- May 20, 2026
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Gary Jones gazed upon the sandy pitch before him with his bare feet sinking into the similarly sandy sideline. Beneath a big-brimmed straw hat, a smile appeared.
He exchanged laughter with the athletes to his left and right. As he did, the white Hawaiian shirt and floral swim trunks completing his outfit rippled with the wind.
Contrary to what Jones’ appearance might suggest, this was no vacation. Rugby matches were being held under his watch.
Sarasota Rugby Club hosted its inaugural “Siesta 7s” beach rugby tournament May 16 at Siesta Beach. It welcomed 16 teams from across Florida for men’s, women’s and youth competition, which ran from morning through late afternoon.
The club left behind its home grass pitch at the Fraternal Order of the Eagles on Wilkinson Road to compete on a different surface — sand. Yellow rope and red flags outlined its makeshift battle ground in lieu of white spray paint and goal posts.
It marked the first time the sport has been played at Siesta Key, per Jones.
“Truly, it was a gamble. It’s never been done here before,” said Jones, the club’s president, founder and men's coach. “We wanted to expose Sarasota to rugby.”
Founded in 2010, Sarasota Rugby Club fields a men’s team and youth academy. All of its rugby-related operations are run by the Florida Gulf Coast Rugby Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The men’s team competes in Division III of the Florida Rugby Union as the Sarasota Surge, while the youth academy welcomes interested players from ages 7-18.
This past season, which ran from September through April, the Surge reached the league’s state semifinals. They ultimately lost to the Palm Beach Panthers, 60-10.
Although the club’s youth academy wasn’t in action at "Siesta 7s," its men’s team was, sprinting across the sand for tries and sweating it out in scrums under the sun.
Discussions about this tournament began five years ago within the club. Finances, though, prevented it from materializing until this year.
“We can’t afford — as a club or the foundation — to lose money. We just can’t,” Jones said. “We get donations, we do things to raise money, but putting one of these things on is a huge chunk of money. We just said, ‘We think we can do it. We’re ready.’”
Jones and Co. were finally all in. They reached out to Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources for a permit and secured Siesta Beach as their site.
It took six months to organize the one-day tournament, which featured 40 games of rugby sevens across three fields played from 9 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. The Sarasota Surge are more accustomed to rugby union — the format in which its season is played.
Seven players suit up for each team in rugby sevens, unlike the 15 each in rugby union. Contests are 14 minutes long instead of 80.
That makes for a faster, high-octane version of the sport. Since the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, rugby sevens is the format played at the Olympic level.
“Sevens is a lot more fun,” said Lashawn Bowman. “If you get the ball in 15s, there’s 15 people coming for your head versus seven. It’s more spread out, so you can get a little more tired than 15s, so there’s definitely a challenge."
Bowman, who graduated from Sarasota High School in 2018, has been with Sarasota Rugby Club since he was in 10th grade. His background was in football — a similarly physical sport — as a defensive end for the Sailors.
Such was the case for Tyre Smith. The 2022 graduate of Riverview High School was a linebacker for the Rams, and joined the club last year. He was able to translate some of his skills, but without football pads, the transition wasn’t entirely smooth.
“From a mental standpoint, how hard you have to condition and train for rugby transferred over from football for me,” Smith said. “But then there’s learning the fundamentals of how to tackle properly.”
Rugby has been Jones’ passion since he picked it up at 5 years old while growing up in England. He’s been involved in Sarasota-based rugby since 2000, well before the club was formally founded.
Moving to the midwestern U.S. in 1989 was a shock — nobody around him knew the sport. There’s now 20 men’s teams across Div. II and III of the Florida Rugby Union.
“It’s a very structured, disciplined sport,” Jones said. “It teaches children to have that discipline and be able to get their aggression out in the right way. We’ve got some great stories of youth players whose parents will say (rugby) saved their lives.”
Year one is in the books. The tournament Sarasota Rugby Club had been working toward for half a decade came to fruition at last.
The club hopes to go bigger for next year’s edition, Jones said, and after that, it’ll shoot for something even bigger.
Those will present more opportunities for him to watch and coach the sport he loves, complete with the comforts of a Hawaiian shirt and his toes in the sand.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” Jones said. “It really is.”
