Fall 2009!

Is it too early to start discussing the Fall 2009 season? Well, with the spring XV's season wrapping up just last weekend, the Wisconsin High School Girls Rugby teams held their semi-annual meeting last week. The schedule is now set for the Division 1 clubs and the clubs agreed to establish a Division 2 for developing teams and B-side teams from larger clubs.

As in the past, the Division 1 clubs will be organized into 2 pools. Pool A: DSHA, Brookfield Bruisers, Kettle Moraine, and Muskego. Pool B: Catholic Memorial, Vernon, Northshore-Highlanders, and Oak Creek. Division 2 will consist of Pius, Fond du Lac, Oak Creek/Cudahy and the newly formed Minomonee Falls RFC, along with B-side teams from the Division 1 pool teams.

It may seem a long way off, but the Girls High School Finals will be played at Nagawaukee Park on October 25, 2009! As in the past, the final matches for all Division 1 teams will be played at the same location.

Other interesting agenda items of note, the Girls High School teams voted unanimously to affiliate with the Wisconsin Rugby Football Union (WRFU). In the past, high school girls teams were members in good standing of the Midwest Territorial Union and USA Rugby. We anticipate that this new affiliation will bring greater coordination of activities between the girls league, the referee society and the WRFU. This past season, the referee society coordinated all match officials for the matches. Continuation of this benefit alone makes joining the WRFU a good bargain!

Rugby Recruiting

In Wisconsin there are three types of clubs: school based, park and recreation based, and clubs. DSHA and Catholic Memorial (#1 and #2 in the state respectively) are deeply rooted in within their school community. Both of these clubs were founded by teachers at their respective institution and, over time, have grown, to varying degrees, to enjoy institutional support and recognition. Without a doubt, both of these clubs have an edge in recruiting new players. Despite the fact both CMHS and DSHA are smaller than their public counterparts, they have larger, more stable teams due in part to their ability to "get the word out" about rugby through official channels. Vernon (Wisconsin's #3 seed) also has "official" sanction through the Vernon Parks and Recreation Department. Thus, Vernon also has the benefit of being able to "get the word out" about its program through recognized channels.

The remaining Wisconsin clubs have, at best, an ambiguous relationship with its local park and recreation department and/or local school district. I have often heard coaches complain about the difficulty they have in negotiating the relationship with local school officials and the negative impact this has on the club's ability to "get the word out" about their club. While an Internet presence goes some way in circumventing this problem, this communication channel presupposes that someone is aware that club rugby exists in the local community and that they are searching for the club online. So, what are local high school rugby clubs to do? I want to throw out some strategies and pointers from my experience --for what its worth -- and briefly discuss your rugby club's "rights" within a public institution. However, be forewarned, exerting your "rights" is not the ideal method. Rather, collaborative and positive relationships are the way to go.

So, some basic pointers:

PLAYERS AS LEADERS:

• Give your players the recruiting mentality. Remind your players that responsibility for the growth of the club rests with the players. They are the best source of new players (see the post about the Black Ferns... peer recruitment was the #1 reason for joining rugby).
• Encourage your players to facilitate positive relationships within their school. Players (as members of the student body) have greater access to the school community than "outsider" coaches. For example, some recent successes by the Brookfield team, that can only be achieved by student-athlete leadership are: (1) the Brookfield Central players convinced the year-book editor to include a page dedicated to the rugby club (even though the club is not an officially recognized sport); (2) the school paper included an article about the rugby club in their upcoming issue. (Remember -- our athletes are not just rugby players-- they are year book editors, members of the school paper, members of the student council). By encouraging players to utilize their networks, we are actually helping players to develop important self-advocacy and leadership skills that go beyond rugby. (As an aside, don't be afraid to write letters of recommendations to college for your players and high light their off-the-field contributions, as these really demonstrate leadership. "so-and-so was not only a stellar athlete, but also did x, y, and z to demonstrate her leadership skills" --some players shy away from rugby in the fears that being part of a non-school sponsored sport will not contribute to their college admission application. However, the opposite is true. Rugby is a great opportunity to take responsibility and develop leadership skills).
  
• Let your players lead the way, but always maintain a hand in the image that your players present. Remember, our role as a coach is to help facilitate positive youth development (so don't let your players portray in image that is counter-productive to the growth of the sport in your community).
  
• Don't forget that parents are another important key networking component: "My daughter plays rugby... and I'm proud of her" is a very powerful recruitment statement.

COACHES AS COLLABORATORS:

• Don't let rugby be marginalized as a "rugby club" versus "school system" mentality. Always remember that, at our best, we are, like the school system, interested in the positive development of our players. Therefore, we are partners not competitors in the process.
• Don't let rugby be seen as "taking away" from other sports programs. Often, I've heard athletic directors and other coaches characterize rugby as "stealing athletes" from other legitimate sports. The script for rugby coaches should be that we (1) offer choice to student athletes; (2) by offering rugby, some students who might not otherwise play a sport is give an opportunity to get active and get involved (e.g. it is very difficult for a high school student who hasn't been playing soccer for years to walk onto a competitive high school team. Rugby offers these players a new opportunity, no experience necessary).
• Be responsive to school administration concerns. (e.g. when posting rugby posters-- do your players always use the appropriate administrative procedure and get the appropriate approvals).
• Always frame the conversation in terms of what rugby can offer and not what rugby wants. It is counter-productive in these days of tight budgets and program cuts to think that rugby can (or should) get financial support from the school system. But, most clubs don't need much (we have balls, jerseys, volunteer coaches, etc...). By partnering with the schools, we can add to the school community -- bringing resources, not taking away. What does the club need from the school? access to the communication network, access to playing fields, and already existing no-additional cost resources. What can rugby add? A new, low-cost, exciting sports program for the school, contributions to field maintenance costs, partnering to raise funds for new goal posts...? we are only limited by our imagination and willingness to ask, not what the schools can do for us, but what we can add to the school.
  

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS:

• The rugby club has the same right to post flyers, distribute mailers in school communication vehicles (e.g. stuffing mailers in middle school take-home packets) as any other similarly situated group. Thus, if your school district allows the local church to distribute flyers about summer bible camp, the rugby club likely has a constitutional right to distribute hand-outs about rugby (subject to the same time, place and manner restrictions). Obviously the negative corollary is also true: if the communication tools is only open to officially school sponsored activities, then the non-school sponsored rugby club has no "right" to communicate. Find out what your school district rules are (very respectfully) and follow school policies. If the rules really prohibit the use of these communication vehicles by out-side groups, respect that policy and explore alternatives.
  
• Remember, not all information is private -- try a direct mailer. If your schools distribute a student directory -- try and get the names and addresses of incoming students and try mailing them all a post card prior to the season. Often, your players already have access to these documents. Moreover, this information (depending upon local school board policy) is often publicly available. For example, FERPA (the federal law which protects the confidentiality of student records) does NOT generally protect the confidentiality of "directory data", i.e. information including student's name, address, school most recently attended, etc. Most states have "open records" laws or sunshine laws that allow members of the public to request records which are not otherwise protected by confidentiality laws. Thus, you may be able to ask your school district for a list of the names and addresses of students and create a mailer to incoming students in your district. (This is a tactic used by people marketing services to high-school students -- such as year book photographers).
  
• Always remember, it is not optimal to exert your "rights" when interacting with a school district. But I think it's helpful to know that there are creative ways to overcome the structural deficit created by being an unofficially recognized sports. The best way is to always be collaborative.
  
• Finally, don't forget the local paper. Often times, the major newspaper in the area is too busy covering "major" sporting events and officially recognized sports. But the local community paper is often looking for things to write about. Posting weekly box scores in the community based paper is a great way to remind people that rugby exists in your community. By cultivating relationships with reporters, you may even get a feature article and a couple of photos.
  

These are just some ideas and I know there are a lot of other good ones out there. Remember, be creative, be positive, and your club can become a recruiting success story.

More on DSHA...

Congratulations to Sarah Chmielewski, (in red-below) from DSHA, picuted here as she recieves the MVP award for her role at the USA Rugby National Championships!
Also in the news, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett dropped by DSHA on Thursday to declare May 21, 2009 "DIVINE SAVIOR HOLY ANGELS HIGH SCHOOL RUGBY CLUB NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY" for all Milwaukee! Talk about raising the image of rugby. Below is s a copy of the official proclamation. (I am hoping that we can track down some pictures of the mayor presenting the award as well).


I want to note that, despite the fact that DSHA has a lot to be proud of, almost all my information comes from individuals who are not affiliated with the club. I wish Chin and his cohorts were a little less modest ... so I don't have to hear about them third hand. Besides, DSHA's continued success is only possible because they have teams to play. We should all take pride that a Wisconsin club does so very, very well!

Also... I strongly encourage any club to send me their pictures/news ... getting the word out about our individual clubs is always a positive -- even if we aren't all national champions. Just for fun, here is an image captured by a Brookfield Rugby player -- captured on her cell-phone cam -- of the Brookfield Coach celebrating the 5-0 victory of the Brookfield-B-side over the DSHA-B side from that rainy weekend a couple of weeks ago:



Why? Well... because you have to take pride in every accomplishment .. whether it "counts" for your record or not!

Wisconsin's Rugby Culture

DSHA's success -- and the news coverage of DSHA's national title run in two articles from the Journal sentinel (one, two) -- really illustrates how far high school women's rugby in Wisconsin has come in the past 11 years. Perhaps one of the more important side-effects of DSHA's success is not the title, but the positive impact on the image of rugby in the community. This positive impact is highlighted by one simple fact, the location of the story in the paper. Both the stories about the DSHA national title run were printed in the sports section with the tag line "rugby." This may seem like a small accomplishment, but the very first press that DSHA received from the Journal Sentinel (and don't get me wrong, we were glad to receive it) was a full, front page story in the STYLE section. Women's high school rugby has clearly moved from a "curiosity" to a legitimate, competitive sport -- with DSHA leading the way for all of us.

The legitimacy of women's high school rugby in Wisconsin as a sport is no small accomplishment. In Kicking Stereotypes into Touch: An Ethnographic Account of Women's Rugby (full cite at end of post), P. David Howe notes that, even in Wales where rugby is an important cultural activity which forms part of the Welsh national identity, negative perceptions of women's rugby impacts the ability of rugby clubs to recruit high school players: "We have real difficulty attracting high school girls to the team. It would be great if we could because by the time they are in there [sic] mid-twenties they could be really accomplished at the game." (Howe, p. 237).

Wisconsin seems to have to overcome some of these negative perceptions associated with women participating in a contact sport -- an accomplishment that is due in no small part to the inclusion of rugby stories in the preps section of the Journal Sentinel. Last weekend, I was in the mall and getting a hair cut. The barber noted that I seemed to have gotten a lot of sun. I responded that I spend a lot of time on the sideline of the rugby field. The barber stated, "oh, I thought that around here only the girls played rugby." I indicated that I coached a girls' high school team and this led to a discussion about how her daughter was a senior at a high school in Wisconsin and how she wished that there was rugby at her school. The significance of DSHA's success (and its coverage by the press) is that the general public -- those with no connection to rugby -- form a positive image of Women's rugby players and see rugby as a legitimate sport for women. (an ironic comment given the fact that there are probably twice as many boys high school teams as there are girls). The positive perception of women's high school rugby creates the opportunity for the growth of women's rugby in the high school (and by extension boys' rugby). There is interest in the growth of women's rugby by female athletes who read these stories; The only thing holding us back is the need to find more coaches and referees!!

So, kudos to DSHA -- not only for winning an impressive 6 National Titles and having the first ever USA Rugby Coach of the year in John "Chin" Klien-- but also for generating headlines that highlight the athletic accomplishment of our women's high school rugby athletes and foster a positive image for rugby.

For those of you who want to follow up on the citation: Howe, P. David (2003), Kicking Stereotypes into Touch: An Ethnographic Account of Women's Rugby, in A. Bline and J. Granskog (eds.) Athletic Intruders: Ethnographic Research on Women, Culture, and Exercise, pp. 227-246.

(p.s. -- it is really nice to have access to a tier 1 research institution's library when exploring your casual interests!!)

Scores....

Congratulations to DSHA for their repeat win 19-14 over Lakewood (OH) in the National finals! A full story about DSHA and the U19 National Girls High School Championship is available online at the USA Rugby website. I think we should take tremendous pride that Wisconsin and the Midwest -- (as both the #1 and #2 teams came out of the Midwest Territory) -- continue to produce such high caliber, competitive teams.

In other scores, Brookfield fell to Vernon 10-12, and Brookfield-B defeated Vernon-B 10-0.

Anyone else have scores to report?

Scores

Scores this week:

Saturday:

DSHA v. Brookfield 60+ - 0
DSHA-B v. Brookfield-B 0-5

Wed.:

KM v. Northshore 20-10

Rugby Research...

Over the past 13 years that I've been involved in coaching or refereeing high school girls rugby in Wisconsin, there have always been recurring questions that come to mind. Some of these questions impact how we grow the sport (i.e. why do girls decide to come out and play rugby? How do players and their families perceive rugby as a sport, and how does that perception impact the growth of the sport?); other questions impact our assessment on the value of rugby as an alternative sport for young women in Wisconsin (i.e. what impact does rugby have on players, both during their years as player and beyond? What value do the players and their families see in playing rugby?).

There are intuitive answers to these questions. There is also a body of scholarship to validate and extend thinking around these same questions. Although these studies are not particular to Wisconsin and/or high school girls, they provide a framework for exploring these questions in the high school and local contexts. Over the next few months (since I happen to have a little time on my hand as the spring season wraps up), I will be summarizing some of the current research on Women's rugby to provide a basis for further reflection on the impact of our own league and, just out of curiosity, to see what's out there.

In the article, The Black Ferns: The Experiences of New Zealand’s Elite Women Rugby Players (full citation at end of blog entry), researchers explored the experiences of women playing on New Zealand's national team, the Black Ferns, by interviewing 23 players during the 1999 tri-nations tournament between New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The researchers utilized a nine question, semi-structured interview, which was centered around seven themes: participation motives, reasons for continuation, experiences participating in a male dominated sport, experiences being a Black Fern, the governing body (NZRFU), sport and life plans, and general background information. Interviews were taped and transcribed and then reviewed by the interviewees for participant verification. Transcripts were coded for themes and sub-themes independently by the lead authors to ensure dependability. The researchers then utilized HyperResarch, a qualitative research software, to assist in analysis of the data.

The article focused on three of the seven themes: (a) reasons for starting to play rugby, (b) reasons for continuing to play rugby, and (c) being part of a predominately male game. (My summary focuses on the first of these three themes, and I will summarize the other themes in subsequent posts). In exploring reasons that players started playing rugby, players indicated the following reasons (listed according to the frequency with which they were heard):

• Their friends played and introduced them to the sport;
  
• They cam from a rugby family;
  
• They enjoyed the physical nature of the game and had a desire to change sports, particularly from netball (a basketball like game played predominately by women);
  
• The liked that rugby was an intelligent sport;
  
• They always liked rugby, but never had an opportunity to play until later in life;
  
• rugby provided an opportunity to travel and meet other people.

In summarizing the implications of these reasons for playing, the authors caution that their findings may not be generalizable to elite athletes in other sports or to rugby players in North America, or other regions where rugby does not have the same culturally significant role, as in New Zealand.

However, may of the motives for beginning to play rugby likely carry-over into the experience of high school girls who chose to play rugby in Wisconsin. Based on informal discussions with players, three themes in particular would likely emerge in the high school context: (1) players begin playing rugby because of peer recruitment (i.e. their friends are playing), (2) players want to try a new, and more physical sport, after years of playing other sports, usually soccer, and (3) players enjoy the opportunity to travel and meet new people (i.e. players like that club rugby usually engages in some form of travel).

An open question for players in American high schools is the amount of exposure that high school female athletes have to rugby prior to starting play. Many players join rugby without ever having seen a rugby match. Thus, it is unlikely that rugby players join rugby because of a well-formed appreciation of rugby as presenting a particular type of challenge or physical activity. Rather, their perception of rugby is likely limited to general concepts (i.e. I know players tackle). A participation study would help to clarify what are the pre-conceived ideas that high school athletes have about rugby and how do those perceptions influence their decision to play. Thus, it would be important to replicate the participation study with particular emphasis on exploring young players perceptions of and knowledge about rugby as an added dimension.

In posting these summaries, I hope to solicit feedback from readers to identify important themes for research and, if there is interest, identify potential collaborators for conducting further research.

CITATION: Chu, Michael M. L., Leberman, Sarah I, Howe, Bruec L., and Bachor, Dan G. (2003). The Black Ferns: The Experiences of New Zealand’s Elite Women Rugby Players. Journal of Sport Behavior, Vol. 2 (No. 2): pp. 109-120.