October 5, 2015
Dallas Harlequins Names Jan Boot As Head Coach
Photo: Jan Boot on the right, with the Oostelike Eagles, Johan Beukes.
Doug Coil
Press Release: Dallas Harlequins Rugby Club, Dallas, Texas. Mickey McGuire, Board of Directors.
The Dallas Harlequins have announced that Jan Boot has become the new head coach for the 2015-2016 rugby season effective October 5, 2015.
“Jan Boot, a South African native, brings over 22 years of playing and coaching experience to the Quins, including two years with the Quins in 1999 and 2001. As a Quin player, Boot played with the club in the now defunct USA Premier Rugby Super League, a competition of the top twelve U.S. rugby clubs and the highest level of U.S. club rugby at that time.
‘The Dallas Harlequins are excited about the return of Jan Boot to Dallas, as the new head coach of our rugby club. His combination of playing and coaching experience, along with his first hand knowledge of the Quin culture and our special club history, makes Jan a great choice to lead the Quins in the upcoming USA Rugby National Club Competition,’ says John Dale, President of the Dallas Harlequins RFC.
Boot has coached at all levels of rugby from high school rugby to men’s club rugby in both the United States and South Africa. Boot coached the Yale University Rugby Club before moving back to South Africa to coach club rugby in the Blue Blues Carlton league. Boot coached Blue Bulls U21, Pretoria Rugby Club and the Oostelike Eagles leading up to his appointment as head of the Quins coaching staff.
‘I am excited to return to Dallas and to coach the Dallas Harlequins,’ says Boot. ‘As a player, I really enjoyed my experience with the club and the city of Dallas, and I am honored to be able to come back to coach my former team. With the Dallas Quins’ affiliation to the Aviva premiership Harlequins, the club’s historic success in USA Rugby, and our renewed emphasis on player recruitment, we expect to play an exciting brand of rugby and compete for championships in our conference and in the USA Rugby Club Division 1 playoff competition.’
Jan Boot succeeds Anthony Holder as head coach of the Quins. Holder, another former Quin Super League player, returned to his home city of Stoke, New Zealand after the 2014 season fro family reasons. holder helped design the club’s long-term strategic plan and Boot is committed to implementing the plan as the new Quin Head Coach.
The Dallas harlequins RFC is a U.S. rugby club founded in 1971 in Dallas, TX. The Harlequins are one of only eight rugby clubs in the world affiliated with the Harlequins FC, a professional English rugby club who plays in the Aviva premiership Rugby league.
The Dallas harlequins won the USA Rugby Club National Championship in 1984, when South African rugby star Naas Botha played with the club after trying out as a place kicker for the Dallas Cowboys. In 1997, the Harlequins became a founding member of the USA Premier Rugby Super League; the league was the top US club competition until the league dissolved for economic reasons in 2012.
The Dallas Harlequins past players include 13 Eagles, USA Rugby’s national team, and multiple capped international players, most famously Botha, a 2005 inductee to the International Hall of Fame.
Harlequin alumni players also include U.S. Rugby Foundation Hall of Fame (USRF Hall of FAme) Referee, Ian Nixon, MD, F.A.C.C., F.A.H.A., and USRF Hall of Fame Award Winners, Nelson Spencer, and Bob Latham. Latham currently serves as the Chairman of USA Rugby’s Board of Directors.
The Dallas Harlequins play Division 1 club rugby in the Red River Rugby Conference of the Western League of USA Rugby.”
