Sunday, November 21, was a beautiful, slightly chilly, and unusually busy day in Great Falls Village as Great Falls Youth Rugby hosted its seventh annual tournament to benefit the MedStar National Rehabilitation Center's spinal cord injury programs.

Thirty-three teams from all over the Metro-D.C. area participated in the day-long event raising funds for the cause, playing a total of 50 rugby games on three fields at the same time.

The event is a youth tournament for all age groups from under-7s through High School. The HS Varsity bracket was the most competitive, with teams from Great Falls, Gonzaga HS, Springfield, Maryland Exiles, DC Warriors, The Roosters (Bethesda), The Heights School, Loudoun Rugby, and Richmond Youth competing. The Roosters proved the class of this bracket, beating Great Falls in the final pool match and going on to beat Gonzaga 21-14 in the semis and the Exiles 26-7 in the final. 

The Girls HS Bracket was won by West Carroll, Md. in the final against Vienna.

A combined Western Suburbs/SYA/Great Falls boys 8/9th-grade team won the Juniors Bracket, and Loudoun Youth took the Middle School title. The TAG event for PreK to 4th Grade was also a great success. There were competitive games with teams from Great Falls, Alexandria, and Washington.

Sponsors Nando’s PeriPeri Chicken donated a large amount of chicken, sandwiches, and wraps to help the cause.

The event was also supported by Cuisine Solutions and Indigo IT. All of this participation, activity, and support allowed Great Falls Youth Rugby to make an annual, meaningful donation to the Adaptive Sports programs at MedStar.

Read more about the youth programs here: http://www.rugbyVA.com