Rocky Mountain Challenge Scores
Latest scores from the 2016 Rocky Mountain Challenge Regional Cup Tournament.
We will be updating as the weekend progresses.
South RCT Scores
Scores from the South Regional Cup Tournament June 17-19.
Rosters for Boys are here. Rosters for Girls teams are here.
Scores will be updated.
Northeast RCT Scores
Here are the scores from the Northeast Regional Cup Tournament - we will be updating through the weekend.
Girls rosters are here. Boys rosters are here.
South RCT Day One Wrap
Friday night saw the start of the South Regional Cup Tournament all-star event in Matthews, NC, with eight Boys Varsity and eight Boys JV teams in action.
In the Varsity bracket, the most impressive result was probably North Carolina taking Maryland down 45-7.
Head Coach Frank McKinney chalked it all up to a dedication to defense - his statement backed up by not only his Varsity score, but the NC JV team’s 34-0 shutout of the Eastern NC Predators.
“We really work on our defense and turning over the ball,” said McKinney. “We spent a lot of time working on that and working on jackalling the ball.”
Virginia, Maryland Warm Up Before RCTs
Boys HS select teams from Virginia and Maryland met last week on the campus of Mount Saint Mary's in warmup games leading up to the South Regional Cup Tournament.
Virginia, which won the U17 bracket at the 2015 RCT in Pittsburgh, was looking to maintain the team's strong tournament form from last year at the U17 level to championship form this year at the U19 level. Second, would the new Virginia U17s be able to pick up where last year's team left off.
Maryland had some work to do to handle Virginia's pace.
South RCT Rosters - Preview
Here are the rosters we have so far for the South Regional Cup Tournament in Matthews, NC.
While the tournament itself has possession of all the rosters, the rule is that coaches have to consent to those rosters being sent to the press. As a result, we have spent much of this week asking coaches to submit rosters. Not everyone has - We are waiting on South Carolina, ARE Academy, Florida Juice, and Maryland. We will have those to you as soon as possible.
Northeast RCT Boys Rosters
Here are most of the Boys all-star rosters for the Northeast Regional Cup Tournament.
The event includes seven boys varsity teams and eight boys JV teams.
In the Varsity bracket, Greenwich is an intriguing team. Usually made up mostly of Greenwich HS players, the Greenwich select side has done very well in RCTs previously. But this team is a different kettle of fish in that almost half the team is made up of the Fairfield club, which beat Greenwich this year and won the Connecticut state title. Combined with a couple of players from Xavier and one from Fairfield Prep, they will be a formidable group.
Rocky Mountain Challenge Schedule
Here is the schedule of the 2016 Rocky Mountain Challenge Regional Cup Tournament.
The Boys Varsity competition has 15 teams, with three pools of four teams and one pool of three. So the way it works is teams in Pools A, B, and D play an opening game that puts them into either the final for their pool, or the consolation final for their pool. Hence each team plays just two pool games. In Pool C, all three teams - Colorado, New Mexico, and Heart of America - play each other.
The Girls Varsity bracket is five teams, who play in a round-robin.
Boys JV is four pools of three teams, so two pool games and then semis and finals. Girls JV has two teams, and Boys Middle School three.
Fairfax Police Win Virginia DII
The Fairfax Police Youth rugby team repeated as Rugby Virginia DII champions this spring, beating Western Loudoun 29-7 in the final.
Fairfax was led by Woodson HS football standout Daniel Trump, who played flanker for the rugby team and was hugely influential on the field.
The Jaguars were unbeaten in the regular season and also beat three DI teams in the tournament at Mount St. Mary's.
It was the second-straight win for Fairfax - Western Loudoun won in 2014 - and Coach Frederic Bardot said the team expected to have staying power even as some key players graduate. Several 9th-graders from the team will be playing for the Rugby Virginia JV team in the South RCT.
RCT - Northeast Schedule
The Northeast Regional Cup Tournament is slated for this weekend in Albany, NY.
Six Girls Varsity teams are slated to compete - New Jersey, Connecticut, Western NY, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and a team made up of players from New York's Capital Area, Vermont, and Maryland.
Eight Boys Varsity teams are on the schedule: Pennsylvania, Western NY / Capital Area, Greenwich (Conn.), Amoskeag (NH), New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Met NY.
As reported earlier on Goff Rugby Report, some Girls JV brackets have suffered due to age limits imposed by USA Rugby's Youth & HS Committee. The Northeast has suffered significantly because of that issue, with only Rugby Pennsylvania, Empire Rugby, and a Northeast Combined team able to field teams.
RCT - South Schedule
The schedule for the South Regional Cup Tournament at the Matthews SportsPlex in Matthews, NC has been released.
The tournament will cover three days, one more than what other RCTs cover. But the tournament will also five brackets - Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, JV Boys, JV Girls, and Middle School boys.
Boys Varsity Teams:
Tennessee, Georgia, Celtic Elite (Ohio), ARE (Fla.), Florida Juice, South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia 1, North Indiana Hawks, Louisiana, Virginia 2, Arkansas
Terrors Cap Dominant Season in Colorado
Several states run a division 2 boys HS championship, but few could point to a winner as dominant as the Palmer HS Terrors in Colorado.
The Colorado Springs-based team really only played one close game - the state final against Monarch - but aside from that they hardly seemed tested. In nine league games in the Colorado DII North, the Terrors were 9-0, scoring an average of 52 points and allowing an average over just under 4. The Terrors also beat Monarch, who went 7-0 in DII North league play, 46-12 in a non-conference game that was basically a JV game.
Black and Blue Wins Montana
Flathead Valley's Black and Blue team defeated the Mud Dogs of Missoula 19-12 this past weekend to win the Montana Youth Rugby Boys HS championships.
The Black and Blue ended the season 8-0-1, and held on in a tough, physical match.
Payton Boyce scored three tries for Black and Blue and was named player of the game.
Boys Teams Rocky Mountain Challenge
The Rocky Mountain Challenge, one of the oldest HS all-star tournaments around, if not the oldest, is set for another big year.
One of the five Regional Cup all-star tournaments, the event is as big as ever, featuring 16 boys varsity teams, and 12 boys JV teams.
Most of the teams involved are state-based rugby organization teams. but some are not. The Rhino Rugby Academy draws players from throughout California. The team 5785 is a group drawing mostly from Colorado Springs and Boulder - the name is the average elevation of the region. A central part of this team is the Palmer HS Terrors and the Monarch HS team, who were the top two in Rugby Colorado's DII league.
Togetherness Fuels Rio Rancho NM State Title
They make no apologies in the high desert.
Out there in the state too many think is actually another country, out there where high school rugby has worked hard, scratching at the sandstone to get a foothold, there is, indeed, rugby for kids.
So it was in May that the Rio Rancho Rebels defeated the La Cueva Bears 22-17 to win the New Mexico Boys HS championship game.
For the Rebels, it was a massive step forward, beating the 2015 winners to take the title. It was actually a very competitive league this year, with three teams finishing 4-1. Rio Rancho beat La Cueva 20-17 on March 19, but were upended by the Albuquerque Eagles a month late. The Eagles, however, had let slip a 22-20 decision to the Albuquerque Dukes in early March. For their part, the Dukes also went 4-1, losing to La Cueva 29-12 on April 23.
