One Publication's Final Rankings

     The latest Rugby Magazine high school girls rankings have been released.  While always debatable, especially when so many of the ranked teams have never played each other, it is interesting to see how those in other parts of the country view programs across the country.

     What isn’t debatable is that it’s been a great year for WGR participants and rugby in-general as good girls teams are sprouting up all over the country, especially in hotbeds across the Midwest (check out Indiana and Ohio) and areas like Oregon and California. 

     Wisconsin, with two divisions of play, two competitive championship finals in the fall, and five teams competing regionally this spring, had a lot of girls playing high level rugby.  They were fortunate to experience the team travel that is such a part of the rugby experience.  Improvements were seen in Menomonee Falls and Oak Creek battling for the D2 title down to the final minute; they will probably move up to D1 next year.  Vernon and DSHA meeting in the Midwest second division final was awesome.  Kettle Moraine finishing third in the Midwest capped another good year for them.  Plus, DSHA and CMHS finishing 3^rd and 4^th respectively at Nationals was special. 

     According to the latest ranking by one source, Rugby Magazine, DSHA is #7, CMHS #9, and Lakewood #4 in the USA.    Those girls have a lot to be proud of.  Those three Midwest teams finished 2,3,4 at Nationals.   All three Midwest teams were dropped in the rankings compared to their finish at Nationals.  After playing three top teams in two days at Nationals and making the final, Lakewood can probably find a little extra motivation in being dropped.

     Another thing that stands out is that they also decided to move Kent ahead of DSHA, up to #6.  Kent has never beaten DSHA and finished 5^th in the tournament.  Perhaps they considered that Kent’s only loss came to Lakewood in the semis, 34-26.  Lakewood was winning that match 34-12 well into the second half.  That’s the hard part about comparing only final score lines.  A lot of factors go into scores, including substitutions when you have a big semifinal coming up later the same day.  Now, both teams have been among the best in the country for a decade or more and their rankings could be right; it’s tough to predict.  Still, that’s a hard to take if you finish higher than another team consistently.   They’ll both be wondering how their teams would’ve matched up.  Some good motivation for next year, for sure. 

    It’s also interesting that Summit’s tie with Fallbrook in November was touted by some as a national championship match, instead of a pre-season warm-up game for Fallbrook.  Summitt finished #2  without playing any other teams ranked in the top twenty or ever having defeated DSHA.  Summitt was at the height of their fall season when this match happened, coming off a great state championship run where they were hardly scored on.  Fallbrook played them at the very beginning of a season where they were admittedly rebuilding.  It would’ve been interested to see how the teams matched up after Fallbrook had a season of coaching under their belt, especially as it is clear Summitt is a good program and worthy of high recognition.

     This also has us considering the weight, or lack of weight given to an event like the National Championship Invitational.  Competing teams face three of the most challenging games possible in two days.  Some states have a challenging championship and perhaps semifinals.  They don’t involve this many tough games in this short a time.  It takes a toll by the 2^nd and then 3^rd games.  It’s tough to compare the level of depth and ability to make it through an event with 8 of the top teams in the country compared to one match on one day.  Now, maybe some really good, worthy teams aren’t able to or don’t choose to compete, but that will always be the case for a variety of reasons.  That's also the case in Indiana where one of their top teams is unable to compete on Sundays and therefore cannot attend Midwest.  Nonetheless, there is no other more challenging tournament for girls rugby than this.  Now, in NCAA basketball and state high ‘power rankings’, if you don’t play top teams, you don’t move up in the rankings.  Our two cents observation.  Hopefully next year, the tournament can be expanded to 16 teams and two divisions, to allow more teams the opportunity to experience this! 

Here’s their top twenty.  What’s yours?  Let the debate begin:

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1 Fallbrook (Cal)

2 Summit High School (CO)

3 Fullerton (Cal)

4 Lakewood (OH)

5 Mother Lode (Cal)

6 Kent (WA)

7 Divine Savior Holy Angels High School (WI)

8 Lady Barbarians (ORE)

9 Catholic Memorial High School (WI)

10 Bishop O’Dowd (Cal)

11 Warriors (Utah)

12 Downingtown(Pa)

13 West Carroll (MD)

14 Lowland(Utah)

15 Seigel (Tenn)

16 Armstrong (Minn)

17 St Joseph’s Academy (OH)

18 Hopkins (Minn)

19 Canby (Ore)

20 Amazons (Cal)