SE Warren HS Shoots to Varsity Status
After three seasons in existence, the Southeast Warren High School rugby team in Liberty Center, Iowa has been granted varsity status.
The School Board voted unanimously - 4-0 - to approve the measure, capping what is a meteoric rise to varsity status, at least by rugby standards.
The move seemed logical, though considering the popularity of the sport in the small school. Southeast Warren has 139 students, with more than 10% playing rugby, and only a handful more playing football.
"It was a huge night for us," enthused Coach Jeremiah Johnson.
Johnson was coaching at another school close to his job, when one of his players said he had a cousin at Southeast Warren who wanted to start a rugby team. This student, Addison Spear, started a conversation with Johnson, and through that helped drum up interest and get some faculty support.
Seattle Keeps Winning in Rugby WA 7s
The Seattle Vikings once again won in Subway Washington Summer Games rugby 7s series, beating Liberty 50-7 in the final of the Boys U19 bracket, and shutting out Rainier 50-0 in the final of the U17s.
Seattle leads both the 19 boys and U17 boys series.
This was the third tournament in the Rugby Washington series, and was held at Magnuson Park in Seattle.
Here are the full results
Liberty 57 Prairie 0 U19
Seattle 31 Tacoma 0 U19
Eastside Black 19 Kitsap 19 U19
Tacoma 7 Liberty 50 U19
Eastside Black 26 Prairie 10 U19
Tacoma 19 Prairie 29 U19
Seattle 45 Eastside Black 0 U19
Seattle 38 Kitsap 0 U19
Kitsap 35 Liberty 34 U19
Rainier 12 Chuckanut 10 U17
Aircraft Charter Solutions Boys Player of the Week - Nikko Zuluaga
It seemed that during the Stars & Stripes game the same name kept getting heard time and again. Nikko Zuluaga, a boxy, speedy back with good vision had undoubtedly emerged as a leader of the Stripes both with his attitude and his talent.
“Nikko showed a lot for us out there,” said Stripes Head Coach Colin Pupuri.
High School 7s Championships at Stone HarborThirty-one High School-age and younger teams will participate this weekend at the Surfside Stone Harbor 7s in New Jersey, with the main High School brackets being billed as a national championship. Most of the teams are from the surrounding area, with top squads such as Maryland Exiles, Doylestown, and La Salle College High in the boys section. Littleton out of Colorado shakes thing up a bit geographically, while the Atlantis Rugby age-grade group is probably the favorite.
Atlantis is a longtime touring select side run for years by 7s legend Emil Signes. This weekend’s tournament will see Signes put on the field his 1000th player. Only recently has Atlantis expanded into the U19 arena, but they’ve done well at a variety of tournaments.
Also in action are six girls teams, six U15s teams, and three U13 teams.
Atlantis is a longtime touring select side run for years by 7s legend Emil Signes. This weekend’s tournament will see Signes put on the field his 1000th player. Only recently has Atlantis expanded into the U19 arena, but they’ve done well at a variety of tournaments.
Also in action are six girls teams, six U15s teams, and three U13 teams.
Union Shows Depth in Parrothead Win
Despite losing one player to the HS All Americans and three more to the Stars & Stripes assembly, the Union Rugby Club HS team out of Tulsa, Okla., won the Parrothead 7s this past weekend. Union played well, said coach Jason Todd, but actually played better earlier in the Tornado Alley 7s, when their split their squad and finished 1st and 2nd. Union won the HS Rugby Challenge at the Collegiate Rugby Championships invitational in 2013, but this year had to essentially start from scratch, said Todd. "We really only had one player who was experienced in 7s, and he's in South America right now," said Todd, speaking of Thomas Lorenzo. So Todd brought in his son, and former HS All American, David, to drill the players.
Stripes Boys Beat Stars in All-Star Clash
The Stripes Boys team made it two-for-two in the Stars & Stripes games at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. Wednesday morning.
Led by a very cohesive effort and one early momentum-shifting score, the Stripes galloped past a hard-working Stars team 53-20.
The Stars actually started off the game the stronger, and were camped out on the Stripes line in the early going. But the ball squirted out of the ruck at the wrong time for the Stars, and Chayce Pannell (Lake Travis, Texas) swooped in and raced 98 meters to score a superb try. Pannell’s pace was impressive, and the try shook the Stars team somewhat.
After that, the Stripes got their mojo working, and got tries from eventual Stripes MVP for the week Nikko Zuluaga (Naples, Fla.) and scrumhalf Justin Brown (Westlake, Texas), who quick-tapped and did well to stay low and sneak over.
Boys Stars & Stripes Set for Wednesday
The lineups for the Boys age-grade Stars & Stripes game have been announced.
The game is set for the morning of Wednesday, July 16. Check back with Goff Rugby Report for coverage.
Utah Boys Finish 2nd in Victoria
The Utah Lions boys All-Star 7s team made the final of the Victoria International Youth 7s, but fell to a well-drilled British Columbia Gold side 45-0 in the championship match.
Utah defeated Ontario, Alberta, and BC White, but lost to BC Gold 27-12 in pool play before edging BC Blue 14-12 to secure a place in the final.
Meanwhile, BC Gold not only won all of their games, they were rarely tested. Only Utah and BC Blue scored on them. The final was a bridge too far for the Lions, as BC had no trouble winning the rematch.
Vancouver North won the Boys Open, Vancouver Island the girls bracket, Valley West the Boys U16s, and Valley to U14s. All of those teams are from Canada.
Seattle Sweeps in Rugby Wa 7s
The Seattle Vikings Boys HS program won both brackets of Saturday's Rugby Washington summer 7s series.
Seattle defeated Eastside Black in the U19 final 52-10 to take the title.
In the U17 bracket, Seattle defeated Liberty 33-0 in the final.
Liberty won the U19 Bowl Final over Prairie 33-12. Prairie took the U17 Bowl over Eastside II.
Seattle was just that much more effective in using the ball and finding space.
Utah Lions Enter Victoria 7s
The Victoria International Youth 7s kicks off this weekend with a mostly, but not entirely, Canadian field converging on the capital of the province of British Columbia.
The U16 and U14 brackets are all Canadian, as is the U18 open, but in the U18 elite level Utah will face three British Columbia Elite Youth 7s (BCEY_ teams, along with Alberta and Ontario.
Michael Cressler of Utah Youth Rugby said he hopes to build on his team's success at the HSRC in Philadelphia in June and in Denver a couple of weeks ago. He has been working with the players to create a team dynamic and certainly they will be one of the stronger teams at the tournament. If 6-2, 215 Tanu Aupiu keeps exploiting space the way he has so far this year, they should be in good shape.
Tance Allsup is a points machine for Utah, as has Darian Power.
Boys Stars & Stripes Roster
USA Rugby has announced the boys roster for the 2014 USA Rugby Stars and Stripes Camp.
The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley will host the second annual Camp July 13-15.
New England RAST All-Tournament Team
The Boys all-tournament team has been named for the New England Regional All-Star Tournament held this past weekend.
Not surprisingly, several players from the Greenwich program, which won the Boys Varsity, are on the list.
(NNE=Northern New England; MYRO= Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization; Conn.=Connecticut Youth Rugby; Greenwich was a team of players from Greenwich HS and Fairfield Prep)
Junior Varsity All-Tournament Team
Martin Keucherian (MYRO)
Nate Gonzales (NNE)
Rich Donovan (Conn.)
Ian Pierson (Greenwich)
Jasper Stone (Conn.)
Owen Tedford (Greenwich)
Chase Lind (Greenwich)
Will Beny (Greenwich)
Soh Nakayama (Greenwich)
Connor Bercik (Greenwich)
Patrick McTiernan (Greenwich)
Parker Tregoning (Conn.)
Luke Salls (Conn.)
Eric Naposki (Greenwich)
Padraic McDonough (MYRO)
EIRA Success Shown in RAST Winners
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy, (EIRA), a network of development academies set up by Salty Thompson (HSAA Head Coach), and Michael Engelbrecht, (HSAA and U20s assistant coach), is beginning to make a difference in high performance age grade rugby.
The EIRA idea grew out of a conversation between Robin Reid, owner of Aircraft Charter Solutions, Engelbrecht, and Thompson during the HSAA tour to South Africa in July 2011.
With a decade of experience at age grade international level, including five World Junior Championships and two u20 years, 2008 World Junior in Wales and the 2009 World Trophy in Kenya, Thompson and Engelbrecht knew a change was needed to accelerate growth and begin to close the gap on global competition.
Player of the Week - Ben CimaWhile it’s not official, it will be no surprise if Ben Cima is named to the High School All Americans team to tour Argentina this month. The just-graduated Gonzaga HS flyhalf captained his team to a National Invitational Tournament win over Jesuit, helped the USA U20s to a creditable 3rd-place finish at the Junior World Rugby Trophy, and was a major player for the HSAA team last year. The flyhalf is also a brilliant goalkicker, a skill that helped propel Gonzaga to their title, and was enormously important in the USA U20s victory over Uruguay for 3rd place at the JWRT, as he slotted seven penalty kicks in a 26-25 victory. For Cima, though, that tournament also holds a bad memory.
HSAA Team to be Named SoonHigh School All American Head Coach Salty Thompson will confirm his team to tour Argentina probably later this week. The team will face Cordoba Academy, Argentina, and Italy in a demanding itinerary that Thompson believes sets the players up well for the rigors of international rugby. They play Cordoba Academy July 16, Argentina U18s July 19, Italy U18s July 22, and Uruguay U18s July 26.
