The All Tournament Team

Here is a picture of most (but not all) of the All Tournament Team Players following the Oct. 28, 2007 playoffs. And our 2007 Wisconsin Girls High School Rugby All Tournament Team is:

Front Row Players:

Anastasia Krusel, 11, KM

Elizabeth Linnemanstons, 10, DSHA

Jamie Wojciechowski, 10, Vernon

McKenna Smith, 11, CMH

Second Row Players:

Maggie Reidy, 12, DSHA
Kristy Fons, 12, Oak Creek

Cari Berdan, 12, Brookfield

Morgan Schneider, 10 Muskego

Back Row Players:

Danielle Radtke, 10 Vernon

Ellen Schwarts, 12, Vernon

Kelly Robinson, 12, Brookfield

Erin Davis, 10 CMH

Scrum Half:

Emma Pesci, 11, CMH

Inside Back:

Toni Cattani, 11, KM

Erin Coogan, 12 DSHA

Lauren Maddente, 12 CMH

Jaykie Okupniak, 10 Muskego

Lyla Hensel, 11 DSHA

Back 3:

Lauren Franzen, 11 DSHA

Sarah Chimielewski, 11 DSHA

Dana Anderson, 10, Brookfield

Chelsea Kindler, 11 Muskego

Congratulations to the All-Tournament Team and thank you to the selectors.

Good press, results, and some final thoughts

Here's the link to the story in the Journal Sentinel. In short, it was a wonderderful way to end the season, a real celebration of the whole league. I was most impressed by the fact that every game mattered, every team played with pride and determination whether they were playing for 7th place or 1st. I think 10 years from now, many of us will be standing on the side-lines of a state tournament in late October in the driving cold rain or snow and we will all have fond memories of that first tournament, when sun shined down and the girls just played good rugby.

And now the final score reports and rankings for the Fall 2007 season:

7th Place Oak Creek 20 – Northshore Shore 10

5th Place Brookfield 40 – Kettle Moraine 10

3rd Place Catholic Memorial 22 - Muskego 15

State Champ DSHA 27 - Vernon 0

A special thanks to all the volunteers who put the state tournament together, especially Noe for taking on the thankless job of tournament coordinator and Wally, for his tireless efforts to get out the word to the press.

Hopefully, we'll be posting the names of the all state tournament team on this blog in a few days.

Coaching Changes/Rugby Alumnae

Since this blog posted the help-wanted add for Northshore, I guess we should report that that Northshore found a new head coach for the coming season, Kathrine Brennan. She will be replacing Katie Ehr, who served as the head coach this past season and who was previously the coach of Whitefish Bay. Both Kathrine and Katie played together at DSHA in the dark years, when there were no other high school teams in Wisconsin. As proof, here is the very first picture from this site from the very first "Nationals" tournament -- both Kathrine and Katie are in there somewhere.

I know the league is glad to see that some of its first players are coming back to help-out and provide opportunities for other players. Fortunately, Katie Ehr won't be leaving the rugby scene for long as, rumor has it, she is getting her credentials as a sir and will be helping out with a whistle come spring. Good luck (and thank you) to both Katie and Kathrine as they take on new roles in the Girls Rugby community.

I think that other alumnae from other clubs are also in the mix for sir certification and coaching positions. We'll try to update when we learn of alumnae from other teams who are coming back to contribute.

Semin-Final Results

The breaking news is DS prevailed over Muskego 60-0 and Vernon defeated Catholic Memorial 19-12.

This means that Vernon will compete with DSHA for top honors on Sunday and Muskego will take-on Catholic Memorial for the 3rd place spot.

Good luck to all the teams as the finish up a very exciting season.

Play-off weekend

The Wisconsin High School Girls Rugby playoffs conclude Oct 28th with the State Championship tournament at Naga-Waukee Park in Delafield, Wisconsin.

With the results still out on the two semi-final matches (DS v. Muskego and Vernon v. Catholic Memorial) which will determine who will play in the Finals and the 3rd place matches, here is the schedule for the play-off weekend.

7th Place Match 10:30am Oak Creek v. Northshore
5th Place Match 12pm Kettle Moraine v. Brookfield
3rd Place Match 1:30pm TBD
State Championship 3:00pm TBD

The State Tournament will feature the top eight high school girls rugby teams in the state, competing for their final ranking.

Milwaukee’s D.S.H.A. is a four-time National Champion and favored in the tournament.
The Town of Vernon is also a perennial powerhouse, finishing third in the country last season and first in their conference this season.

In the past year, Catholic Memorial H.S. and Oak Creek have added teams to one of the strongest conferences in the country

Rugby World Culture

Since it's world cup season, there is a lot of exciting rugby news in the world. The BBC posted this story about rugby culture for those new to the sport. While obviously rugby traditions vary across culture and age level (e.g. our high school teams aren't socializing at the pub after matches), I like to see that there are those important common bonds that make rugby unique that the article points out. Specifically, the positive, sportsman like conduct of both players and fans. This is something that I hope our little league maintains as we move forward, even with our more structured play-off setting. Here some quotes from the article:

Positive Player conduct:

Key aspects to look out for in rugby include:
Low-key
celebrations - no
robotic dancing or going to the crowd
Any back-chat to
the referee is
punished by moving the penalty forward 10 yards
Players
rarely fake injury
Gracious in defeat - handshakes, as in football, and
"tunnels" of applause
at pitch-side, followed by socialising.

Positive Fan Conduct

When in the stadium, there's no segregation - rival supporters sit
side-by-side (unlike football (soccer). Fans are expected to respect the anthems
and allow players to prepare to kick penalties without being whistled.

Any Press is Good Press

The Journal Sentinel carried this article which mentions both the boys and girls rugby conferences and thier post-match tradition. It has been great, over the years, to watch the players from all the different girls teams come together after matches and get to konw thier opponents. Because some of these girls are playing for four years, they really get to know the opposition through the post-match social and on-the-field play which is unique. Our high school rugby community should be very proud of our unique tradition of post-match hospitality.

I konw the post match is a lot of work for teams and players and sometimes it doesn't seem to fit in to the hectic lifestyles we all live. But it is very rewarding to see the teams play hard and then take the time to share and socialize with the opposition.

State Quarterfinals

The official score reports are in:

Muskego over OC 20-0
Vernon over Northshore 15-0
CHM over Brookfield 27-10

The fourth quarter final (DS v. KM) will be played this afternoon.

SO... next weekend's games:

Vernon v. CMH (Semi-final 1) (Vernon is the home team)
Muskego v. (winner of DS v. KM) Semin final 2
Brookfield v. Northshore (Brookfield is the home team)
OC v. (loser of DS v. KM)

State Quarterfinals

The official score reports are in:

Muskego over OC 20-0
Vernon over Northshore 15-0
CHM over Brookfield 27-10

The fourth quarter final (DS v. KM) will be played this afternoon.

SO... next weekend's games:

Vernon v. CMH (Semi-final 1) (Vernon is the home team)
Muskego v. (winner of DS v. KM) Semin final 2
Brookfield v. Northshore (Brookfield is the home team)
OC v. (loser of DS v. KM)

Week 5 Standings

Pool A:
CMH(4-1) v. KM (1-4) 46-5 (5pts for CMH)
NS (1-4) v. DSHA 0-88 (5 pts. for DSHA)

Pool B:
Oak Creek (1-4) v. FDL (forfiet-- 5 pts .for OC)
Brookfield (2-2-1) v. Vernon 20-36 (5 pts .for Vernon; 1pts. for Brookfield for 4 or more tries)

Non-Pool Play:

Muskego v. DS-B 15-5

FINAL STANDINGS:
Pool A: (1) DS (20pts) (2) CMH ( 14 pts.); (3) Muskego (10 pts.); (4) NS (6 pts.) (5) KM ( 0 pts).

Pool B: (1) Vernon (15pts.); (2)Oak Creek (9 pts.).(3) Brookfield (7 pts) (4) FDL (0 pts.).

These are the final standings going into the 8-team play-off format. KM has qualified as the #4 seed in Pool B.

This weekend's quarterfinal games are:

DS v. KM
Vernon v. NS
CMH v. the Bruisers
The OC v. Muskego

Week 4 Standings

Week 4 Standings:

Pool A:

CMH(3-1) v. NS (1-3) 54-0 (5pts. for CMH)
Muskego (2-2) v KM (1-3) (24-12) (5pts. for Muskego)

Pool B:

Oak Creek (1-3) v. Brookfield (2-1-1) 19-15 (4pts. for The OC and 1 pt. for Brookfield)
DS-B v. Oak Creek 15-5 (no points)

Non-Pool Play

DS-A [No pool play]
Vernon v. UWM [Score Not Reported]

[SCORES NOT REPORTED]
Pool A: (1) DS (15pts) (2) Muskego (10 pts.); (3) CMH ( 9 pts.); (3) NS (6 pts.) (4) (5) KM ( 0 pts).
Pool B: (1) Vernon (10pts.); (2) Brookfield (6 pts), (3) Oak Creek (4 pts.). (4) FDL (0 pts.);