Girls Coach Needed

A plea from Fond Du Lac, as they look for some help with a great group of young athletes:

"FDL Rugby inc. is looking for a high school girls coach. The FDL Sirens have 35 plus players but no coach. FDLRI will pay for any travel, dues and anything else the coach needs. FDLRI has all the equipment and facilities that a coach needs with great parent support. They start practice Thursday but the coach wont need to start until next week. The team also has a recruiting table at the schools student sign up days this Wednesday and Thursday which should increase the players on the team by at least 10. Any questions please contact Dale Klitzke. If a coach can't be found then they will have to cancel the season."

Brad S Casetta Sr.
President-Wisconsin Rugby Referee Society

Please go to the Fond Du Lac Rugby website for contact information and scheduling info.

Editorial:

The staff here at Wisconsin Girls Rugby can't refrain from commenting on this one. Over the last decade, we've seen many requests for coaching help in the girls league go without ever being answered. It's frustrating and disappointing. We've had teams fail to begin, even though a group of girls sign up and want to play. Worse is when existing teams fold not because of lack of interest from players.

During these same years, probably a dozen boys high school teams in the area have been created and coaches have stepped up to answer the call ... every single time.

This disparity comes across as unfair, really, to a group of young athletes hungry to learn and play. So, why doesn't the rugby community step up better? Why the difference?

We have coaches in WGR who have coached both boys and girls. There certainly is a difference. Coaching young adults, in general, can be incredibly trying of one's patience. But it's also incredibly rewarding and inspiring. That's why coaches coach.

One of the nice things about coaching girls is that they don't have to unlearn a football tackle. Girls generally don't spear tackle or hurl their head at a tucked ball ball like a football player taught to tackle with their "helmet to the ball" to create a fumble. That certainly makes the game safer and more like the flowing, skilled rugby games that can be seen at high levels of the game.

Girls don't try to carry a rugby ball like a football player would either, tucking it under one arm where it can't be passed or controlled.

In my time coaching boys, I remember doing some attacking and defense drills, marveling at the intensity level. I'd taken over an experienced team with 11 returning starters. Practice was undoubtedly more physically intense than one of the girls practices that year. I thought the boys were really getting it.

Come game time it was a different story. Right from kickoff, the boys quickly reverted back to football technique and did whatever they wanted. The mental and technical aspects of the game weren't applied well. That was consistently true throughout my time coaching high school boys.

Girls teams on the other hand consistently applied the lessons of practice far better come game time. Even with far less experienced players, they were more successful and skilled in much less time. They listened and soaked up all aspects of the game incredibly well.

Surely, this is anecdotal, but i know many others in WGR and at the collegiate level who would agree.

part ii of our office's commentary coming in a day or two