Rakavii Summer Camp offer Development, College Showcase
The Rakavii summer rugby ID camp and collegiate expo is set for August 2-6.
The camp will be held in Elma, NY at Sahlen's Sports Park just outside Buffalo, NY. Led by Rakavii Director of Performance, former Eagle and current Head Coach of St. Bonaventure University Men's Rugby Tui Osborne, the camp not only provides intense and high-level instruction for young rugby players and develop them as people, but also provide talent scouting opportunities for colleges.
Yale, Colby-Sawyer, SUNY Brockport, University at Buffalo, St. Bonaventure, and Adrian College are among the colleges that will be in attendance.
The cost to attend as a player is $256.25. That covers a five-day camp for players (boys and girls) aged 14-17.
NAI 7s Set to Kick Off with Over 100 Teams
The NAI 7s is set for this coming week in Salt Lake City with 75 men's and boys' teams, and 44 girls teams in eight brackets.
This tournament, having taken 2020 off because of COVID, is back with a vengeance even with the Canadian teams unable to come.
Here's a look at the brackets, with the schedule below:
Final HS Club Rankings 2021
So we're spent some time looking closely at our rankings to finish off the HS Club season, and we haven't made many changes.
We did take a second look at the balance between Berks and Fairfield, two teams that were very close in a number of results and performances. We also bumped up Liberty after they finished their season undefeated. Other than that, this is where it finishes up. Going forward, we've got a big question to look at with regard to big clubs—some think that clubs that draw from a large group of high schools are different than clubs that draw from smaller areas. It's a very involved debate ... maybe for another time. But keep it in mind when 2022 rolls around.
Fairfield Wins Third Straight 7s Tournament of the Summer
Fairfield Pegasi won their third straight summer 7s tournament, capping off a 15-game undefeated streak with a win at the New Haven 7s.
Fairfield brought in a deep squad to their final tournament of the summer season, with players from every grade level.
They started off the day with a 27-7 win against Midstate rugby, getting tries from Kevin Kirkland, Griffen O' Connell, Lucas Mayer, Anthony Desautels, and Vncernt Desautels. Fairfield built on that with a 42-0 shutout of Danbury—Josh Pastore, Jeff Andintori, Rowan Sierra, Matt Ryan, Kevin Splan, and Aidan Burns all touched down in that game.
Final Boys HS Single-School Rankings for 2021
We waited a while to post our final GRR HS rankings because of some late playoffs, and then just making absolutely sure we were happy with what we had.
Not a lot has changed, but we tweaked a few things, mostly in the 35-50 range. And we brought on one new team with East HS out of Colorado, who had been in the rankings much, much earlier, back after winning the Rugby Colorado final. We will acknowledge that this was a tough year to do the rankings because COVID restricted travel, shortened seasons, and even changed the rules for some teams. We expect the seasons to be a little more like they were before.
Berks County Rugby Wins Surfside 7s Championship
Berks County Rugby has won the High School Men's Elite Division of the Surfside 7s Tournament held at Stone Harbor, NJ on Saturday.
The 12 teams competing in the high school men's elite division at Surfside 7s were: Berks County HS Rugby, Shanahan RFC, PWRFC, St. Augustine Prep, Mystic River U-19, Minutemen, MD15, St. Joe's Prep, Explorers, Media Rugby, Coventry Wildcats, and West Shore United. In pool play, Berks first took on MD15 out of Pennsylvania and came away with a 19-0 win. Next up was Bishop Shanahan, also out of Pennsylvania, and Berks won that match 28-5.
The put Berks in the semis against Pennsylvania-based Coventry Wildcats, and in a closer encounter Berks won 17-12.
Over 150 Players at EIRA Camp
Over 150 high school rugby players spent last week in Elkhart, Ind. in a development camp and series of games with Eagle Impact Rugby Academy.
The event was held at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, a facility run by Penn HS Head Coach Bart Bottorff and one he has worked tirelessly to oversee. The players continually went up to Bottorff to thank him for his work, and those attending noted how he did extra things like cutting the grass and relining the fields during the mid-day break so the fields were always in top playing condition.
"I always say if you find a weed here I'll eat it," said Bottorff, and indeed the three fields were all grass.
"Coming from Arizona where it's all dirt, this is beautiful, blankets of grass, wide open spaces," said Ioan Diamara.
MLR Teams Run U19 Series
The New England Free Jacks and DC Old Glory MLR teams ran out their academy teams against each other this past weekend.
Both teams are running Girls U19 as well as Boys U19 programs.
The Free Jacks teams (dubbed the Junior Jacks) won both games. The Junior Jacks Girls beat DC 19-7, while the Junior Jacks Boys won 23-17
"We are really happy with the combination of Free Jacks players coaching and imparting their IP combined with the brilliant local coaches who are experienced and understand the demographic," said Free Jacks Performance Manager Tom Kindley. "For a couple of teams quickly pulled together, they did themselves and the New England Free Jacks proud and we look forward to building out more concrete dates and team infrastructure to support their development and our pathways."
Albert Lea Wins Minnesota HS 7s Opener
Minnesota Youth Rugby kicked off its summer 7s season with a special guest getting involved.
The Kansas City Junior Blues made the trip up to Minnesota to become the sixth team in the tournament.
Teams were split up into two pools of three. The Junior Blues beat both Eagan and South River to win their pool, while Albert Lea shut out Hopkins and edged Minnetonka to win their pool.
Albert Lea got by Eagan by a conversion in the semis while KC just got by Minnetonka 19-12.
That set up the final which Albert Lea took 31-12.
Albert Lea got big performances from Tyler Barney, Derek McMillan, Griffin Studier, Nathan Bain, and Tucker Eriksmoen in what was an impressive team effort from the Freeborn Eagles. Albert Lea played without the team's two fastest players, who were both nursing shoulder injuries.
Valley, Eastside Start Quickly in Rugby Oregon Boys Summer 7s
Summer 7s is back in Oregon and the Valley Rams and Eastside Tsunami have started strong.
Both teams went through the opening tournament of the summer 3-0, with Valley edging Three Rivers 24-21, beating Clark County 26-12, and hammering Lincoln HS 45-7.
Eastside Three Rivers 22-12, Reynolds HS 10-5, and Lincoln HS 12-5.
“We’ve absolutely eager to play tackle rugby,” said Valley Rams Head Coach Trevor DaSilva. “The players and the coaches felt the same way.”
The Valley team played against their alumni last week and that was the team’s first tackle game in more than a year.
“It was spectacular,” said DaSilva. “Some guys finally got a taste of what actual rugby is. Some of the guys who played had had three preseason games [in 2020] under their belt and that was it.”
Eastside Finds Spring in Step in 7s
Summer high school 7s is back in the state of Washington and already we've seen the reawakening of a rivalry.
While Liberty HS ran the table in 15s, beating Eastside, Rainier, and Budd Bay twice each to go 6-0. There was no state playoff, but Liberty certainly had the best record. Eastside, meanwhile, went to the Boys HS National Championships, playing in Tier 2. While Eastside went 0-3, players and coaches said the young team learned a lot and their attitude in talking to GRR after the tournament appeared to be very positive.
What they learned they were able to take into the beginning of the Rugby Washington 7s. Eastside came out of that event 3-0, beating Liberty four tries to one.
Young Players Relish EIRA Camp
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy's U16 Boys camp last week attracted 75 players to Elkhart, Ind.
The players enjoyed a wealth of space and perfect green grass at the Moose Rugby Grounds, which boasts 13 acres of rugby-specific space on well-tended natural grass. The players, grateful for the opportunity, repeatedly stopped facility director Bart Bottorff to thank him for hosting them—it was that kind of week.
These camps have changed over the years. Zachary Ring (Birmingham Buccaneers), who was at his third camp, said he was very nervous when he arrived before he was even a teenager, but this year was one player who gave a speech to the new kids telling them they will make mistakes, and work through it, and are there to learn.
Commits: Ivy League Women, Purdue and Marian Men
We have some fuller lists from several programs, including Purdue and Marian men's programs, and some women Ivy-Leaguers with Harvard, Brown, and Dartmouth adding to their commits for the fall.
Purdue is an interesting one given that it's a club program, but it's a club program that had started to show improvements in 2019. They are making a concerted effort to boost the program, and that's why we see 14 players joining the team this fall.
By the way, our photo above is of Summit's PK Vincze, who we profiled in the falll: Just 18, PK Vincze Shoots For Stars And Beyond. She's going to Harvard.
HS Champions of 2021 Around the Country
As we are about to wrap up our HS rankings, here's a look at the state champions around the country.
It's been a weird year, with some states not having anything close to a championship season, and others able to go full-bore. For girls rugby, the games were often switched to 7s and 10s. We've tried to keep track of it all. Congratulations to all the champions, and to everyone who was able to get games this spring.
When we have links on team names follow those links for more.
Kalispell Boys Win Montana State Championship
Kalispell's Black and Blue boys team won the Rugby Montana boys HS title last month with a 38-10 defeat of Missoula.
Black and Blue started quickly with a try from No. 8 Alec Thomas. Scrumhalf Fin Nadeau scored the second try and then Thomas and Nadeau linked up with flyhalf Nolan White for the third try, which was set up by the pack winning the scrum against the head.
That made it 21-5 and with White kicking all his conversions Black and Blue rolled. Thomas scored two more, both converted by White, and the flyhalf added a penalty goal for a personal total of 18.
But it wasn't just the try scoring that made it happen, said Head Coach Lance Heavirland.
"The defense was fantastic," Heavirland told the local press. "This is probably the best tackling team I’ve ever coached.”
