Strake Jesuit Opens Season With Two Wins
Strake Jesuit began its season with two wins over the weekend, beating Katy and Lamar to start the season 2-0.
Both efforts were impressive in their own right, with Strake dismissing Lamar 42-10 on Saturday after taking on a Katy team that is a frequent visitor to Goff Rugby Report's HS rankings.
Up front Strake got a big game from No. 8 Joey Garcia, who got involved all over the field, set up a try, and, said Head Coach Jason Kimball, was "the most active player on the pitch."
Still Tight In Florida; Wolverines Win Big
It remains very tight in Florida's high school league after this week's action.
Key Biscayne got a bit of a surprise at Wellington. Cardinal Gibbons stepped into the fray. (We had Gibbons winning their opener but that was an error based on reporting from other sources—Okapi won that game 28-10). And Jacksonville returned to winning ways.
Key Biscayne's 25-19 loss at Wellington showed that Wellington's two competitive losses were actually a reflection of their potential. Key Biscayne had a chance to maybe take sole possession of 1st in the league, but Wellington started far better in the game. They managed to neutralize the Rats' game plan. In the second half, Key Biscayne mounted a comeback, but despite their best efforts and a very strong game from No.8 Santiago Cortabarria, they fell short.
Tempe Wins Second of the Weekend
Tempe made it two wins this weekend with a 19-12 defeat of South Orange County, a Southern California team coming in for a visit.
Ashton Liddell was named the player of the game with Alani Maafu having a strong game in the forwards and Aki Pulu once again dangerous in the backs.
It was an intense, relatively defensive-minded game, Tempe showed that it had the patience to handle a lower-scoring game.
On Thursday, Tempe beat Arizona rivals Glendale 62-0. Pulu and Maafu were once again excellent, while Tau Pauga, Ashton Liddell, Eli Palmer, and Luke Schafer all looked good not only in attack but on defense.
High School Rugby This Weekend; The Sunny States Fire Up
Boys high school rugby is slowly getting into gear, and while March will see a larger number of teams ramp it up, we do have some games to look at this weekend.
Louisiana And Texas
Lake Travis out of Austin, Texas arrives in Louisiana for two touring games. See more here Lake Travis HS Travels To Louisiana For Two
This weekend will go a long way to telling us where Lake Travis, Jesuit New Orleans, and Brother Martin are in the pecking order.
Meanwhile, Dallas Jesuit, just off a nifty little win over Allen, will take on Plano in Big D. Also in action is a very useful Katy Barbarians team that hosts Strake Jesuit, and with a clash between the North texas Barbarians and Alliance will quite possible tell us which of those clubs has recruited well for 2021.
Lake Travis HS Travels To Louisiana For Two
Austin, Texas high school team Lake Travis will kick it all off this weekend with a trip to Louisiana to take on New Orleans Jesuit and Brother Martin.
For Lake Travis this will be a new start after last year's abbreviated season that was made all the more frustrating because they felt they had a very strong team.
"I think last year we could have gone all the way," said Head Coach Rick Medina, referring to the Rugby Texas state championship. Instead, of course, LT had to step to the sidelines because of the COVID-19 pandemic just like everyone else. The Lake Travis seniors graduated and moved on, and a younger team with more questions to answer suits up in 2021.
Two Notable Additions To CIRA
The Colorado Interscholastic Rugby Association, the new league of school- and school-district-supported high school teams in the Centennial State, has added two new schools and four new teams.
Central High School in Grand Junction, Colo. will bring a boys team and girls team to the league, and so will Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch.
Colorado Interscholastic League Schedule Coming Together
The new Colorado Interscholastic Rugby Association has confirmed the framework of its first season.
Girls Rugby will begin earlier than boys rugby. The league will play 7s and the season will start with preseason scrimmages on March 20. It's possible that not all programs will be ready to roll on March 20, but they will begin getting ready to play a series of fixtures through the weeks of April.
HS Programs In Colorado Form New Independent Interscholastic League
The league will modify the format of how teams play each other to avoid groupings of multiple teams so that the league won't run counter to local COVID restrictions.
Rats Start Fast In Key Biscayne
Florida's HS league has started well for the Key Biscayne Rats.
After a couple of inconsistent years, the Rats have enjoyed a numbers surge and also are beginning to reap the benefits of a solid youth program. Despite some rainy conditions in the Sunshine State, Key Biscayne has poured on some good rugby, beating Boca Raton 48-19 and edging out the Cape Pirates 10-0.
"We have a very good attitude from the boys as a whole, specially our forwards," said Head Coach Javier Casserly. With the rain making it difficult to play wide, the Rats have worked hard on just not making handling errors, and that has been the key. That's what Casserly means by a good attitude—the players haven't tried to pop the champagne cork when the cork will just hit them in the eye.
Returning to Play In High School; Who Is and Who Isn't
What's the status of high school rugby around the country? We're here to give you an answer.
Every state rugby organization has different issues to deal with. Some states have had a rougher time with COVID than others. Some have had more data-drive responses than others.
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Dallas Jesuit Punishes Turnovers In Texas Opener
the snow and cold is leaving Texas and high school rugby is coming back, and this weekend Dallas Jesuit and Allen opened up their seasons with a spirited clash in Big D.
Dallas Jesuit won the game 31-14, but the run of play was much closer than that. Allen controlled large swaths of the game and put Jesuit under plenty of pressure. But they made critical errors that led to Jesuit tries. The first was a 50-50 pass that was nabbed by flyhalf Sy Mendenhall, who showed some pace in taking the ball in from about 30 meters.
Tempe Soars In Opener In Arizona
Rugby Arizona's league season is on the horizon, but Tempe is already on the move and looking strong with numbers through their high school and youth programs.
Saturday, Tempe beat Phoenix convincingly as they look to a very busy next two weeks. Following Saturday's win, Tempe will take on three teams over next weekend, and three more teams over the following weekend. The slate includes two teams from Southern California—teams eager to find a place to play.
Bolstered by some players who have suited up for Eagle Impact Rugby Academy, such as Alani Maafu, Tao Pauga, Nate Leff, Aki Pulu, Ata Tuetope, Eli Palmer, Diego Echavarria, Ashton Liddell, and Luke Schaefer, Tempe can look to all number of athletes to perform on any game.
Florida HS League Underway And Tight At The Top
Florida's High School season is underway and with everyone making the playoffs this is a chance for every team to work out the kinks and figure out where they are.
No one's perfect, but that means this is a competitive league.
Florida HS rugby has had its difficulties, especially with the fact that the league is made up mostly of HS clubs, not varsity teams. Recruitment for club teams is a big job in the pre-season, but not knowing when the season would start made that difficult.
Some teams merged or dropped out, but overall the league has started well enough. Jacksonville, Boca, Key Biscayne, Okapi, and Naples have all started well.
Saturday, Boca rebounded from a loss to Key Biscayne to beat a previously 2-0 Jacksonville 27-7. A relatively young Jacksonville team struggled to execute its game plan.
Youth And HS Championships NIT Models Make Sense. Time To Apply
The model of making championship tournaments invitationals seems to have worked, and in this difficult pandemic time, more competitions are looking at the model as a new option, or at least a short-term solution to a difficult problem.
It's the national high school events that have fully embraced the invitational model, and there's a reason. Essentially, the way things used to be run, you had to go through a qualification process to get to the old HS nationals held through 2011. That meant you needed to get your qualifiers about two weeks before nationals so you could get flights and hotels. That meant you needed your playoff process to start maybe two or three weeks before that.
Six HS Teams Bring Rugby Back at Bi-Coastal Tourney
After 11 months of no rugby or perhaps only modified 7s, rugby union at the high school level is making its return in the Carolinas.
Following host state health rules and relying on private insurance, several teams met up for a big preseason weekend of 15s rugby in Rock Hill, South Carolina over President's Day Weekend.
