Sat Sept 17th, 2022 WGR Week 1 Conference Play
Pulaski 12 Stevens Points Area HS 34
DSHA HS jv 0 Hamilton HS 38
DSHA HS jv2 18 Hamilton HS jv 0 (teams played a third half)
Green Bay 36 Muskego 7
Brookfield-KM 50 Madison 5
Bye Week: DSHA, Catholic Memorial HS
The Jeff Noe Conference:
SPASH 1-0
Green Bay 1-0
DSHA 0-0
Muskego 0-1
Pulaski 0-1
The Tony Oliver Conference:
Hamilton HS 1-0
Kettle Moraine/Brookfield Co-Op 1-0
CMHS 0-0
DSHA jv 0-1
Madison 0-1
Saturday Sept 17th
10am Nashotah Park: Brookfield-Kettle Moraine Co-Op vs Madison
Will be interesting to see how the merging of league President Betsy Wendelberger's team along with VP Joe Garcia's Brookfield squad progresses. Madison has an early road test as they carry the flag for girls rugby in the state capitol. Will Madison take a step towards the upper-echelon of the competition this season?
10am Dretzka Park: DSHA HS JV vs Hamilton HS
An early start for the young guns from DSHA against a senior-laden Hamilton team. Where will Hamilton HS go this season after competing at the single school national tournament for the first team back in May?
11am Scray Hill Park: Green Bay Banshees vs Muskego HS
Two young squads face off for an early barometer of their progress. Muskego might very well have more playing numbers while Green Bay in their 2nd year in full conference play has some young athletes who've progressed through their flag program.
11am Pulaski vs Stevens Point Area HS
An early face off of northern teams. SPASH has had a larger roster in recent seasons and will be interesting to see if that starts to pay off for them in conference competition. Pulaski is the first of two teams now in the growing rugby hub of Green Bay and its direct vicinity.
Bye Week: DSHA HS varsity and Catholic Memorial HS
Stay tuned for results and early conference standings.
The Fall 2022 Season is around the corner. Teams have ramped up practices.
A few scrimmages have occurred notably DSHA's JV side took on Muskego on Friday Aug 26th in a scrimmage. Both teams, with strong numbers, were able to score a few tries. DSHA's JV appears poised for a strong season with several players with experience returning. Muskego as well showed improved with a year under their belt after reforming last season as a school supported program under Nina Rouse, an assistant athletic director at Muskego HS.
Pre-Season Matches take place Sept 9-10th, 2022 and include some cross-conference matchups:
Hamilton hosts Madison 10:00am Nashotah Park
Hamilton hosts Muskego 11:15am Nashotah Park
(followed by the Oconomowoc Women's Match at 1pm)
*Others will be added as times confirmed
--Congrats to USA u20s Aly Cunningham (Catholic Memorial HS, Waukesha Tag Rugby, and Sacred Heart Univ.) and Payton Janicsek (Kettle Moraine). The USA u20s and u23's travelled to Canada to play two matches.
--The North America 7s Selectside event took place this past weekend. The teams, including the Badger Academy with several Wisconsin coaches, finished off the event with the SacPAL Amazons winning the final 19-17. Order of finish:
1 Sacramento PAL Amazons, 2 Majestics, 3 Rhinos Rugby Academy
4 Sacramento Harlequins, 5 Pioneer 7s, 6 Pasefika
7 Eagle HS (Idaho), 8 Provo/Wasatch HS, 9 Pleasanton (CA)
10 Lamorinda (CA), 11 Badger Rugby Academy, 12 San Mateo (CA)
13 Mana, 14 Rocky Mountain, 15 Valkyrie
16 Rugby Colorado, 17 Bitteroot Koa, 18 Rock Rugby
19 Desert Warrior, 20 Rush Rugby
--EIRA (Eagle Impact Rugby Academy) took over 40 girls on a tour of Ireland, playing several matches on their tour. Several Wisconsin student-athletes are participating including Catholic Memorial's Audrey Fryda playing for their u18 team and Green Bay Rugby Club's Carolina Martinez with Madison Furies' Cece Stowers playing for their u16 side.
--We apologize if we missed any others!
Wisconsin Girls Rugby, sources tell us, has settled on conference alignment for the upcoming Fall 2022 Girls High School Rugby State Championship season. Featuring five teams in each conference, the season culminates in a semifinal round followed by the WGR State Tournament on Oct 30th at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex.
The WGR State Tournament sees each conference team play to determine their final state ranking.
The Jeff Noe Conference:
DSHA HS, Green Bay, Muskego HS, Pulaski, Stevens Point Area HS
The Tony Oliver Conference:
Catholic Memorial HS, DSHA JV, Hamilton HS, Kettle Moraine/Brookfield Co-Op, Madison
Conference Notes:
Tony Oliver coached the Highland (Homestead HS) team along with later founding the Oak Creek HS Girls team, where his younger daughter played rugby. Born in South Africa, he was tragically killed riding his bicycle one early Sunday morning.
After playing last fall together as a co-op team, the Pulaski and Green Bay programs are playing as their own clubs, which is how they both started. With multiple high schools over 1000 students in the vicinity, hopes are high that rugby can continue to appeal to the many student-athletes in the area (GB Preble, GW East, and Pulaski HS all have over 1000 students in addition to the smaller GB SW high school)
Muskego is in its 2nd season after a hiatus of several years. As a school-supported program they have the potential to bring in strong participation numbers.
Several teams are looking to schedule additional JV matches which is an encouraging sign for the overall growth and health of the league.
The Kettle Moraine (Knightmares) along with Brookfield Bruisers are combining for the fall season due to low numbers. Administrators are hopeful these two long-standing programs can improve their drawing power in the area.
The format of the Semi Final weekend on Oct 20th is TBD at this time. Organizers are unsure of returning to the Cottage Grove rugby facility for a tournament style semifinal event.
Final Team Ranking for the Fall 2021 WGR Season (15's)*
1 Catholic Memorial
2 DSHA
3 Hamilton
4 Green Bay/Pulaski Co-Op
5 Brookfield (tie)
5 Stevens Point (tie)
7 DSHA JV
8 Kettle Moraine
9 Muskego
10 Madison
*Spring 2023 results would see DSHA retake the top ranking, having won the National Championship.
Alumni, the rugby world needs your help. Ref clinic coming up!
Contact: aprochniak@gmail.com
Genevieve Ruesch, a DSHA class of 2017 alumni, recently completed her career and degree at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to being a regular starter at scrumhalf at Trinity, the #9 with an incredible pass became the first American to captain the successful Irish university team. While Ruesch was a heavily recruited high school player during her time at DSHA she chose to pursue her literary and educational goals oversees and was able to continue her successful rugby career at the same time.
The first picture below captures her the second time she became a National Champion, granted her most recent is in a different country. Her first was with DSHA in 2017 when she led her team to victory over Kahuku HS at the Girls Single-School National Tournament. Her university side pictured below recently won the National Irish Touch Championship. It's an idea we hear she's interested in promoting in the States as well. (Pictured bottom row, fourth from right)
