Lance Hohaia

Lance Hohaia is the head coach of men's rugby for Davenport University. He serves as a coach at Nike Rugby Camps.

Lance Hohaia (Ho-hi-ya) enters his second year running the helm of the men's rugby program at Davenport University. He helped lead a resurgence in the program as the Panthers won eight more matches in 2018-19 than the previous year. The team went 18-8 and began the season with four straight 15s wins. The 7s season in the spring was very impressive as the team went 5-0 at the Big 10 7s tournament and pitching four straight shutouts to begin the tournament. They defeated Lindenwood-Belleville 14-12 in the championship match. They followed that success into the USA Rugby National 7s where the Panthers took third place.

Davenport University hired Hohaia as head coach of the men’s rugby program on June 4, 2018. Hohaia brings professional rugby experience to the position having played in New Zealand and amassed over 300 matches during his 15-year professional career. He played for the New Zealand Warriors (2000-11), St. Helens RFC (2011-15) and the New Zealand Rugby League National Team (2001-11).

Hohaia has an extensive knowledge of the game which he has parlayed into a coaching career with stops as assistant rugby coach at Grand Valley State University (2015-18) and USA Rugby Academy – Atavus Rugby (2017-18). He was also served as director of rugby for Infinite Rugby from 2017 until the present. He is a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and helped as strength and conditioning coach at Davenport this past year.

Hohaia launched Infinite Rugby in 2017 to develop skill clinics aimed at high school level rugby players in West Michigan. The purpose of these clinics is to provide opportunities for kids to practice and develop their techniques outside of their regular season and grow the game in the community.