kids think I’m crazy. I guess I am a little bit,” he said with a laugh. “Forty-two years old, two small kids, this is my last go full-time, so I’d love to go out on top.”

Saturday’s game starts at 8:30 a.m. MST and will stream live on the Mid-America Rugby Union YouTube channel. The winner of Saturday’s match-up will face the winner of the game between the Columbia Rhinos and the Rocky Gorge on Sunday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — J.P. Crawford homered on Stephen Kolek’s first pitch and Rowdy Tellez and Cal Raleigh each added a two-run shot for the Seattle Mariners, who beat the San Diego Padres 5-1 Friday night in the opening game of the inaugural Vedder Cup.

Seattle Mariners 5, San Diego Padres 1: Box score

Rookie Logan Evans (2-1) pitched six strong innings for the Mariners, who took a 1 1/2-game lead over the Texas Rangers in the AL West. The Padres came in trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by one game in the NL West.

J.P. Crawford launches 1st-pitch leadoff HR in return to lineup

The annual interleague series between the teams that share a spring training complex was informally known since 2011 as the Vedder Cup, a reference to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. Vedder, who is actually a Chicago Cubs fan, spent some formative years in San Diego before moving to Seattle and joining the fledgling band in 1990. The two teams formalized the competition in March, with the winner getting a trophy featuring a guitar provided by Vedder. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

The teams play again in Seattle Aug. 25-27.

The Padres and Mariners will support EB Research Partnership, a charity co-founded by Eddie and Jill Vedder dedicated to funding research to discover treatments and cures for Epidermolysis Bullosa.

Crawford’s homer was his fourth. Tellez also connected to right with two outs in the fourth, with Raleigh aboard on a walk. It was his seventh. Raleigh homered to left, his 14th, after Julio Rodriguez singled leading off the sixth.

Evans, whose ERA was lowered by six runs on Thursday due to a scoring decision change, held the Padres to seven hits while striking out three and walking one. Only four Padres reached scoring position.

Kolek (2-1) was coming off his first career complete game in a 21-0 win at Colorado last Saturday. He allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings, with four strikeouts and one walk.

Key moment

Crawford set the tone with his 357-foot homer over the home run porch in the right field corner.

Key Stat

Crawford’s 14 leadoff homers are second in Mariners history behind Ichiro Suzuki’s 37.

Up next

Mariners RHP Emerson Hancock (1-2, 6.91 ERA) and Padres RHP Nick Pivetta (5-2, 3.05) are scheduled to start Saturday night.

Seattle Mariners news and analysis

• How concerning are Seattle Mariners’ pitching injuries? Expert weighs in
• Cal Raleigh shares the impact made by Seattle Mariners hitting coaches
• Why Seattle Mariners are a ‘more compelling’ team this season
• Seattle Mariners’ Dylan Moore shares key factors to career-best start
• Could Seattle Mariners swing an early trade? Morosi weighs in

John Benjamin Wilhoit

OBITUARY

May the wind under your wings bear you

where the sun sails and the moon walks.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, John, a lifelong sailor, set forth on his last adventure. He died peacefully at his “forever home” – the downtown condo he and his wife, Sandee, shared for 24 years.

John was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the second child of Jack and Beryl Mae Wilhoit. He graduated from Point Loma High School, and went on to earn his BA from UCSD and an MA in Urban Planning from San Diego State. John’s career was spent working for the City of San Diego, from where he retired in 2006 as a Senior City Planner.

From a young age, John loved sailing around Mission Bay, and as a youth enjoyed racing out of the Mission Bay Yacht Club, where his name is inscribed on a perpetual trophy. Nearly every Saturday, when the temperature was at least 70 degrees, he and Sandee would be out on the bay sailing his catamaran. That would most often be followed by a Padres game, as he was also an ardent Padres fan and season ticket holder.

John loved the beach, watching sports, traveling, listening to his LP collection and watching old Western re-runs on TV. When they weren’t enjoying all the events in the Gaslamp, John and Sandee enjoyed traveling to their favorite haunts – Borrego Springs, Hawaii, Santa Fe and Cuba.

John’s dry sense of humor and clever mind will be greatly missed. He was a generous and talented man, who loved the environment and would always help out someone in need.

John is survived by his wife, Sandee, and three grown stepchildren – Scott, Erin and Robb. He is pre-deceased by his mother, father, and sister, Pam.

No services are planned, as per his wishes.