Men’s Rugby Head Coach

Email: david.burke@cornell.com

Dave Burke enters his second year with the Cornell University men’s rugby team. After a slow start in Dave’s first year in the Ivy Rugby League, he looks forward to the 2018 fall season with several returning starters and a few incoming freshmen and transfers with solid experience.

Dave’s rugby career started with the Schenectady Reds, playing wing from 1991 to 1997. In 1998, he moved to Raleigh for work and played fullback for the Vipers. In his second year with the Vipers, Dave made the mid-Atlantic select side and played in the ITTs scoring in several opportunities. The tournament brought recognition at the national level and an opportunity to play in San Diego for the Super League team, OMBAC.

In 2000, Dave traveled with the USA 15s team to several Pacific Rim games in Tonga and Samoa. Later that summer, OMBAC 7s took form and won their first of three consecutive 7s national championship. Dave’s focus was now on 7s and played prop for two years with the National team including the World Cup in 2001.

Playing shifted to coaching in 2006 as the backs coach at SDSU under head coach, Dan Payne. Dave stayed on for two years and then returned to coach SDSU in the 2010 7s CRC taking third place in the inaugural tournament. Two years later, he came back to coach OMBAC 7s taking the team to the nationals in 2012 and 2013.

From 2013 to 2016, Dave and his family transitioned from California to New York to further his research at Cornell where he works as an engineer developing a new particle accelerator. His hiatus from rugby was over when he took the coaching helm in the fall of 2016.