Thomas, 19, grew up playing football, basketball, baseball and soccer. Almost on a lark, he went to watch a rugby match and figured, “I can do that.” He took it up as a sophomore — Union fields a club team, and his coach, Tracy Todd, “dedicates her life to rugby,” Thomas said. “Any questions you have, anything, she answers them for you. … She taught me a lot.”

Still, football gripped him. As a senior in 2014, Thomas had 101 tackles and 10 sacks for the 6A runner-up Redskins (he and Wenglewski were honorable mention Tulsa World All-Metro; Al-jiboori was first-team). He signed to play Division I football at the U.S. Air Force Academy, but instead wound up at Lindenwood.

Hundreds of universities around the country offer rugby as a club sport, but Lindenwood, which started its program in 2011, is one of just 18 schools to offer rugby as a varsity sport, complete with athletic scholarships, paid coaches and rugby-specific facilities.

Wenglewski had signed with Lindenwood for both football and rugby, and Al-jiboori signed on for rugby. When Thomas joined them, he was apparently only just getting started.