A Trip To Wales...

I had the good fortune of visiting my brother over the holidays in Wales the week before Christmas. Secretly, the real reason was to go and see the derby matches between the Welsh regional rugby teams. I was lucky enough to have tickets to see all four regions play each other during the course of the weekend: the Scarlets v. Blues and Dragons v. Ospreys . It was a wonderful experience and some exciting rugby... especially the Dragons v. Ospreys match. I am not much of a travel story writer, but if you bare with me, this story has some relationship to girls rugby in Wisconsin (at least tangentially).

When I arrived in Wales, I received the most through interrogation from any border security guard that i have ever received. What is the purpose of your visit? A vacation. The border guard was very suspicious that anyone would be taking a holiday to Wales in December. This kicked off a long interrogation. What do you plan to do in Wales, exactly? I plan to watch rugby matches. The guard then forced me to recount the names of teams, the dates of matches and the stadiums I would be visiting to prove my case for entry. At the end of the interrogation, he snorted and added, "I didn't even think there was rugby in the U.S." When I explained that the U.S. is the reigning Olympic gold medal champions and that we defeated France in France for the honor, he let me through with a laugh.

On Saturday, I took an hour train ride out to Llanelli to watch the Scarletts play the Blues. There was no easy way from the train station to the brand new, and quite impressive stadium. After wandering around downtown Llanelli for a bit (and I regret that I didn't take the time to stop and try the local cuisine -- evidently Llanelli is famous for its cockles), I eventually found a taxi and headed over to watch the match. Quickly identifying my strange accent, the driver asked where I was from and what I was doing in Wales in December. I informed the driver that I was from Wisconsin and that I came all this way to see a rugby match or two. "Oh, WisconsinTon [sic], I didn't know there was rugby there" was the reply.

The taxi dropped me off at the Parc y Scarletts and I went in to the will-call office to collect my tickets, but the front office could not find them. There was a moment of complete panic when the ticket agent gave up looking and said, sorry there's just no ticket here for you. Luckily, one of the other ticket agents leaned over and confirmed that yes, she remembered selling me a ticket over the phone as I was the guy with the strange accent from the USA. She remembered selling me a ticket because she thought at the time, how odd, there's no rugby in the USA. So, with a little extra effort, the ticket was located.

With the ticket finally in hand, I settled in to watch the match. I had stand-in tickets, standing at a railing just a few yards from the pitch, watching the match. I was surrounded by a good natured group of Scarlets fans. Eventually, the topic of the accent and being from the USA did come up. And, of course, the woman next to me kindly explained how rugby in the U.S. was cr-p. Then, she added, but women's rugby in the U.S., now that's phenomenal. All I could say was, yeah, I know.

So, next time you take the field to play high school girls rugby in Wisconsin, you should know that you are playing rugby in a country renowned for its women's rugby worldwide and that, even in one of the home nations of rugby (where the very existence of men's rugby in the U.S. is constantly questioned), those who know and play women's rugby have tremendous respect for the caliber of our play. I think we should all be proud of the little parts we play in the grass-roots efforts that make this possible.

Intervieview with USA Rugby's Coach of the Year

Here is an exclusive interview filed by one of our field correspondents who caught up with USA Rugby's Coach of the Year, John "Chin" Klien from DSHA RFC:

What did this award mean to you?
It's hard to put into words. I never thought I'd receive a national award when i first started. I never thought my team's would be as successful as we've become. It's truly an honor to be chosen from among so many great coaches around the country. I hope this award continues and that more coaches are recognized for their efforts in building programs across the country. There are so many deserving people out there and I'm thankful USA Rugby and World Rugby Shop were generous enough to recognize these efforts.

How long have you been involved with Wisconsin Girls Rugby?
11 years, since the 1998-9 Season-You've been involved in Wisconsin Girls Rugby for all but the first two years of its existence.

How has it changed?
It's changed dramatically, and grown from one team to ten.We began playing college sides, since there were no high school teams to play. We sometimes travelled 4 hours to Carmel or Noblesville, Indiana for our one high school match. Scheduling has become much easier.It's an organization now. Us coaches meet on a bi-annual basis and discuss how we can make this league better. Before it was just about building a league. We had coaches leave DSHA to develop teams and other new teams crop up on their own. We've given a lot more girls the opportunity to play a sport we all cherish and hopefully that is passed on to them and will be passed on to others.The rugby game itself has changed so much. It went from such an offensive game to such a defensive game. The level of play for H.S. Girls has increased and continues to increase. The athletes who play now have changed so much. We're getting top level athletes.

You were there when Wisconsin hosted the first girls National Invitational Tournament (The NIT) in 2000, a grassroots movement to improve competition, with six teams attending from the Midwest (DS, Wayzata), West (Ft Collins, Summitt), MARFU (Doylestown), and Pacific Coast (Kent). Looking back, what do you think of that event?

Awesome! From a perspective of now, it was the start of high school girls rugby growing throughout the entire country. It gave young ladies the opportunity to play for a national championship. It was an incredible effort among the grassroots coaches that really wanted something more to play for. It's just grown every year. Wonderful start. It gave girls a unique opportunity that not many H.S. sports offer. Traditions from that first one were continued for many years. We always had a great dinner banquet with all the teams. It was always a two day tournament We always tried to get the best teams from the country there. Grassroots coaches always talked to each other to get the best competition there possible.Now it's been recognized by USA Rugby and become an event that nearly 200 teams want to compete for.

How did USA Rugby's sanctioning change things?
It's given us an opportunity to have the best referees present. In addition, the event is given more recognition because it is going on with the boys event. From that aspect, it's more legitimized nationals, and it should be. The competition has been fantastic. You always see close, competitive games to get there and in the final. This means its' a very competitive sport that keeps growing and growing.The dinner banquet is no longer present.

Where do you see the girls game going from here on?
So much will depend on the women's college game. How it's promoted to a varsity level sport on a wider basis. If there's someway to get an advancement, if we can get 20 varsity college teams, it will change even more dramatically in the next fifteen years.I think more girls will start giving back and returning to help grow the game. We've already seen that recently with a few of our teams being coached by alumnae. The more we can get players to give back, the more numbers will increase.Hopefully this will become what soccer became over the last 30 years. We're only 11 years into this, In 15 years maybe we can be where soccer is. We've grown so much in only 11 years. So much better and legit. And that's in thanks to all the grassroots coaches who really believed in doing the most with their opportunities. It's been fantastic to be a part of

How did playing rugby at Marquette University influence you as a coach?
Marquette's the reason behind it all. I learned so much from MU rugby, from the coaches I had, from the relationship I had. It's the reason I started coaching. My experience i got from Marquette, I try to pass on to the young ladies I've coached: an unbelievable experience, one I'll always cherish. I hope I've been able to promote that type of commitment and atmosphere, that type of success. I've also tried to learn from the not-so-best moments of MU rugby, so those don't occur while at DS. You always try to learn from your defeats, your miscues.

Favorite pro coach: Robbie Deans. The Crusaders coach. So successful as a club coach; he developed a successful team, year in year out. You knew every time you face Canterbury you have a game on your hands and that's awesome. The best of the best. He's changed the game. His teams were always champions, yet not all his players were all-blacks.