Quincy Pearson hopes more Marine Corps Base Quantico employees, be they active duty or civilian, become hooligans before the summer’s end.

Pearson is the assistant coach of the base rugby team, the Quantico Hooligans, for the upcoming season, which will begin in earnest after Labor Day.

“Our biggest problem is getting numbers out and getting guys to come out consistently,” he said, noting that busy work schedules often mean even those who join the team have a hard time making practice.

The team is coming off a successful summer “sevens” season that culminated with the Hooligans winning the Social Division of the Monk Vaughn Sevens Tournament in Richmond in July. Now the team is transferring to the traditional 15-player team format, rather than the seven-man team.

The Hooligans will compete in Division 3 of the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union.

About 12 people played with the summer team, and Pearson said all of those are staying on. But the team wants to augment itself as much as possible, with new or experienced players. “The focus right now is on trying to get as many guys out as possible so we can build the team,” he said, adding that membership is open to anyone attached to a Marine Corps installation in the Washington, D.C. area.

For the first time, the rugby season will go on hold in November, resume in March and end with the championship in April.

The geographic areas of MARFU’s regions also changed this year, and several teams have changed divisions, said Chuck O’Neill, the team’s coach for the season. “It’s going to be tough. A lot of teams in our division this year we’ve had trouble with in the past,” he said, adding that many of the teams the Hooligans have beaten are in lower divisions this year.

The team is beginning practice earlier than usual this year to prepare for a friendly match against the 1st Battalion of the Scottish Royal Regiment on Aug. 21, a game that O’Neill said the Hooligans see as a practice round against a well-seasoned team from a country where rugby is hugely popular. The first official league game will be on Sept. 7.

“That will be a home match against one of our traditional rivals, the West Potomac Rugby Football Club,” O’Neill said.

Seth Spivey, who became a Hooligan in March 2013, said he didn’t get into the sport until he joined the Marine Corps.

“Rugby is 100 percent all the time — you’re constantly running the field, and there’s constant contact,” he said. “There’s no lull in rugby. That’s my attraction to it.”

“Rugby for me is a nice outlet,” said Banks Gray, the team captain and its only Navy player. “It gets your aggression out and keeps up your athleticism.” He noted that he dropped a minute and a half from his physical fitness test this spring after starting to play again.

He said he also enjoys the camaraderie of the sport. “You start going to tournaments, start playing the same teams over and over again, and you start to form a nice brotherhood, a nice family.”

Gray said he wants to establish himself as a leader this season, both as captain of the Hooligans and in the All-Navy Rugby camp he’ll attend for two weeks this month in Glendale, Colo.

Because work schedules often take players out of games, Spivey said he wants to use this year to learn to play other positions well enough to fill in as need be. And he said he at least wants to make the playoffs. “As a team, we have a hugely competitive spirit, and hopefully this season turns out to be a successful one.”

But he added, “As long as we can go out and have fun at every match, that’s the end state. If you’re not having fun anymore, what’s the point of playing?”

The Quantico Hooligans practice every Tuesday and Thursday evening at Butler Stadium.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com