Over the years, there have been a few people who have given far more than expected to the club. In 2000, we created the Hall of Fame to honor them, along with giving them lifetime membership in the club.

To be eligible, an inductee must have spent ten years with the club and held at least one elected position. To actually be inducted, the player must have shown a long term commitment to the betterment of the Newport News team and to rugby.

These rare players are recognized here along with the year they were inducted.

2000: Mitch Avent
Mitch’s background and the early history of the club are one and the same. Mitch is the reason for the club’s existence and success, and a continuing presence to this day. Though he hasn’t been playing since 1988, he has continued to support rugby in the area by coaching the Menchville High School side.

2000: Marty Edrich

2002: George Fiscella
George started his rugby career in 1983, playing for JMU's C side. He stayed with them through 1985, when they played against Mary Washington in Mary Washington's first ever rugby match.

George joined Newport News in 1988 and spent 20 years as a regular player with the team, even spending some time coaching, before retiring in 2008. Even after that, he continues to play with the Cardinals, a local Old Boys team, to this day.

George has been a major driving force in the development and continued management of the high school league on the Peninsula, becoming even more important to rugby in Hampton Roads after his retirement from the men's team than he had been before.

2003: Paul Schmitt

2004: Denis Melle

2006: Mike Toole
A terror at fullback in his younger years, Mike continued to help the team after retiring from regular play. Truly a club man, he made the team his life. It was Mike that fought through the IRS (almost as bad as a front row) to get the team 501c3 status. In October 2009, Mike succumbed to brain cancer.

2006: John Lawrence
Johnny Law started with Newport News in 1992 as a wing weighing 180 lbs and played with Newport News until 2008. He then spent a season coaching Virginia Beach's back line. Since that time he has continued to coach, with two years spent with the Kecoughtan High school team in 2009 and 2010, and several seasons with Newport New's summer sevens teams.

Since his retirement from the men's team in 2008, he has played on the Cardinals, the local Old Boys team, in over-45 and over-50 events.

2007: Dayle Runner
Dayle started playing rugby in 1992 for Newport News and has stuck with them, playing in all but three seasons up to 2015. Even during the year he lived one block from where VA Beach played, he continued to play with Newport News. He has held a variety of positions within the club throughout the years, including two separate stints as president, and has watched four different generations of players come and go.

2010: Rich Britten
Rich started playing school rugby in 1973, was a founding member of the Sleaford Rugby Men's Club in 1978, and played men's club rugby thereafter. He played for teams in England and Canada before moving moving to Virginia and joining Newport News in 2001. From 2001 to 2005, he both played for and coached Newport News. He even helped to write our current constitution. After a period with VA Beach and the Norfolk Blues, he returned to coach Newport News from the Fall of 2010 to the Fall of 2016.

His coaching has taken News to MARFU on several occasions, and his arrival in 2001 saved the club from folding entirely.

2015: Mike Milliman

2015: Joshua "Krutch" Kinnison
Krutch has had a true rugby mentality from the beginning, playing his first game of rugby in 1996 at Hampden-Sydney College, only 10 weeks after having broken his femur. In 2002 he moved to Newport News and has been playing with us to 2016. In that time, he has played every position other than prop and lock, has coached during the years Rich Britten was in VA Beach, and has been Vice President of the club.