There are three high school rugby conferences in the State of Wisconsin. Badgerland is the boys high school league that runs two divisions of conferences in the metro Milwaukee and Madison areas, stretching as far south as Kenosha and as northwest as Middleton. NEW stands for North-East Wisconsin and covers boys high school teams in the central and northern parts of the state. NEW is based primarily in the Fox Valley area (Oshkosh, Fond Du Lac) and Green Bay (Pulaski, Kimberley) areas.
Wisconsin Girls Rugby (WGR) covers the metro-Milwaukee area, although there used to be a program for a few years over in Madison. Like a lot of startup clubs, once graduation hit the original group of leaders who got the team started, the team struggled to find new leadership. With the constant turnover of graduating players on school teams, leadership change is a constant challenge.
NEW Rugby recently elected a former WGR coach, Rob Bires, to the post of conference President. After coaching with the Kettle Moraine girls, Bires moved on to teaching at Appleton Xavier and founded the Appleton Crusaders boys high school team in the NEW Conference. He's stayed involved in the game for the past decade and now is helping at another level. His leadership has led to some new efforts to grow girls teams in the NEW areas. For years there were isolated pockets of girls playing on boys teams in NEW. Having their own girls teams should surely help capture the interest of more girls who would like to play.
Green Bay has already responded with interest in starting a girls program. Playing 7's events should help this, and perhaps other programs get off the ground.
If anyone is interested in playing, or helping girls rugby in the NEW areas please contact one of the two leaders below:
N.E.W. President
Rob Bires
rbires@xaviercatholicschools.org
Green Bay Girls Rugby
Matthew Crapeau
mattcrapeau@gmail.com
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