HS Scores Jan 12-14 2023
Southern California heats up a little more even as the rains come.
The Storer Classic has moved to the UCLA Intramural fields to keep their tournament going (those fields are turf). This is a good opening for some highly-regarded teams—Danville, Thunder, SOC Raptors, Belmont Shore, Olympus—and we're going to get an idea of where Santa Monica and Mother Lode sit, and the new Orange Lutheran team.
It's a preseason tournament, to be sure, and the games are shortened, but they still give a good indication how the season might go.
Some other teams in SoCal are kicking off the regular school season, including new team Loyola HS.
Loyola HS LA Starts Rugby Program, Hires Cristian Rodriguez as Coach
New Blood Fires Up NC League
The chase to the top in North Carolina's school season is a tight one with Hough, South Meck, Laney HS, and Marvin Ridge all unbeaten.
Yes, yes, South Meck has a tie, but they didn't lose. Right behind that four is Charlotte Catholic at 2-1-1.
While some of these teams are pretty well established, one of the new kids in town is Marvin Ridge.
The Marvin Ridge team got going thanks to a Middle School program launched in 2020. Alan Mitchell ran that team, seeing it win the state championship and triple in roster size.
Next Phase Rugby and The Athlete Collective Enter Partnership
Next Phase Rugby and The Athlete Collective have announced that they have officially entered into a partnership.
Through this partnership, all Next Phase Rugby athletes will receive discounted services for “High Performance Programming & Coaching that Helps Athletes Build a Solid Foundation of Strength, Power, Speed and Conditioning FOR Rugby.”
Next Phase Rugby is an online platform that connects college rugby programs with high school rugby players. Launched in 2021, Next Phase Rugby has quickly become the largest online rugby recruiting platform in the country with thousands of high school players from the USA and abroad.
The college database includes hundreds of men’s and women’s teams across all collegiate divisions and is endorsed by Goff Rugby Report.
Three Stay Unbeaten in SCIRF League
St. Augustine, Cathedral Catholic, and Fallbrook are all atop the SCIRF league now after all three won over the weekend.
Led by a solid effort from prop Gabe Mendoza and with fullback George Aquilar showing plenty of skill, Fallbrook beat Warren HS 57-12 to move to 3-0 in the league, which is the best record because the other two teams have only played twice.
That scoreline was impressive, but Warren can take solace in being the first team to score twice against Fallbrook.
Cathedral moved on to 2-0 with a convincing 56-7 victory over Mira Costa. It was an impressive showing for Cathedral as Mira Costa had started 2-0. While Mira Costa Head Coach Duke Dulgarian had been realistic about his team's start—he was happy but recognized the top contenders still awaited—the result was also an indication of Cathedral's strength.
North Carolina Update: Unbeatens Stay Unbeaten
Laney HS improved to 3-0 and South Mecklenburg improved to 3-0-1 in North Carolina school action over the weekend, and both are chasing Hough, which also won.
Both Laney and South Meck expected close games and both got them. Hough, meanwhile, won relatively comfortably over Clover HS, as expected, to improve to 4-0.
South Meck held off Myers Park 15-7. It was a high-contact game at the Matthews Sportsplex. Myers Park looked to punch through South Meck on the interior channels, but the South Meck defense held for much of the game.
Meanwhile, South Meck looked to stretch the Myers Park defense and play wide.
In the end Myers Park managed to bust through once, in the second half. South Meck scored three times to win 15-7 and stay unbeaten.
Two Conferences Lead HS Action into January
Well, well ... here we are; the high school season is well and truly engaged with 10 Boys HS games this week and more to come.
The SCIRF in Southern California and the School season in North Carolina are ongoing. In a week the SoCal Youth Rugby kicks off with their school-oriented season (before, like North Carolina, they switch to club), and a week after that Florida gets going.
We had a look at who is atop North Carolina earlier this week.
North Carolina School League Already into Key Matchups
And before that we checked in on SCIRF.
North Carolina School League Already into Key Matchups
After the Winter Break the North Carolina school league comes back with six games this weekend.
Hough HS leads the way with a 3-0 record, but they don't dominate. South Meck sits at 2-0-1, bounding back from that opening tie with Charlotte Catholic to beat Langtree Academy and Ardrey Kell in emphatic fashion. Meanwhile, newer teams Marvin Ridge and Laney HS are now 2-0, giving the league a nice shakeup.
"I really did not know what to expect this year," said Laney HS Head Coach Jim Wiseman, who also coaches the Cape Fear HS Club which had a strong showing last year and earned a #36 ranking in GRR's Top 50.
That team was made up almost entirely of players from Laney HS, which seemed to bode well for this fall's school team, except that 13 Cape Fear starters graduated in the spring.
Time to Apply to Boys HS National Championships
The applications for the Boys HS National Championships is now open.
The HSNC will be held in Elkhart, Ind. Thursday, May 25 through Saturday, May 27, 2023. The move to the Memorial Day Weekend was made in consultation with HS coaches due to a regional conflict with graduation weekend at the University of Notre Dame.
As has been the case in the past several years, teams apply to participate based on their record over the course of several seasons. Sometimes, when there are several worthy candidates from a specific area, they may be asked to play-off to decide a spot. Usually those games are already scheduled in the calendar.
The purpose of the application process is to ensure teams have the financial and organizational resources to attend, and also to give teams time to plan and fundraise when they are selected.
Big Weekend at NAI 7s for Rebel Rugby Academy
This past weekend was a nice, big step forward for Rebel Rugby Academy as their three teams all brought home hardware.
The U18 Elite Boys team won their NAI 7s championship. Rebel Rugby Wins NAI 7s U18 Elite. The U18 Open team took home the Plate, losing just one game, to eventual finalists Kansas City Jr. Blues. And the U16s won their championship.
"It was fantastic to see the hard work from the staff and the players pay off," said program director Ethan Pougnet, "We've been finding more competition for the players; we've been going to Bloodfest for the past couple of years and Tropical 7s. We've had our U16s play up with U18s and go toe-to-toe with them."
More Close Games On Day 2 of HS Club Nationals
The word after Day One in the HS Club at the Boys HS Nationals was actually two words: “close” and “posts.”
The games were all close on Thursday, and the lesson, especially from the SOC Raptors vs Granite Bay game was, go for posts when you can—the winner has the most points, not the most tries.
Well, as one SOC player said, “lesson learned.”
Going for posts had its influence in the games on Day Two.
SOC Raptors vs United
The Raptors played a much more patient game against a free-flying United team that his hard. The Raptors used the wind better, and when the points were on offer, they took them. They kicked for posts three times and those nine points were the difference in a 26-19 victory.
Almost 100 Age-Grade Men in Camp with USA Rugby
For the first time since 2019, USA Rugby High Performance Pathways will host its annual Winter Camp, bringing 97 men’s players to the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Chula Vista, CA from December 27 to January 2.
Winter Camp 2021 will invite some of the best U18, U20 and U23 male athletes to train and compete across the week under the guidance of a robust roster of high performance staff. The annual assembly typically serves as a primary touchpoint for players within the Junior National Team pipeline, increasing development and scouting opportunities for senior national teams going into the new year.
Advocate for Sports Even With Omicron Out There
When we wrote a recent article about guarding against knee-jerk shutdowns we received a lot of support from professionals who are involved with at-risk kids, but we didn't expect to have to address this topic again so quickly.
Don't Let Them Shut Kids Up Again
Our message in the previous article was essentially, when there's a problem like the COVID pandemic again, don't let them shut kids indoors away from their activities and their social circle. Don't let it happen again. A few weeks later there's a chance it happens again.
Rugby X Keeps Building in Illinois
YORKVILLE, Ill. – Week 2 of the Rugby Illinois RugbyX series saw across the board improvement which in turn provided greater parity. Score lines were much tighter as team play improved dramatically. Players’ stamina went further and fewer runaway trys were being scored against exhausted opposition.
Greer City Christmas 7s a Big Success, Crowns 4 Champs from 4 States
The Greer City Christmas 7s proved a very successful event with four brackets of 7s from Boys JV up to men's college.
The City of Greeg, SC sponsored and supported this event as a way to grow recreation within the city and get more visitors to the area. It worked superbly.
"This was an outstanding tournament at a great facility in Greer," said Pendleton (Ind.) HS coach Curt Trout, whose team lose in the final. "It was a blast."
Clemson University won the men's collegiate bracket, with Ratpor Rugby out of Tennessee taking the Boys Varsity title.
The Raleigh Redhawks (NC) won the Girls Varsity bracket, and Atlanta Youth Rugby took the Boys JV, making for four champions from four different states.
Already Greer is planning the 2022 event.
Illinois HS Players Get Back into the Swing with RugbyX Series
In Illinois a new approach to getting young players back to the game after the COVID shutdowns is kicking off this month.
Around a year ago, volunteers across the levels of Illinois grassroots rugby began meeting for weekly informal brainstorming sessions and one idea that came out of those sessions was a high school Rugby X series. This series would be indoor 5-v-5 games designed to get players playing before the 15s season starts.
