Get Rugby in Your School...

Tom Schmitt and the Marquette University Women have been running high interest days in local schools for some time now. If you're local school has a "high interest day" when community members can share new interests with students, you should consider contacting Tom and seeing if Rugby can be a part of that event.

Here is the text from the flyer, for those who are looking for the information::

RUGBY! This sport may mean nothing for you, however more than 3.5 million people play rugby around the world across the 7 continents.

The excitement of football, kicking skills of soccer, the agility of basketball, the speed of baseball, the solidarity of ice hockey. All these skills in one sport: RUGBY!

A complete sport that combines hands and foot play, agility, speed, team spirit and solidarity. Linda Niemela and Tom Schmitt, respectively founder and coach of Marquette University Women's Rugby Football Club, along with Romain Vende of Paris France, will share with you their love of the game.

Played with an over-sized football, Rugby allows everybody to play without physical restriction (tall, small, thin and largest). We will be presenting a brief history of this sport which first appeared in 1823. Your students will get to work with the ball and see the equipment. We will present the rules and values of our sport. We have presented at Orchard Elementary School in New Berlin, for 5 years. We would welcome the opportunity to share our sport with your students. Please contact Tom Schmitt at WIRUGBY@aol.com or simply email us your high interest day dates and we will follow up.

RUGBY: “More than Sport, A way of life…”

The Wisconsin U19 Selectside

The U19 Wisconsin Selectide, which is sponsored by the Wisconsin Rugby Football Union has announced dates for its spring camps. The information, from Scott Prunkle, the newly appointed coach, is as follows:

The initial Open Camp dates are as follows: Sunday, May 4th, 2008 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.Saturday, May 17th, 2008 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30
p.m.

Interested parties should contact Scott at u19coach@gmail.com.

Open Camp Plan:The open camps will consist of offensive and defensive sections.

Defensive modules will be based upon an organized defensive model and focus on using guards, tackler, and lane defense, with some work on set-piece defense.

Offensive modules will be based on a forward ball retention offense and center-read attacking patterns for the backline.

The Goals of the Open Camps are both player development and identifying those players that are strong candidates for the U-19 Select Side. Please make sure that all interested players know that these camps are not exclusive - that is, we're looking to involve as many players as possible and build a strong player base for the U-19 Program.

Interested players contact Scott at u19coach@gmail.com with their email addresses, cell phone or home phone numbers and the date of the Open Camp they wish to attend so I can distribute the U-19 skills and playbooks to them and plan the sessions accordingly. I'm very excited about this opportunity, and hope to make the U-19 Program one that the players continue to have a lot of fun with and look forward to participating in!

Last weekend's Scores...

It is the spring season, so the scores roll in slowly as the matches do not effect the Wisconsin teams' conference standings. I know my players still don't understand the Wisconsin way of doing things (conference season for standing in the Fall, Spring season is for learning rugby).

But, without further delay, here are the scores we gathered this week:

Kettle Moraine defeated NS with a last minute go-ahead try 20-19.
Vernon defeated Muskego 54-5
Muskego-B defeated Vernon-B 20-12
Brookfield defeated Oak Creek 54-0
Fond du Lac defeated Brookfield B 22-5
Catholic Memorial traveled to play the flatlanders down in St. Charles and walked away with an A and B side victory.
DSHA scrimmaged UWM, suffering a narrow defeat.

Off to a rough start...

Last weekend, field conditions prevented any games from being played as the parks withheld permits. Vernon and DSHA, the clash of Wisconsin's #1 and #2 seeds, made up their game mid-week with DSHA walking away with a 52-0 win over their closest in-state rivals.

While there was no in-state action over the weekend, Muskego, KM and Brookfield traveled to Des Moines for a weekend of rugby. The teams played in harsh conditions on Saturday as the temperatures hovered in the mid-thirties and the snow covered fields quickly turned to sheets of mud. KM fell to Hopkins (38-10) and Armstrong (17-7) on Saturday and pulled of f a win over Orono in the much improved weather on Sunday 15-10. Brookfield lost to Armstrong 0-5 and tied Orono 5-5 in the mud. Sunday, Brookfield defeated Hopkins 27-12.

Overall, it was a great rugby weekend. The Wisconsin teams were able to play some great competition from other states, the tournament was well run and the club house a real comfort after playing in the cold and wet. I suppose the tournament coordinators can't be held accountable for the dusting of snow on Saturday morning. Thanks to Des Moines for hosting a great event!

more scores from opening weekend...

Kettle Moraine crossed the border into Illinois to play Lincoln Way. Lincoln Way upheld the honor of the Illinios -- defeating KM 30-20.

Opening Weekend

The spring season started with a bang on Friday night, April 4, 2008. Catholic Memorial, coming off its recent tour of Ireland, faced-off against the Brookfield Bruisers under the lights at Brookfield Central High School. This was the first night-game of girls high school rugby played in Wisconsin and it was a well attended event. The crowd received their moneys worth (o.k. they didn't actually pay a gate fee) -- as the teams battled to a 24-22 final score. As time expired, the Bruisers made one final push to towards the CMH tried line, but fell short of the go-ahead try, falling to CMH in the final minute.

The CMH J.V. side scrimmaged Fond du Lac on Saturday morning and came away with a victory.

Also this past weekend, Northshore, taking the field for the first time under head coach Katie Brennan, defeated Oak Creek in a 5-0 battle.

The DSHA v. Vernon game, which pits Wisconsin's #1 and #2 teams against each other, was postponed as field conditions on the two clubs' home pitches prevented the game from going off as scheduled. Oh the perils of the spring season.

This weekend, 3 Wisconsin teams (Muskego, Brookfield and Kettle Moraine) head-off to Iowa for the Midwest Rugby Challenge in Des Moines. All three Wisconsin teams will be competing in the Division I Cup bracket.

Coaches and players -- remember pictures of any matches are welcome and will be posed if you send them.