Midwest Finals

Midwest Championships
DSHA 12 Catholic Memorial 8

3rd Place Final
Kettle Moraine 7  St Joseph's 14


Second Division:
DSHA JV defeats Vernon to complete a first-ever double championship.

Congrats to all the teams for playing some quality playoff rugby, and especially to the Wisconsin teams for finishing 1-2,4 and 1-2 in the two divisions.

Midwest Scores ...

Championship
Saturday Matches

-With 40 degrees and rain, the conditions for the first matches were challenging:
St Joe's 10  South Bend 0
DSHA 65 Penn HS 0

The rain stops, although the remaining games are played under cold conditions:
DSHA 42  Kettle Moraine 0
St Joe's 5  Catholic Memorial 36

Kettle Moraine 44  Penn HS 10
Catholic Memorial 28  South Bend 0

Sunday:
The Championship:  DSHA v CMHS  12pm
3rd Place:  Kettle Moraine v St Joseph's Academy 10am
5th Place:  South Bend vs Penn HS 9am


The Second Division Results:
St Joseph's B 36  Motley 0
Vernon 55  Berkley 0
Livingston 20  Noblesville 25
Lakeview 0  DSHA JV 45
DSHA JV 74 Noblesville 5
St Joe's B 5  Vernon 20

Sunday:
Championship  Vernon vs DSHA JV (an-all-Wisconsin final)

Midwest Championship Schedule

Results will be posted as they come in ....

Championship Division  Saturday April 28^th, 2012

10am  DSHA v Penn                          10am  St Joseph’s Academy v South Bend

1pm       DSHA v Kettle Moraine     1pm       Catholic Memorial v St Joseph’s

4pm       Kettle Moraine v Penn      4pm       Catholic Memorial v South Bend

Second Division
11am     Vernon v Berkley               11am     Noblesville v St Joe’s B

12pm     Livingston v Bishop Dwenger     12pm     Lakeview v DSHA B

2pm       11am winners/losers matches

3pm       12pm winners/losers matches

 Sunday

Championship

9am       5^th Place

10am     3^rd Place

12pm     1^st Place

Midwest Championships, 2nd Division

Competing in the second tier of the Midwest Championships are a lot of familiar teams:

Wisconsin's Vernon on one side of the bracket against Michigan's Berkley, taking on the winner of the Noblesville, Indiana and St Joseph's B-side match.   Vernon, Berkley, and Noblesville all competed in the top tier at one point, although it's been years since that's been the case.

The other side of the bracket features newcomer Bishop Dwenger high school against Michigan's Livingston, another repeat competitor.   Lakeview, Michigan rounds out this side of the tournament against DSHA's JV team.  Lakeview has been at numerous Midwest Tournaments and they continue Michigan's strong tradition of sending multiple teams to the event.  DSHA has an especially strong JV team this year and it'll be interesting to see how they compete against the top sides from other schools.

Wisconsin teams have had a run for the last number of years of winning both sides of the second-tier brackets and meeting in the final.  With Wisconsin's #3 team moving up to the top tier as a result, it'll be interesting to see how Vernon and DS stack up, especially since Michigan's top team dropped out of division one to compete in the lower bracket.

The Midwest Championships, prt i

This weekend is the 14th Annual Midwest Girls High School Championships.

Three Wisconsin teams compete for the division one championship. There are two pools of three teams for this year's championship: DSHA, Penn HS, and Kettle Moraine in one. CMHS, St Joseph's Academy, and South Bend in the other.

DSHA returns as the favorite, having won every championship since 2003. Penn HS and South Bend, both from Indiana, played early in the spring season, with Penn pulling out a narrow victory, 21-15. Who the stronger team is a month later remains to be seen. Penn HS has a history of multiple appearances and strong performances at the Midwest Regional. Notre Dame's women's coach Kate Daley played for Penn HS at their Midwest Regional appearance way back in 2004. With a large number of teams, Indiana continues to rise in the power rankings.

Meanwhile, St Joseph's Academy, an all-girls Catholic school out of Cleveland, lost to Lakewood Ohio 29-15 last week to determine Ohio's number one team. As a repeat National Championship contender, Lakewood always plays at a high level and the competitiveness of Ohio's big rivalry game leads one to anticipate St Joseph's being a strong contender. They should emerge stronger for playing competitive teams.

Kettle Moraine finished third at last year's championship, and appears to be even stronger than they were last fall. Despite some tough losses to CMH and DSHA in their spring build-up, they have a lot of power and an experienced core.

CMHS had a solid fall season and is Wisconsin's #2 seed, having three consecutive victories over Kettle Moraine under their belt. They won the second division at Midwest last year and it will be interesting to see how they do in the top division this year.

What's just as interesting as the pools and matchups for this year's event is the list of teams that will not make an appearance at the tournament. Sadly, an event that represented every state with a full league of girls teams for the last number of years, has lost Minnessota, Michigan, Illinois, and Allegheny from the top division. Disappointingly, Ohio's top team, Lakewood chose not to compete. Michigan has a couple teams in the second division, but chose to drop out of the championship. And the Chicago teams seem to be struggling. For years Allegheny sent a strong represnetative, Fox Chapel. They aren't coming either. For years they made a big effort to travel a good distance to play stronger competition and they'd worked themsleves up to fourth. Minnessota, which might have the most girls teams of any state, declined to send a representative as well. Even though one of their teams played 15's out at the Las Vegas Invitational a few months ago and with the tournament being a little closer to Minnessota this year, it seems their focus has shifted.

Last year's tournament boasted three tiers and 24 teams. This year, two tiers and 14 teams. How much of this has to do with the restructring of Nationals one has to wonder? Competing teams no longer have any chance to qualify by playing head-to-head for a seed at the big dance. Certainly, some of the drama and shine rubbed off the event.

Despite the chang ein format and participants, it will still be a GREAT tournament and one of the bigger girls rugby events in the country, for sure. It features the old dynasty in DSHA, a veteran champion contender in KM, plus new up and comers in St Joe's, CMH, South Bend, and Penn HS. Maybe smaller might be better this year, as the best teams there can focus on playing fast rugby, without the blowouts the 8th ranked team has faced in recent events.

More on the second division and the teams in the next report ...

Upcoming Matches and a Few Scores

A few scores from recent weeks:
4/18 DSHA 69 Kettle Moraine 5
4/5 CMHS 40 Kettle Moraine 5
CMHS B 22 Brookfield 5
4/4 DSHA won Oak Creek 0

Upcoming Matches:
4/18 DSHA @ Kettle Moraine 5pm Naga-Waukee Park
4/21 DSHA @ Vernon 9:30am Vernon Town Hall Park
4/21 CMHS @ St Charles, Illinois 11am Primrose Park
4/22 Tosa @ Kettle Moraine 1pm Naga-Waukee Park
4/22 Muskego @ Oak Creek 12pm
4/22 Brookfield @ Oak Creek 1pm
4/22 Fond Du Lac @ Menomonee Falls 12pm Thomas Jefferson School Park

Wisconsin Legislature Passes Youth Concussion Bill

The Wisconsin legislature enacted statute 118.293 yesterday.


To quote the assembly summary of the directly:

"This bill directs the Department of Public Instruction, in conjunction with the
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, to develop guidelines and other
information to educate coaches and athletes and their parents or guardians about
the risk of concussion and head injury in youth athletic activities. The bill defines "youth athletic activity," with certain exceptions, as an organized athletic activity in which the participants, a majority of whom are at least 11 and under 19 years of age, are engaged in an athletic game or competition against another team, club, or entity, or in practice or preparation for an organized athletic game or competition against another team, club, or entity.

The bill requires each person operating a youth athletic activity annually to
distribute a concussion and head injury information sheet to each person who wishes
to participate in the activity and prohibits a person from participating in a youth
athletic activity until he or she has returned the sheet signed by the person and, if he or she is under the age of 19, by his or her parent or guardian.

The bill requires that a person who is suspected of sustaining a concussion or
head injury in a youth athletic activity be removed from the activity immediately.
A person who has been so removed may not participate in a youth athletic activity
until he or she is evaluated by a health care provider who has been trained in the
evaluation and management of concussion and head injuries and receives a written
clearance to participate in the activity from the health care provider.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The bill provides that if a health care provider who is a volunteer authorizes a person to participate in a youth athletic activity, he or she is immune from civil liability for any injury resulting from that act unless the act constitutes gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.

In the bill, "health care provider" means a physician, physician assistant,
advanced practice nurse prescriber, or an athletic trainer. "

Commentary:
It will be interesting to see how the WIAA, schools, and other sports organizations respond to these new regulations. Is it time for rugby to change its subsitution laws? The rugby laws were updated once to allow substitutions when an athlete has blood on them. Perhaps a similar law should be enacted, where an athlete with a suspected head injury can be substituted out for an evaluation.