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Coaches

Larry Doong
Head Coach/Forwards
Larry started his rugby career at the University of Georgia in 1996, where he played prop and flanker. After college, he had brief stints with a few local Atlanta teams before eventually settling down with the Atlanta Renegades, where he played from 2005 to 2012. During that time, he captained the Renegades D2 side to the playoffs as hooker in 2007-2008, before earning a starting spot on their D1 side as blindside flanker during their 2008-2009 run to the D1 Final Four (alongside several other UGA Rugby alumni). He also served various leadership roles, including Match Secretary, Vice President, and Director of Recruiting. After a brief hiatus, he also played a couple seasons with Columbia Olde Grey before moving back to Athens in 2017 and rejoined the team as an assistant coach.
Professionally, Larry has been an enterprise software professional for 23 years, spanning various roles including implementation (development and project management), sales engineering, management, and customer success. Currently, he is a Customer Engagement Executive with SAP in their Customer Experience division.
For the past 23 years, Larry has been an active UGA Rugby alumnus. He’s organized and led the “younger” alumni team in Savannah for many years. He was one of the drivers behind the formation of the alumni into a formal legal entity with 501(c)3 status, and served as its inaugural chairman.
As the head coach, Larry hopes to instill a love for rugby, to give back to the club, and to bring the program back to prominence in the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference. Through coaching and mentorship, he also hopes to help the student-athletes develop - not only as rugby players, but also as people, as future professionals, and as citizens of their communities.

Joey McLane
Backs Coach
Joey played rugby at UGA from 2017 to 2020, and has played with various local men's clubs including Gwinnett, Athens, and Gainesville. He was selected for the USA Rugby All South Panthers in 2019, and played with Optimus Rugby 7’s in 2020. Joey also helped as an assistant coach with UGA Rugby in 2021, and has recently started a position with Boehringer Ingelheim in Athens. He will be the primary backs coach.

Gordon Stead
Assistant Forwards Coach
Gordon grew up playing rugby in England, and has been coaching rugby since 2009. He currently works as an engineer for UGA’s facilities management division, and has helped UGA as an assistant coach since 2020. Gordon will help Larry with the forwards.
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