Indiana Names Boys All-State Teams
Rugby Indiana has announced their all-state players in Boys Super League, DI, and DII.
This is the pool of players expected to compete for places on the select sides in this month's all-star tournaments. Rugby Indiana will field three teams in the Boys Varsity bracket of the June 14 Midwest All-Star Challenge. In addition, they will put two teams in the JV bracket, and two teams in the Girls Bracket, and teams in the brackets for girls 7th-8th-graders, and boys 5th-6th-graders.
2014 Rugby Indiana 2014 Rugby Indiana
All-State Team All-State Team
NorCal Youth 7s Series Kicks Off
The Northern California Youth 7s series kicks off this weekend with 65 teams converging on Hall Park in Dixon, Calif.
The tournament will be broken up nto nine brackets: U10, U12, Boys Varsity Gold, Boys Varsity Silver, Boys JV Gold, Boys JV Silver, Girls Varsity Gold, Girls Varsity Silver, and U23 men.
Mark Carney, Executive Director for NorCal Youth, said this will be a record number of teams for the series.
"Last year we had one with 58 teams, so this should be higher," he said. "High school and youth teams are really getting excited about 7s. I think it's a combination of the game being on TV more, the increased talk about the Olympics, and the fact that 7s is a great recruiting tool."
Florida Boys Prepare for Tourneys
Florida Youth Rugby has named its training squad for its boys HS All-Star team to play in the Pittsburgh Regional All-Star Tournament, and the South Regional All-Star Tournament.
The Florida Juice will send both a Varsity and JV team to Pittsburgh, and a single Varsity team to the South RASP, to be held at Life University in Marietta, Ga.
Coaches are expected to make their final selections this coming weekend.
Gonzaga Climbs the Mountain
At the beginning of the 2014 high school season, the Gonzaga coaching staff decided to give the season a theme, emulating a habit of the successful Canterbury Crusaders team in New Zealand, and the coaches chose the conguering of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
HS Boys State Champions So Far
Here is a list of Boys state champions. We will be adding to this as time goes on.
Fort Hunt Boys Win Virginia
The Fort Hunt Warriors U19 team capped an unprecedented undefeated run through Virginia high school rugby with a 30-7 win over West End to lay claim to the Virginia State Championship.
Fort Hunt's Tom Brunt was MVP of the game and opened the scoring with a penalty, before prop Austin LaGow bulled over for the first try of the game. The Warriors went into the half with an 8-0 lead.
The Warriors got gritty when they needed it, putting in 4 second-half tries. The first 2 of those tries were shorthanded, by Anthony Wright and Josh Ransom. West End’s Tony Arias made it 18-7, before Brunt notched a pair of tries and one conversion to make the final tally 30-7. The win capped an undefeated season and gave Ft. Hunt its second state title in three years.
Utah Lions Class of HSRC in Philly
The Utah Lions swept all six games at the High School Rugby Challenge competition held during the Collegiate Rugby Championship 7s in Philadelphia this past weekend, beating Malvern Prep 26-0 in the final to cap off a superb run of 12 wins in 2014.
The Lions are an invitational academy squad begun by Michael Cressler in Utah. The players are hand-picked from mostly the Salt Lake City area (to ensure players can travel to practices). They are chosen for their rugby ability and also for their character.
"Team chemistry is more important than skills on the field," said Cressler.
Xavier Wins NY Boys FinalXavier HS of New York City fell behind early but stormed back to defeat Buffalo's Kenmore 25-8 in the sinfal of the Rugby New York state boys HS final.
In the 3rd/4th game, Fordham Prep of NYC and Fairport of Rochester tied 25-25, after overtime didn't settle things. On penalty kicks, Fordham took 3rd.
In Tier II, The Harvey School of New York City defeated Hamburg of the Buffalo area 50-31 to win the final, while Syracuse beat Saratoga 27-5 for 3rd.
On Saturday, May 31, the preliminary round results were as follows:
Xavier 55 Fairport 13
Kenmore 27 Fordham Prep 19
Tier II
Hamburg 43 Saratoga 12
Harvey School 51 Syracuse 10
Xavier HS of New York City fell behind early but stormed back to defeat Buffalo's Kenmore 25-8 in the sinfal of the Rugby New York state boys HS final.
In the 3rd/4th game, Fordham Prep of NYC and Fairport of Rochester tied 25-25, after overtime didn't settle things. On penalty kicks, Fordham took 3rd.
In Tier II, The Harvey School of New York City defeated Hamburg of the Buffalo area 50-31 to win the final, while Syracuse beat Saratoga 27-5 for 3rd.
On Saturday, May 31, the preliminary round results were as follows:
Xavier 55 Fairport 13
Kenmore 27 Fordham Prep 19
Tier II
Hamburg 43 Saratoga 12
Harvey School 51 Syracuse 10
Maryland Exiles Win State
The Maryland Exiles had defeated North Bay 39-15 the win their fourth-straight Maryland State Boys HS Championship. The Maryland Exiles had won the league match against North Bay 22-7, but this was a new North Bay squad that was fresh off their tour to Ireland and eager to demonstrate the lessons that they had learned there.
Played under beautiful skies on fast grass at Warner’s Rugby Farm, the game promised to be exciting with two good sides competing.
So. Pines Wins 1st NC 7s TourneyHigh School 7s talent that was on display this past weekend at Sandhills Community College in North Carolina, where Southern Pines, Hoke County and North Raleigh squared off in the first round robin tournament of the year.
Southern Pines Gators and Hoke County Rhinos started the day in a close battle where both teams sought to get their legs and wits about them. The Gators dominated possession in the first half, but only managed a lone try by Gus Williams (So. Pinecrest) before Hoke tied it up at the halftime time whistle. Hoke County took the lead right after the kickoff, 10-5, but Ian Delisle (Sr. Pinecrest) tied it up and Nathan Philips (Sr. Pinecrest) put in a final try for the 15-10 win.
Mountain View Wins Idaho
Mountain View defeated Nakahi 40-33 to win the Rugby Idaho boys HS final Saturday, coming back from a 28-7 deficit.
Nakahi struck first with a dominant set of phase play right up the gut of the Mountain View defense. The try was easily converted, putting Nakahi up front early putting them in a familiar position with high confidence. Mountain View answered this deficit, with several phases of heavy footed forward ball, by scoring their own heavily contested try. With a tied match at 7-7 at the 12th minute it seemed anyone's game.
The next 13 minutes swung heavily to Nakahi’s favor. Dominant back play and ball handling by Nakahi suggested that the Mountain View Defense had come undone, resulting in 3 unanswered and converted tries putting Nakahi up 28-7.
HS Boys All-Star Tournaments
June 14-15
Midwest All-Star Tournament
Elkhart, Ind.
June 14-16
Rocky Mountain Challenge
Aurora, Colo.
June 21-22
Great Northwest Challenge
Portland, Ore.
South Regional All-Star Tournament
Marietta, Ga.
East Regional All-Star Tournament
Pittsburgh, Pa.
June 28-29
New England Challenge Cup
Devens, Mass.
Cumberland Valley and West Shore Win Pa Boys
Mechanicsburg, PA- The 2014 Rugby Pennsylvania State Championships took place this past weekend at Cumberland Valley High School with West Shore United and Cumberland Valley taking home the top honors in the High School Boys brackets.
West Shore United took home the High School Club title while Cumberland Valley took home the single school championship. The two neighboring clubs are located about fifteen minutes away from each other in Central Pennsylvania just west of Harrisburg.
