USA Rugby Academy Makes College Connection
SEATTLE – The USA Rugby Academy (serevirugby.com/usa-rugby-academy ) and The Rugger’s Edge (ruggersedge.com), the premiere college athletic advisor for male and female rugby players, have launched College Connection, a hands-on education program to help student-athletes navigate the process and connect with college coaches. Beginning February 21-22 at the USA Rugby Academy High Performance Training Camp at Harvard University, College Connection events will be included as part of USA Rugby Academy programming nationwide, modeled after similar successful programs in other American sports such as ice hockey, lacrosse, football, and basketball.
New Orleans Jesuit Heads Deep South
Photography from the Deep South HS Conference provided by Ed Krider Imaging. www.edkriderimaging.com |
It’s one of those anomalies in rugby conferences that in Louisiana one of the top teams is almost through the meat of its season, and another top team is yet to play.
2015 Boys Single-School Rankings Week 3
Fallbrook's massive defeat of #7 Torrey Pines showed us we had it way wrong. Torrey Pines drops to #30 and Fallbrook enters our rankings at #14 with the potential to jump up further.
The big movement is all from Southern California because they are in playoffs now. That's why we expanded to 30 teams now, with Mira Costa, St. John Bosco, and View Park Prep (winners over Dana Hills) coming in. Dallas Jesuit, having won a couple of early games, and New Orleans Jesuit (ditto) move in also.
Texas HS Latest
The Texas Boys HS league begins in earnest this weekend, and on the single-school side state champs Westlake are already looking strong.
Westlake took on 2014 club champs Woodlands in a preseason warmup this past weekend, and Westlake won convincingly 56-0.
Westlake Head Coach Jason Spodick said he expected the game to be a measuring stick for his squad, and if that’s so, they should feel confident about the season ahead.
“We have lots of new faces on varsity for us, but overall team experience is good,” Spodick said. Westlake graduated 26 seniors from last year, and 23 of them were on the state championship roster. However, it’s nice to have HS All American flanker Bobby Butchofsky back. Rookie senior Andrew Marsh joins Butchofsky on the back row and while he’s new to the game, he’s a good athlete and learning well. Watch out for him.
2015 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 3
Here is the latest Goff Rugby Report Boys HS Club rankings, wich we've expanded to 25 from 20.
That has allowed us to bring in Kty out of Texas, Charlotte Tigers, Kau Toa, Granite Bay, and North Bay.
All of those teams recorded impressive victories, but we're most impressed with Daytona beating Orlando. That shoved the Coconuts up to #12. Naples drops after a desultory win over Boca Raton. Peninsula Green also drops.
Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Chase Bixby
Granite Bay has started off their 2015 season with an impressive result over CK McClatchy and while several players played well in the opener, many are looking up, way up, to Chase Bixby.
The 6-6 second row forward is on a bit of a roll as he contemplates taking a trip with the High School All Americans to Las Vegas to play in the HS Boys Elite 7s.
For someone with his height, especially a young player, to be picked to play 7s is a little rare. But it could be a stroke of genius.
“I’ve only played two 7s games in my life,” Bixby told Goff Rugby Report. “It is a lot of fun. I think I can contribute on set piece, in the lineouts, at the restart. I’ve got some height and I’ve got long arms. So I want to control possession.”
That is, after all, what he’s good at in 15s.
Nevada Looking at HS 7s League
Las Vegas Rugby Academy founder Vaha Esikia tells Goff Rugby Report that he will be starting a single-school high school 7s in the state.
This is the first in-state high school effort by the Nevada Youth Rugby Organization, aside from the games between the Las Vegas Rugby Academy and Las Vegas Aces.
Arbor View HS, Liberty HS, Clark HS, Coronado HS, Palo Verde HS, and at least one charter school will compete in a 7s competition.
The plan, said Esikia, is to develop rugby through allegiance to single schools. Currently, HS-age rugby players play with for the LVRA or the Aces. Esikia, who runs the LVRA as well, says he hopes that team will morph into more of a select side, with the Nevada YRO league being 15s teams that sprang up from the 7s programs now growing.
NorCal Boys SS - Slow Start
It was a relatively quiet opening weekend in Northern California’s Boys Varsity Single School this week, as only three games were on the docket and one ended in a forfeit.
De La Salle forfeited to Jesuit due to lack of players this early in the season. So that left Clayton Valley against Bellarmine, and Dixon against newcomers Riordan.
Clayton Valley downed Bellarmine 33-22 in a close game, but even closer was Dixon against Riordan. With Dixon being a shade faster to the breakdown, 2014 3rd-place team edged Riordan 24-22.
Riordan visits Clayton Valley this coming Thursday, while Dixon hosts Jesuit and DLS travels to Bellarmine.
NorCal Latest - Club Boys
The first weekend of action in Northern California’s and meaningful wins and losses everywhere.
In the Club division (Varsity Gold), Danville, Granite Bay, Jesuit, Mother Lode, Sierra Foothills, North Bay, and Pleasanton all won
Granite Bay impressed with a 60-17 defeat of CK McClatchy.
“We have a lot of talented players, which creates some good problems for the coaching staff,” said Granite Bay Head Coach Jason Devine. “We need to work on our tackling and our fitness and our ability to move the ball around the field. But overall we’ll take it as a first game.”
HS All American Chase Bixby was a big presence up front, while flyhalf Garrett Walker hd a very strong game. Walker set up several tries, many of which were finished off by center/wing Kwabena Akoto.”
OT Decides SoCal Playoff
In a dramatic overtime dame, the View Park Prep team frm Los Angeles defeated previously 5-1 Dana Hills to advance in the Southern California Youth Rugby Varsity White playoffs.
In a wild game, View Park led 17-13 at halftime, scoring three tries through their forward pack, with No. 8 Tay Braggs leading the charge, while Dana Hills scored a try and two penalties.
Georgia HS Latest
The Georgia League continued at the weekend with solid wins for Lassiter Trojans, Mill Creek and both sides fielded by Alpharetta Phoenix sides.
Phoenix A defeated a solid Lambert side 51-5, while Mill Creek also improved to 2-0 with a defeat of Roswell 47-19.
Georgia Results Week 2
Lambert 5-51 Alpharetta Phoenix "A"
Roswell 19-47 Mill Creek
Lassiter Trojans 37-0 Norsemen
Alpharetta Phoenix "B" 38-10 Walton
Mira Costa to SoCal Semis
The Mira Costa Mustangs advanced in Southern California’s Varsity White Division playoffs after they beat HTH/Pt. Loma Saturday in Pt. Loma.
HTH controlled the early possessions and playing the first 10 minutes in the Costa half of the pitch. Point Loma opened the scoring with a 30-meter penalty kick. The Mustangs finally got underway as their pack gained possession, and then freshman sensation No. 8 Jonah Tavai took a feed from scrumhalf Harrison Dulgarian and showed in his use of his support how good a player he is. Tavai powered ahead for 20 meters and then offloaded to hooker Juwan Johnson, who then took the ball for a 25 meter gallop. Johnson was tackled but found inside center Justus Tavai, who scored the try of the game.
Fallbrook Powers Past Torrey Pines
The Southern California Varsity Red Division got thrown into a bit of a tizzy after Fallbrook shocked previously-undefeated Torrey Pines with a 51-0 shutout.
The score, as per league rules, goes into the books as 40-0. But with Torrey Pines coming into the game 3-0 against 2-1 Fallbrook. HS All American hooker and Fallbrook No. 8 Steve Branham said it was a complete team effort coupled with a smart game plan.
“We had just a great kick-and-chase,” said Branham. “They had a great defensive launch in their line, so we put in grubbers and chips over the top.”
Florida BHS Latest
The Daytona HS rugby team made a huge statement this weekend with a 48-10 defeat of a highly-regarded Orlando squad to move to 2-0 in the Florida Boys HS Northern Pool.
After winning their opener 20-5 over Riviera Beach, the Coconuts really hit their stride against Orlando. Both Naples and Key Biscayne continued their winning ways, albeit in different ways. The Bears of Naples just edged Boca Raton 13-10, while the Rats continued to celebrate their inaugural season with some exciting rugby, scoring 69 on the Mavericks.
The South 2 pool is all clumped up as two teams are 1-1 and two are 0-1-1. In The South 3, they finally got to play, and Weston recorded an impressive result, 31-0 over Jupiter.
Fla BHS Weekend Action
Week 3 of the Florida Boys HS league brings the Naples Bears into the fray.
Naples is certainly one of the teams expected to compete and they face Boca Raton after thumping the Mavericks 48-0 in their opener. Orlando, winners last week, face Daytona, also winners last week.
“We see Daytona as one of the teams we really need to watch,” said Orlando HS Head Coach Chris Quigley. “They are very solid.”
Key Biscayne opened up their first HS season with a 15-14 defeat of Boca. A talented team, featuring GRR Player of the Week Marcos Young, Key Biscayne will try to follow that up against the Mavericks.
Another new program, St. Thomas Aquinas, tied their first game of the season, against Miami, and now take on a Jupiter Sharks team stung by a 10-7 loss to the Cape Pirates. Meanwhile Miami faces Riviera Beach in RB’s first game.
