RFU Codes of Conduct

I don't want to discourage passionate debate about the league or the teams competing in Wisconsin. But the comments about the All Tournament Team require some additional comment. The whole debate reminds me of the writings of the historian Flavius Josephus who wrote: "but I don't see how those can be accounted great, who triumph only over the ignoble." His comment was a criticism of other historians who denegrate the losing side in a war. Such comments do not really help to praise the winning side, as it only cheapens the victory. I think his comments apply with equal force to comments about sports teams.

On a more practical level, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the home Union in England, has published Codes of Conduct for players, parents, coaches, match officials and spectators for youth rugby. I think that the spectator's code of conduct should apply to comments on this blog:

THE GOOD SPECTATOR’S CODE

SPECTATORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO:

• Act as positive role models to all young players.
• Be familiar with, and abide by, the RFU Child Protection Guidance in relation to verbal and emotional abuse.
• Respect the rugby club with regard to spectator behaviour.

SPECTATORS SHOULD:

• Remember children play sport for their enjoyment not yours.
• Acknowledge good individual and team performance from all youngsters irrespective of the team for whom they play. Respect match officials’ decisions.
• Remember - they are volunteers providing an opportunity for youngsters to play rugby.
• Never verbally abuse young players, match officials, fellow spectators or coaches. Such behaviour can create a negative environment for young players and their behaviour will often reflect this.
• Acknowledge effort and good performance rather than ‘win at all costs’ethic.
• Verbally encourage all youngsters in a positive way. If you do want to shout make sure it is ‘for’, not ‘at’ the players.
• Encourage all youngsters irrespective of their ability - never ridicule any individual player, regardless of the team for whom they play.

Growing Rugby

Perhaps its time for the rugby community to start taking lessons from one of the modern era's earliest professional sports -- baseball. The massive multi-million dollar franchises did not come into existence overnight, but grew through the steady progress of community teams providing entertainment to local crowds and the rivalries encouraging the paying of players to increase performance and profits. American rugby needs to start thinking smaller, to start.

This past summer, the City of Waukesah approved a plan for an amateur baseball team to start playing games at frame park. The team, which is part of the North Woods League contributed money (through loans and financing) to revamp the stadium and in exchange, the team would be allowed to use the facility for its home games, charge admission ($5-$10) and make a profit from concession sales. The Northwoods League is an amateur league in which college students play summer base-ball and fans get an entertaining, low-cost night out. The players may be amateur, but the income to the team, the league and the local economy is real. Building from this small base, the Northwoods League is able to finance a traveling baseball team, invest in community facilities and provide a positive playing experience for its players.

Imagine the possibilities. Profits from ticket-sales and concession profits could pay for the costs of players' travel, equipment and a coaching staff. Players would be drawn to these new teams by the opportunity to have rugby playing expenses covered by the team and a chance to work with professional coaches. By offering an entertaining and inexpensive afternoon out, rugby could grow local fans, leading to, increased profits and, perhaps, semi-professional players.

If there was real success, perhaps these local clubs could form affiliations with foreign professional teams, creating an American farm system for identifying talent for teams abroad. Why would a foreign club want to do that? Economics. America is a large market and the opportunity to tap into that large market is worth something. But first, we need to grow the American appetite for rugby.

So, why hasn't this model popped up? Well, I would speculate it has to do with our democratic system of organizing and running rugby clubs. Securing financing and operating a team is a lot of risk a risk which a committee of players and former players is not well-suited to assume. With risk should come rewards -- i.e. profits. In Perhaps it's time for rugby clubs to move from player-managed government by committee to an investor-owner model so that we can start realizing real and sustained growth in rugby.

USA Rugby Coach of the Year

It is with great pleasure that we announce that John "Chin" Klein (center of the picture), head coach of the Divine Savior Holy Angels RFC, was honored as the USA Rugby 2008 Coach of the Year. This past weekend, Chin flew to Salt Lake City Utah and USA Rugby President Nigel Melville (on the left) presented him with the award. It is no small accomplishment that Chin received this award for his dedication to producing a national powerhouse club, but for his dedication to girls high school rugby, in general.

Hopefully we can get Chin to give us a statement.

Illinois/Wisconsin Cup?

I have heard rumors and discussions about the possibility of some inter-league play between Wisconsin and Illinois during the Spring season. There is nothing official, but I want to put out the the reasons why this could be a really good idea for both Wisconsin and Illinois Girls Rugby and some thoughts about how the competition might work. Hopefully this might jump start the process.

The geographic proximity of south-eastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, where most teams are located, makes some form of competition a natural. During the spring season, the top three Wisconsin teams are preparing for the Midwest play-offs and, therefore, have a very condensed schedule. For the remaining teams in Wisconsin this is a "building" season, as the fall is Wisconsin's competitive season. So, why an inter-state competition:

• It provides additional variety for the Illinois teams who currently only have 6 teams in their conference;
• It provides Wisconsin teams with a competitive frame-work for the Spring season for those teams not competing in the mid-west;
• It provides an additional avenue of success for all teams involved (i.e. there would be a Wisconsin-Illinois Cup which would be separate and distinct from either team's state champion or the Midwest competition).
• As described below, the participants would vary each year, adding greater variety to the schedule.

So, how would it be structured? The simple answer is any way the people want. But here is one simple proposal. Wisconsin teams ranked number 4-7 from the Fall season (since seeds 1-3 traditionally play in the Midwest Cup and Open divisions) play against Illinois teams ranked 1-4 from the prior season. Using a knock-out bracket method, the 8 team competition could be resolved in three weekends of play. All teams would get three games, as the non-winning teams would continue to play-off for ranking within the competition.

Based on current rankings as put on the Illinois website and the Wisconsin conference, an opening weekend would looks something like this:

• Lincoln Way (1) v. Oak Creek (7)
• Plainfield (2) v. Northshore (6)
• St. Charels (3) v. Kettle Moraine (5)
• Nobel Street (4) v. Brookfield (4)

A coin toss decides whether the opening weekend is played in Illinois or Wisconsin. Schedule dates, get a sir, get a field and away we go!

Thoughts and comments welcome.

The All Tournament Team....

Wisconsin Girls Rugby
2008 All-State Tournament Team

------FORWARDS------

Prop Melanie Heinemann Town of Vernon 11

Prop Anastasia Kruesel Kettle Moraine 12
Hooker Georgia Porter Town of Vernon 10 Lock Kinnsey Brannon Divine Savior Holy Angels HS 11
Lock Casey Hamill-Barth Catholic Memorial High School 12
No. 8 Erin Davis Catholic Memorial High School 11
No. 8 Elizabeth Linnemanstons DSHA 11
Flanker Kathryn Junius DSHA 12

------BACKS------

Scrumhalf Emma Pesci Catholic Memorial 12
Scrumhalf Rachel Santulli Brookfield 10

Flyhalf Samantha Bruni Town of Vernon 12
Flyhalf Toni Cattani Kettle Moraine 12
Flyhalf Sydney Tabakin Northshore 11
Center Leslie Fickau Town of Vernon 11
Center Kendall Klatt Northshore 12
Center Sarah Marcoux DSHA 12
Center Kayla Reilly Catholic Memorial 12
Center Valeria Seidl Brookfield 12
Wing Keylinne Vega Oak Creek 9
Wing Sarah Chmielewski DSHA 12
Wing Molly Szews DSHA 11
Fullback Catherine Lewis Catholic Memorial 12

Press for our blog...

One of the blogs/rugby new sources that we link to, Heavens Game Rugby News, published a nice little story on the formation of girls rugby teams in Wisconsin and my role in that story. Here's the link. It's a bit embarrassing, but still I'm going to post it just to satisfy people's curiosity.

I want to add this comment to the story. I think we collectively have a lot to be proud of in Wisconsin Girls Rugby. Wisconsin hosted the first National Invitational Tournament down on the lake front in 2000 and have sent representatives to every national tournament since the inception. We have produced several topped ranked national teams, not just DSHA with its phenomenal record of being in the #1 spot for five years now. We should also remember Kettle Moraine, Northshore-Highlanders and Vernon have all placed well (i.e. in the top 3) at Nationals and at Midwest over Wisconsin's, now 12 year history. In fact, there were years when these teams placed ahead of DSHA at the National Tournament. These are accomplishments that were only achieved with the collective efforts of parents, players, coaches, match officials and administrators.

I think we've produced a collegial, yet very competitive leauge and I look forward in watching our conference continue to grow as we enter our second decade.

Looking to join/start a rugby club...?

In monitoring the meta-data for this blog, it seems that most of our hits come from regular readers who know what their looking for (i.e. they are searching for the recent scores for existing girls high school clubs). However, over the last month, I've noticed a trend of people searching for girls rugby, but inserting new community names, like New Berlin or Kenosha (where there are currently no clubs in existence). Does this mean that there are people in these communities who are interested in joining or starting a a high school (or U19) rugby club for local girls?

I want to put out two options for players looking for a club:

• If you are interested in joining a club should know that, with the exception of Pius IX, Catholic Memorial High School and Divine Savior Holy Angels (which are all school affiliated), all the other rugby teams are clubs, which will accept members from areas regardless of residency. As a league, we encourage players to join the team in their local community, if one exists. But, if there is no team in your community, feel free to contact the coach of the team which is most convenient for you to learn more. If you are having problems finding information on a club, feel free to leave a comment here, and we'll post information about a particular club in response.
• If you are interested in forming a new club in your community, post a comment here and we can assist in establishing a new club. While this can be challenging because it is sometimes difficult to find coaches.

If you're out there in Wisconsin and want to play rugby, let us know.