Wisconsin teams get around...

Winter in Wisconsin is simply unpleasant... with the snow piling up and the bitter cold. Fortunately, for the girls high school rugby community, we can look forward to the spring touring season. While not everything is in place, we're looking forward to sending out our teams to see what they can do.

• The first up-coming tournament is the March 22-23 tournament in Fulerton California. Tony will be leading his new Oak Creek team. Tony led Northshore to victory at the same tournament last year. We all wish Oak Creek luck on its trip.


• Perhaps the real big news of the spring season --Catholic Memorial will be the first club team to tour internationally this April with a trip to Ireland. Arrangements are being made to post updates about the tour on this blog -- hopefully with pictures (and maybe video) -- of some of the action. I am a bit jealous -- so if there are any teams abroad that want to host my club next year, please feel free to leave a comment.


• Also, in April, several Wisconsin teams (tentatively DSHA, KM, and Brookfield) will be traveling to Des Moines for the U19 Girls Rugby Festival. We are all looking forward to an opportunity to play against the challenging competition from around the country at this excellent venue.
• In May, DSHA and Vernon will be filling the Wisconsin #1 and #2 seeds at the Midwest tournament in Elkhart, IN. Hopefully they can repeat their success from last year and keep Wisconsin in the top two spots.
• Also in May, KM is setting up a min-tournament by the Dells between Wisconsin and Minnesota teams. I don't believe the details are final, but its always nice to compete against Minnesota as they always have good clubs.
• Throughout the season, a number of our clubs will be scheduling fixtures with our neighbors to the south. There is a natural rivalry between us Wisconsinites and the flatlanders, so those should be fun matches for all involved. I don't have any details, but as match reports come in, we'll post results.
• It's simply too early to talk about the National Tournament -- but it will be exciting to see how the new USA Rugby sponsored championship will pan out. After years of coaches from across the country banding together to create a National Invitational Tournament, this will be the first USARFU sanctioned event. It will be interesting to see how this works out. Receiving the official nod from the union is a demonstration of how far high school girls rugby has come over the past decade.

All and all it should be a great season. If you are a potential player in Wisconsin -- follow the links to your nearest team and get in the game. Most teams (except for Catholic Memorial and DSHA which are school affiliated), accept players regardless of location or school affiliation.