Youth Rugby Update

This is an update about Tag Rugby programs this summer for youth (1st to 8th Grade) Wisconsin:

In the City of Waukesha, the particulars are as follows:

DATES: Saturday Mornings, from June 9 through June 30;
TIME: 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (the hour goes quickly)
LOCATION: Mindiola Park (off of Sunset Dr. in Waukesha)

The program has 12 participants registered, but we are hoping for a bump in the final week of a few more kids. Their website is www.ci.waukehsa.wi.us. and I believe they are still accepting registrations.

The City of Oconomowoc is also running a four week program, running saturday mornings, starting on June 2, 2009. Information is available on thier website, www.oconomowocusa.com.

The West Bend Boys and Girls Club will be running a tag rugby program for elementary school aged children. They will be holding a high interest day on June 23, 2007, starting at 2:00 p.m.

Fond du Lac Rugby Club, in conjunction with the Fond du Lac park and recreation department is holding tag rugby programs, starting July 30 for children in grades 4-8. More information is available at www.fdlrugby.com..

All of these programs are co-ed and are a great introduction to rugby for players (and parent) with no experience or knoweldge about rugby.

If anyone knows about other programs, plesae leave a comment and spread the word.

The last games of Spring..

CMH travels to take on Northshore at Friedenfeld Park in Germantown at noon this Saturday.

On Wenesday, May 23, Brookfield defeated Muskego 20-0 and Muskego-B downed CMH-B (score unreported).

I think next week will wrap-up everyone's Spring season. KM is hosting an alumnae game June 6, 2007 at 5:00. KM's alumnae game is a real tribute to the success of that program. Last year, the Alumnae showed up in force and KM played a full 15-a-side game. While the alumnae dominated play the first half using the wisdom of experience, age caught up with the alumnae in the second half. Good luck KM alum!

Also up-coming is Brookfield's and Fond du Lac's final game. They meet on June 2, 2007 at Minooka Park at 1:00 p.m.

I am pretty sure that these games are the wrap-up for the Spring Season for anyone that wants to get out and see one final game before the summer.

Youth (6-8 year old) Rugby begins...

On May 21, 2007, The Oconomowoc Park and Recreation Department held its first high interest day for 1st and 2nd grade students. Six little tykes showed up and learned about tag rugby from two Kettle Moraine Girls RFC players. By the end of the hour, these little kids became little ruggers, and played a 3 v. 3 game of tag rugby.

Oconomowoc and Waukesha Park and recreation departments are both sponsoring co-ed tag rugby programs this June. Hopefully these programs will grow and expand in the fall as well, depending upon support and interest.

Announcing our newest arrival ....

Oak Creek RFC. The Wisconsin Girls Rugby Conference welcomes this new addition. The OC is already gearing up and training for the Fall 2007 season under the auspices of Tony Oliver, former head coach for Northshore RFC. Check out thier website to great links to rugby promotional videos.

Northshore is continuing with a new coaching staff, Katie Ehr and Pam Waters. Katie and Pam formerly coached the Whitefish Bay RFC which merged with Northshore in the Spring of 2007. Katie and Pam are alumnae of the DSHA RFC. As the Girls Rugby league grows and ages, we are looking forward to more alumnae, from all our teams, returning to coach, referee and help-out.

As always, girls interested about joining (or starting) a team can follow the links on the side of this page to their local club and contact the coach. All teams (except DSHA and Catholic Memorial) accept high school age players from their local community or neighboring communities.

If you missed the NIT final...

Time Warner Sports (Channel 32) will be broadcasting (and re-broadcasting) the final game of the Girls Rugby High School NIT all week. A complete schedule is available on the Time Warner Site . The first air-time is May 23, 2007 at 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. The station is airing the games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as well.

If you didn't know Time Warner has been broadcasting some of the games for the West Side Harlequins on this station as well. This was a really nice feature. Unfortunately, Time Warner does not carry Setanta Sports, so I'm going to have to drop cable before the World Cup starts this Fall. But, in the meantime, its nice to see the local teams get air time.

Picture of the Week

A Vernon ball carrier swims up-stream against Brookfield defenders during the May 14, 2007 match-up between these two Waukesha County rivals.

And the winners are...

Check out the National Invitational Tournament website for the full results and standings. As this is the Wisconsin U19 site, we have to say congratulations to DSHA (#1) for thier 13-6 victory over Kent WA in the Cup final AND Vernon who placed 3d with a hard fought (17-10) victory over Summit (CO). I know DSHA gets a lot of ink, but Vernon should be very proud of this 3rd place finish in a difficult tournament.

Brookfield placed 4th after a difficult loss to City Honors/Genesse (NY) 25-12 in the 3rd place math of the Plate division. The Plate division ended with an all Oregon final as West Linn downed Canby 24-10.

I didn't get to see as many matches as I would have liked, but the matches I saw were exciting. The final round of the Cup division was a particularly close game. The DSHA/Kent game saw some great pressure and defense by both teams. After trading penalty kicks early in the first half, with the score 3-3, the match was at issue for sixty-minutes. Both teams had some tough goal line stands. In the end, DSHA punched through two unconverted tries to win the day, but not without a fight.

Now it's time for all the other teams in Wisconsin to start preparing for the Fall and a chance to knock DSHA out of the running before the next National Tournament.

Results from Spring of 2007...so far

This is a list of all the reported scores for the WI Girls teams from the Spring 2007. Keep in mind that the spring season is a non-conference season, so not all scores get reported. (I know I am missing some games in here..so if anyone wants to fill me in that would be great). Also, these reports exclude the games played by Northshore on its tour to California and DSHA, Vernon and Brookfield at the Mid-west Tournament and NIT. (However, if you follow the links to the relevant websites, all the tournament scores are available).

But, given those limitations, here is a summary of the spring season to date (winning team in bold)

Pre-Season

Northshore Trip to Littleton International Tournament.

Week 1
DSHA v. Northshore 20-10
Verson v. DSHA-B (score not reported)

Week 2
DSHA v. Brookfield 63-0
DSHA-B v. Brookfield-B 24-0
Wayzata (MN) v. CMH 17-14
East Metro v. CMH B 24-0

Week 3
Vernon v. KM 32-5
Vernon-B v. Brookfield 5-12
Northshore v. Muskego 15-5

Week 4
Vernon v. Fond du Lac 25-12
DSHA v. Fond du Lac 39-0
CMH v. St. Charles (IL) 51-0
CMH-B v. St. Charles (IL) 10-12
Northshore v. KM 19-0
Northshore v. Brookfield 0-0
KM v. Brookfield 5-12

Week 5
Muskego v. Vernon 5-39
Brookfield v. CMH 19-14
Brookfield-B v. CMH-B 5-47
Northshore v. Vernon 0-10
CMH v. Muskego 45-5

Week 6

Midwest Girls Rugby Chapionship.

Week 7
Vernon v. Brookfield 59-5
KM v. CMH 32-21

Week 8
National Invitational Tournament.

Those are the scores that I have for matches played up until May 18 for the Spring 2007 season... If I missed reported (or missed) any scores, let me know. I will admit that because of the shifting dates for games this season the week by week break-down is really just to make the list more reader-friendly.

The details for the Girls Rugby NIT...

are available on the tournament's official website. The site includes team rosters and details about the day including times, locations directions etc....

While I will certainly be rooting for our Wisconsin teams, I am excited to see some of the perennial power-houses compete (like Kent and Summit) who have been competing in the NIT for year. In addition, there are some new teams from states that, to my knowledge, haven't attended the NIT in the past (like the Lady Marauders from Maryland and Oconee from Georgia). Check out the NIT website for full details about the teams coming to compete.

Good luck to all the teams! I'm looking forward to watching some competitive rugby this weekend.

Press for Nationals and DSHA

The Journal sentinel ran an article yesterday on DSHA and the upcoming National Tournamnet which is taking place this weekend in Franklin Wisconsin. DSHA certainly remains the team to beat here in Wisconsin and nationally. This should be a great event, with 16 teams from across the country competing in two divisions.

This should be a great opportunity for anyone in Wisconsin who is interested in seeing high school girls rugby at its finest.

Picture of the Week

A Catholic Memorial defender goes in for the tackle against Muskego this past weekend. The Crusaders downed Muskego 45-5 but faced stiff competition from Muskego's skillful use of the maul and strong forward play.

Midwest Girls Rugby Chapionships

It has been awhile since this blog has been updated. I've been swamped and a lots has been going on. But, here are some quick updates. Brookfield won a very close 3-way tournament to qualify as the #3 Wisconsin seed to represent Wisconsin in the open bracket at the Midwest Tournament. The 3-way tournament came down to a tie between Brookfield and Northshore witht he 3rd place finish decided by penalty kicks.

While I owe a whole entry to that event because it was so exciting, the big news is the results from the Midwest Girls Rugby Chapionship. Vernon and DSHA represented Wisconsin in the Tournament and both teams progressed through the brackets undefeated. In the final round, DSHA defeated Vernon 36-0 in the all Wisconsin finals. Congratulations to our Wisconsin teams on another outstanding Midwest Tournament.

We are all looking forward to a chance to cheer on our Wisconssin clubs in the National Tournament on May 19-20th here in Franklin, WI.