Florida HS Boys Season Kicking OffThe Florida Youth Rugby season gets going this weekend with one league game and a preseason tournament for everyone else. The preseason tournament will be held in Pompano Beach, with teams playing a series of shortened games to get up to speed. Meanwhile, the Cape Pirates and Tampa Krewe open up their season Saturday in Coco Beach. “The Pirates are a well coached team and we had the opportunity to play them in a preseason and two regular season games last year,” said Krewe Head Coach Chris DeAnnuntis, whose team enjoyed their first season last year.
Arizona HS Season About to StartArizona’s HS league gets off to an interesting start this weekend as players all arrive at the same locale and put their names in a hat to be chosen for random teams. It’s a time-honored way to host a tournament when you’re not sure who can make it, and the format allows players to meet new athletes, and perhaps use their skills in a different way with different teammates. But after that things go back to normal. A regular pre-season tournament will be followed by the first league games on the final weekend of January. Leading the pack at the moment has to be Red Mountain.
HS 7s in LVI - Your Prep Video
The Las Vegas Invitational looks set to host its usual huge list of teams. Serevi is partnering with the LVI to handle some of the high school tournaments. So Serevi has pinned their name to the High School Girls Elite 7s, High School Boys Elite 7s, High School Open 7s for boys and for girls.
According to the LVI website, all eight spots in the Elite Girls, and all 12 spots in the Elite Boys are full. The HS Open Girls 7s is also full (a staggering 24 teams), while two spots remain for the HS Open Boys.
Serevi produced this video to give players some quick workouts they can do to prepare for 7s rugby. (If you don't see the video immediately, reload the page)
Top Names in Storer HS TornamentWhile the men’s college teams play in the Storer Classic this weekend at UCLA, there’s another part of the tournament that boasts a pretty impressive lineup of teams. The Boys HS tournament that has been a part of the Storer Classic from the beginning will include some of the top teams from California. SFGG, Lamorinda, Back Bay, and Granite Bay are part of the HS Storer Classic slate. In addition, Danville, which finished 3rd in the Boys Club NIT last year, Santa Monica, which finished 2nd, and Snow Canyon, possibly the strongest team in Utah last season, will also be there. Of those, Danville might well be the one to watch.
Eagle Impact, Serevi Merge with USAR Seal
Serevi Rugby® and Eagle Impact Rugby Academy (EIRA) today announced their merger, aimed at providing a consistent and high-quality level of youth rugby development under the umbrella of the USA Rugby Academy.
As existing partners with USA Rugby, the merger immediately brings together two of the leading youth development organizations in the game to augment the high school, college, and club competition pathways in identify promising young women and men, and then develop these athletes for achievement on and off the field through high performance programming. The ultimate goal is to make USA Rugby more competitive at international age grade and senior levels.
Brother Rice Goes Varsity
Brother Rice Director of Rugby David Fee has confirmed that the Chicago-based rugby program will move to single-school varsity status for this season.
Despite carrying the name of Brother Rice HS, the Brother Rice team has accepted players from other area schools that do not have rugby teams As a result, Brother Rice has competed as a High School club.
But that has changed.
“The school came to us,” Fee told Goff Rugby Report. “They asked us how we were approaching it, and said from a liability perspective they wanted us to go single-school.”
Fee said “a good handful” of strong players on the Brother Rice team came from outside the school. But those players now will have to find other rugby outlets. The hope is they start a team at their own school.
Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Jacob RozarWhen David Barnes, the Head Coach at High Tech High/Point Loma, started describing the play of his open side flanker, he used a lot of complimentary words, but he avoided one commonly used by coaches - heart. That would have been too much of a pun. Jacob Rozar has been all over the field for HTH/PL this season and a big part of why they lead the San Diego Conference in SoCal’s Varsity White Division. The small, scrappy flanker is a dynamo on defense, dominating the tackling stats. And, he does have heart, because he plays hard, loves the game, and spent a good chunk of his young life battling a heart condition. Rozar was born with an enlarged heart - two to three times the normal size - and two holes in his heart, as well.
South U19s to Enter NACRA TournamentThe first tryouts are set for a South U19 team that will, when selected, compete in the NACRA U19 Championships. NACRA is the North American Caribbean Rugby Association. The USA and Canada don’t normally compete in the NACRA 7s and 15s championships because to do so would make it all about USA and Canada, as their senior national teams are too strong compared to the teams from the Caribbean. For the USA, a compromise solution was arrived upon in 2013, with USA Rugby South sending a territorial team to the NACRA Men’s 15s championships - which they won.
Leaders Emerge in SoCal Varsity RedThis past weekend was one of clear differentiation among the top teams and the second tier in the Varsity Red Division in Southern California. Both 1-0, Cathedral Catholic and Torrey Pines both won comfortably - Cathedral 50-10 over Del Norte, and Torrey Pines 36-0 over Poway. Brandon Hong, had a very good game with his kicking for Torrey Pines. Hong is being recruited by college football programs as a punter. He got Pines out of trouble in their own end and also accounted for 11 points with the boot. “Hong is so much more than just a kicker,” said Torrey Pines Coach Matty Sandoval.
Mira Costa, St. John Bosco TieThe Mira Costa Mustangs clashed with St. John Bosco in the Los Angeles Conference of the SoCal Varsity White division with 2nd place at stake.
Dana Hills, HTH Winning in SoCal V White
Dana Hills and High Tech High/Pt. Loma remain atop the Los Angeles and San Diego conferences, respectively, in the Southern California Varsity White division after both teams won big this weekend.
Dana Hills moved to 5-0 after beating a shorthanded Stern MASS team. This game might end up being a forfeit, as it was played 12-on-12. The teams were tied at halftime but Dana Hills exploded for seven tries in the second half. Jaxon Breckenridge was player of the game, leading the team in tackles and meters gained, while Anton Gregoriou paced the team with two tries and six conversions for 22 points. Derek Dixon, Calvin Brannon, Jacob Paxton, Sam Elliott, Mark Stapley, Christian Cortez, and Jordan Pouchie all scored for Dana Hills.
USA Rugby Rebuts GRR ArticleUSA Rugby Youth & HS Director Kurt Weaver spoke with Goff Rugby Report to rebut assertions in the article we published here about the High School Boys Issue of 2014. The article said that USA Rugby was backing away from high school rugby (as evidenced by the lack of a national championship, and the fact that Regional All-Star Tournaments were developed at a grassroots level, and supported minimally), and in addition, the article asserted that some in the game are unhappy with the execution of a welcome move by USA Rugby - to create a Varsity membership track that charged a $250 flat fee for varsity programs.
HS All-Star Host Bid Due SoonUSA Rugby is operating a bid process for the age-grade Regional All-Star Tournaments. In previous years RASTs have been run by State-Based Rugby Organizations or local organizers. These tournaments sprung up initially in Colorado and the DC area, and more started in the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest. But now USA Rugby is having a hand in deciding who hosts the tournaments, and who might be able to host new ones. Organizers have had to present bid proposals to USA Rugby, and the deadline for those proposals is Saturday, January 10. USA Rugby is expected to announce the host venues for the RASTs on January 20.
SoCal Varsity Red Starts Spring to League TitleIt’s finally business time for all of the teams in the Southern California Varsity Red Division. All of the teams in this fully-single-school group play in the San Diego California Interscholastic Federation region. They don’t all play each other in every sport, but every school in the league is a San Diego CIF school. League organizers hope they can start to get rugby into the CIF system by playing in this conference. Currently Cathedral Catholic is in the strongest position, having defeated a tough Fallbrook team in December. Cathedral faces Del Norte, still a bit of an unknown quantity as they haven’t played a league game yet, But Del Norte did defeat St.
Four Teams Achieve Varsity StatusUSA Rugby’s Varsity High School status has been awarded to four programs so far, with another six having officially applied. According to USA Rugby’s head of youth and high school, Kurt Weaver, the new program, which allows a fully-varsity high school team to register all of its players for a flat fee of $250, is supposed to be promoted by the State-Based Rugby Organizations.
