Changes in Florida HS Leagues
Florida Youth Rugby's Boys HS schedule is set, and the league had undergone a distinct change for the second year in a row.
Two years ago, FYR's HS league was divided into small regional pools, but that format was not ideal in part because one pool was significantly stronger than others, and as a result teams in weaker pools didn't get the level of competition they needed. The season itself was also small - teams played games, but not all counted in the standings.
So last year the Boys DI and DII leagues played in a state-wide league. The initial response from teams involved was positive; teams got to play equally tough schedules and play some teams with which they weren't familiar. However, as time went on, the travel burden on teams started to take a toll.
Florida Season Starts With Festival
The Florida Youth Rugby season gets a soft start with the extensive Florida Winter Festival this coming weekend in Orlando.
The Festival itself will feature teams in seven brackets from Men’s and Women’s adult teams to Under 10s.
Six boys HS teams will participate, including defending state champs Orlando - Dramatic Florida Final Goes to Orlando. The Tampa Krewe, which was a state playoff team last season, will also compete, as will Sarasota HS, Sebastian River, Cape Pirates, and Wellington HS. Those teams will each play two 40-minute games.
There will also be three middle school teams - Cape, Wellington, and Sarasota - and those three programs will also field U12 and U10 teams.
Top Powers Meet in Storer HS Classic
Twelve high school rugby teams will compete in the HS Boys bracket of the Storer Classic, including some national contenders.
Defending Northern California Premier and Pacific Cup champions Danville Oaks will field an A and B side, and eight other high school programs will field their A sides. In addition, two combo teams - a Utah combo team and a NorCal combo team, made up of players from those regions - will participate.
For Danville, this is the first run-out for a team that graduated some key performers last year, including the 2015-16 GRR HS Player of the year, Keanu Andrade.
Like a lot of teams in California, Danville has found it difficult to get training time in. But Program Director Jon Straka said the players are getting into the swing of things.
UC Comeback Downs HTH
University City improved to 3-0 in the Southern California Varsity White San Diego South Division with a comeback win over High Tech High Saturday.
This game, played annually for the Mettle Cup, was something of a tale of two halves, as HTH started strong and led 20-18. But some substitutions for University City for the second half bolstered their comeback effort, and center Ryan Shogan showing some good work in the backs and prop Juan Pablo Cabrera leading the forwards, they scored three tries in the second half to win 39-25.
Some regular starters missed the first half for University City because they are also on the surfing team and had a meet on the same day. That meant No. 8 Zach Brody had to move to center. But when those surfers got back in the lineup - especially wing Alex Volk and fullback Ben Lolly-Wilson - the UC attack stared to click.
View Park Escapes Scare
View Park Prep opened their Southern California Varsity Red league account with a very difficult 28-24 win over Roosevelt HS.
Hit with some last-minute absences in the pack, View Park had all sorts of trouble containing Roosevelt's pick-and-go offense. With their big pack Roosevelt ran out to a 17-0 lead. But View Park started to get a little more possession as the game rolled on, and tries from Emari Daniels and Zarion Patton made it 17-14 at the break.
Roosevelt scored once more, again using their bigger pack to powered through the View Park defense.
"We were massively outsize up front and that killed us," said View Park Head Coach David Hughes. "We just found it so hard to stop their repeated crashed."
Carlsbad to 3-0 With Win over SP
The Carlsbad Thunder moved to 3-0 in the Southern California Varsity White San Diego North Division with a 29-17 defeat of previously 2-0 San Pasqual.
The victory was led by some excellent work from hooker Robbie Becker, prop Will Fox and center Jesse Atiga, with good games also from wing Jacob Jenkins, center Michael Cuarenta, and flanker Tim Howell.
For Carlsbad, this was a huge boost. They did come into the game 2-0, but with close wins against teams of unconfirmed strength. Beating San Pasqual, which was also undefeated, now opens up the possibility that the Thunder could finish 6-0 in the division.
Saint Mary's Hosts Arizona State
The major college schedule gets an early jump Friday when Arizona State visits Saint Mary's.
Both teams have been getting some early work in. ASU has been in a winter camp that has included a few days in Moraga, Calif. preparing for the game Friday.
Okapi Notches Solid Preseason Victory
The Okapi Wanderers team continued their preseason with a 71-0 defeat of Sarasota HS in Florida.
Okapi got on the board early with a pick-and-go from Jack Freixa. Sarasota held firm in the early periods with some good work through the midfield and plenty of scramble defense. As a result,
Sarasota managed to contain Okapi to a 12-point lead In the first 15, but Okapi's greater experience began to show, forcing Sarasota to put numbers in to defend the Okapi maul. With space available out wide, Okapi went on the attack, only to be pinged for three forward passes in short order.
In the second half, Okapi started to execute a little better, and the tries began to flow. Andres Villareal, Tomas Gallo, and Alejandro Morales all scored.
San Diego Varsity White Weekend Preview
We back to the field in the Southern California Varsity White rSan Diego divisions.
In the North, as we profiled last month, San Pasqual has started well, featuring a bunch of players who weathered a tough season last year as youngsters and are now battle-hardened and smarter. They take on Carlsbad, who are also 2-0, having beaten Mission Vista and Fallbrook in two close games.
This is the third year for the Carlsbad Thunder HS program, but they've been working with youth - they start with under-8s - for years; this is the first year they've had graduates from their youth program playing HS rugby, and it's showing.
View Park Looks to Build on Start
Perhaps the most notable aspect of last month’s View Park Prep win over Wilson HS was that, while View Park had not been working much on defense, they managed to shut out Wilson 20-0 anyway.
For Head Coach David Hughes, shutting out any opponent is cause for celebration.
“I don’t know if we’re good enough,” said Hughes. “But we’re only just now starting work on our defensive structure and we were able to nil a team like Wilson, which is really encouraging.”
View Park’s JV team a couple of years ago had several of the top track & field sprinters in the LA area, and those players are now upperclassmen leading the way. As their forward pack battles on, the backs are something to behold, with pace to spare.
NorCal Premier HS League Gets Ready
The Rugby Northern California Boys Premier League is set to kick off in a few weeks, with 11 teams in action.
The league expanded from seven to 11 teams for this season, and with the expanded size split into two groups, one of six teams and one of five.
Six of the seven teams from 2016 return - Danville, Granite Bay, Jesuit, Lamorinda, Mother Lode, and Solo Falcons - and they are in one group. Archbishop Riordan has pulled out, and most of their returning players are now with the SFGG program.
The second group includes SFGG, CK McClatchy, Marin, Peninsula Green, and Los Gatos. Pen Green won the NorCal DI last season.
Jan 28 is the opening weekend of the league, with Danville at Lamorinda. Marin will play Solo in a non-standings crossover game that same weekend. Six teams will be in action on Feb 4.
Boys HS Nationals Applications Open
The Boys High School Rugby National Championships will be held on May 18-20, 2017 in Kansas City, Mo. and will attract the top high school teams and clubs in the nation to the premier high school-aged tournament in America.
The Boys High School Rugby National Championship tournament will include separate competitions for boys’ single high school teams and multiple high school club teams. The competition will consist of three 60-minute matches over the course of three days – beginning on Thursday afternoon, May 18th and concluding on Saturday, May 20th.
HSAA Camp Underway
The Boys HS All American winter camp is well underway in Casa Grande, Ariz.
With nice, mild weather and a large team of coaches working under Salty Thompson, the players were all getting a rundown of the team system and a chance to show why they deserve a look for the HSAA assemblies in 2017, including two expected tours to Canada and the LVI.
Coaches in attendance included Thompson, Sean O'Leary, Scott Bracket, Paul Keeler, Ski Bailey, Matt Persanis, Jone Naqica, Rob Benson, Brent Bueno, Jeff Bonnett, and Sean Duffy.
Here are some photos provided by various sources, including a photo posted by USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne, who was in attendance.
U19 Named to Face Canada
USA U19 Head Coach JD Stephenson has named his squad to face the Canada U19s Friday at 1pm at Chula Vista, Calif.
The roster is an extended group of 26, as both teams have agreed to enlarge their benches for this game, thus getting more game time for players in this two-game series.
Several players who have impressed in Eagle Impact Rugby Academy and HS All American action this past year are on the list, with several getting special notice from Goff Rugby Report. One player to watch that you might have have heard much about would be Tavite Lopeti (see more on him and his team here), a shifty, exciting outside back from Peninsula Green who has the potential to open up defenses. He will partner with the impressive Sean Lumkong in the midfield.
Higgins Scholarship Recipients Named
The United States Rugby Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2016 Kevin Higgins College Scholarships. The $1,000 scholarships, named in honor of one of the all-time great USA rugby players, Kevin Higgins, are awarded to graduating high school seniors who have gone on to continue their education and rugby at the collegiate level. This year's recipients brings the total to 82 Higgins Scholarship winners since the program was established in 2008.
