2014 Team Touch Judge Requirement

Starting in 2014 each team in Wisconsin is required to have a certified "Touch Judge."  These are the sideline referee aids who hold flags and signal when the ball goes out of bounds. 

 

Parents, managers, and players are all eligible to take the online course to gain certification.  It's not hard.  It's a great way for parents and injured players to learn a little more about the game and help your team in the process.

 

Upcoming dates and info below:

http://usarugby.org/referee-courses

 

Feb 2nd, Feb 11th

March 2nd, March 11th

 

WGR may also be hosting their own TJ Certification Clinic in conjunction with the Wisconsin Referee Society.  More details may be coming soon .....

Free Indoor Rugby Sessions

Coach Neil from Brookfield has scheduled  some gym time Sunday Mornings 7am to 8am at the Brookfield Indoor Soccer Park. New and veteran players interested in attending some touch rugby sessions should contact coach Neil.  Attendees will need to preform some cleaning duties at the facility. They are asking that our club clean the glass at the indoor park and we can have the dates available for free.


Contact Coach Neil directly:  neilgrintjes@yahoo.com

Brookfield indoor Soccer Park indoor dates:

Sunday Feb 2
Sunday Feb 9
Sunday Feb 23
Sunday March 9
Sunday March 16
Sunday March 23
Sunday March 30
Sunday April 6
Sunday April 13

Vegas 7s Rugby

The 2014 Rugby season feels like it REALLY kicks off with the now annual Vegas International 7's Tournament. If you didn't catch the action on NHC today, you can see some of the playoffs tomorrow afternoon on NBC. The Fiji v New Zealand game today was probably our favorite so far; although the USA victory over Spain was exciting as well, featuring some well-worked tries. If we had to make a prediction, we'd have to go with the All-Blacks and South Afrika in the final, but in sevens one missed tackle can change any game.

In the week leading up to the event, the Vegas Invitational hosts 80-some club and school teams from around the world. While we face -40 degree weather and some more school closings this week, it's hard not to dream of spring and summer weather and getting out to play some rugby.

Some high school girls rugby 15's matches could be found the last few days, with defending National Champion Fallbrook jumping out to three big wins:
Fallbrook 66 Snow Canyon, Utah 0 (Thur)
Fallbrook 81 Bishop O'Down HS, NorCal 0 (Fri)
Fallbrook 81 Lashburn Lucky 10 (Sat)

In 7's action, the Atlantis high school team made its first-ever debut. Atlantis is a famous touring invitational team made up of players from all around the country. As Coach Noe once put it, "anyone who is anyone in sevens plays for Atlantis" at some point in their careers. Seeing them branch out into the lower age-groups is pretty exciting and a big step. Wisconsin's Rebecca Haight joined the touring team for their debut and played in a bunch of their matches. They made it to the Cup Finals, losing to British Columbia's u-18 team 32-12.

  Our friends to the north also sent two teams to represent Minnessota: M-Tundra 1 and 2. The both lost in the Plate Semifinals, but cetainly got a chance to get outdoors and play some good teams.

Plate Semis:
Tundra 0 Hilo Reign 61
Tundra 2, 5 Apexa 24

Midwest Girls Championships April 26th-27th

The 2014 High School Girls Midwest Tournament help April 26&27^th at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Indiana will have multiple divisions for different levels of competitiveness.  Please contact one of the coordinators soon if interested in attending one of the largest all-girls tournaments in the country.

Preliminary List of Competitors (18):

Illinois                   Plainfield

Indiana                 Brownsburg, Bloomington, Warsaw, South Bend, Penn,

Michigan              Livingston

Minnesota          Armstrong

Ohio                      Lakewood, St Joseph’s Academy, St Joseph's B, Parma

Wisconsin            DSHA, DSHA JV, Catholic Memorial, Brookfield, Kettle Moraine, Oak Creek

Hotel Info Below. Make checks payable to “Moose Rugby Grounds”

Click Here to Make Hotel Room Reservations for Girls Midwest Rugby

 Check out:  www.midwestyouthrugby.com for more info and last year's brackets.

Crusader Cup 7's Registratin Due March 1st

Registration for the Crusader Cup 7’s at Minooka Park in Waukesha, Wisconsin on May 3^rd is due March 1^st.  At that time we will finalize the brackets and send the schedule to the refs.

This is a low key event.  No trophies, just show up, play, and have fun.  It’s $75 for each team you wish to enter with at least 3 matches for each team.

Varsity Pool (830am 1^st match ---11am last match):  (4teams so far)  CMH, BB,M, OC

Festival Pool (11am-2pm):  (5teams so far) CMH, BB, Fondy, M, OC

 

For more info contact:

John Waliszewski

jwaliszewski@catholicmemorial.net

 

Wisconsin High School Selectside

Hello WI coaches,

 

Hopefully this hits everyone in the league and all the new interest areas that are growing.  This will be my 2^nd year leading the WI select side.  Last year we lost on a last second conversion kick to Ohio for 2nd.  We had a great staff with Neil Greintjes from Brookfield, Alex Glorioso from CMH and Shannon King.  At the time we had representatives of 7 of the 8 teams.  2 players were invited to the All Americans and several others went on to play for the Midwest u19s later in the summer. 
 

I’m hoping to build on last year’s results.  In order to do that, please get the dates and my email out to any that you believe would be a good fit and interested.  More schools are starting to offer scholarships, and outside of major tournaments (nationals, Midwest), the regional select sides offer another avenue to be seen and add to their resume.

Besides developing players and opening them to future possibilities in representative rugby, I would also like to help coaches gain experience as well.  If you are interested in helping the select side program, please let me know your area of expertise as well as your ability to commit to the dates.  Otherwise, practice sessions are always open to WI coaches if you just want to come watch or steal new drills.  Assistant coaches, brand new coaches, all are welcome to apply and I will finalize a staff by the end of February.

The biggest difficulty was not having enough time together as a group.  This will give me 4 good trainings and a scrimmage before the tournament and after the May 4^th tryout.  Everything will be in the greater Milwaukee area, so I will work my best to accommodate the Appleton, FDL, and Fox Valley girls that make the list after the tryout. 

Dates:

May 4^th – day after CMH 7s, no teams on the schedule that I can see.  Tryouts for the team, with the hope of having a starting 25 for the tournament and a developmental roster of frosh/soph players to build on in the future.

June 1^st – Team training day except will be missing DSHA players at National 7s. 

June 6^th – Evening walk through and game plan

June 7^th – Scrimmage IL 15s.  We’d miss Oak Creek and Arrowhead seniors to graduation.

June 10^th – Evening practice

June 12^th – Evening practice

June 13^th -15^th – Travel to Indiana for Midwest

I’m excited for this summer, better representing WI, dominating in the Midwest and gaining more selections to the High School All American side.  If you or any of your players have any questions or concerns, please have them contact me.

Thanks,

Jeff Noe
WI HS Select Side Coach
jeff.noe@constellation.com

Tough Love

A lot of us at WGR either were or are coaches.  The rest of us are or were players at one point.  An article we read recently reminded us of some of the experiences  we had, both as part of teams and just as students in general.

The article that inspired us appeared in the Harvard Business Review and was titled "The Fine Art of Tough Love."   A few excerpts from the article demonstrate why we found it enlightening.  This story seemed a good fit for the world of rugby, where the demands of the sport .. it's fitness level and physicality .. demand certain levels of tough love.  That's why it appears to us rugby is GROWING in participation numbers across the country.

"The teacher at the heart of the book Strings Attached is on the face of it an unlikely corporate role model. My childhood music teacher Jerry Kupchynsky, who we called “Mr. K,” was strictly old school: A ferocious Ukrainian immigrant and World War II refugee, he was a tyrannical school orchestra conductor in suburban New Jersey. He would yell and stomp and scream when we screwed up, bellowing “Who eez DEAF in first violins?” His highest praise was “not bad.”  He rehearsed us until our fingers were raw."

"Yet ultimately he became beloved by students, many of whom went on to outsize professional success in fields from business to academics to law, and who decades later would gather to thank him."

"Clearly, Mr. K’s demanding methods have tapped into a sea change that we’re just starting to detect in the culture, away from coddling of kids and the “trophies for everyone” mentality that has dominated parenting and education. It’s a shift that is equally evident in the workplace.  But trying to offer more honest feedback, and set higher standards, at work is tricky.  It’s especially difficult in the case of newer hires, those recent young college grads who were raised on a steady diet of praise and trophies and who never learned to accept criticism."

"Mr. K’s methods offer an intriguing roadmap:

1. Banish empty praise.
Mr. K never gave us false praise, and never even used words like “talent.” When he uttered a “not bad” – his highest compliment — we’d dance down the street and then run home and practice twice as long.
It turns out he was on to something.  Harvard Business Review readers will recall the landmark 2007 article written by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, “The Making of an Expert.”  That piece is most often cited for his pioneering work establishing that true expertise requires about 10,000 hours of practice."

There are four more key methods he used in his "tough love" teaching.  Check the rest of them out if you're a coach or a team captain ... 

We wonder, how effective would this be with our high school athletes today?  Does anyone have a story of this in practice?  We know this can backfire too, if not done in a special way.  Post a comment and join the discussion.