The Girls High School National Invitational Championship (NIC) will award two titles in 2016 and going forward: one to a single-school champion, and one to a club champion. Two weeks ago, the single schools announced their intentions regarding 2016 nationals (read more), and now the NIC Club Committee is releasing details about its event.

The NIC Club Committee is run by Marin Pinnell (Fallbrook), Rex Norris (Kent), Bob Stephen (Danville), Steve Lopez (Pleasanton), KJ and Tom Feury (Morris), Anthony Sasso (Kingston), and Julie Prentice (Atavus). These coaches and administrators represent the nation's top club teams, which are defined as those that draw players from more than one school. At the 2015 combined championship, Fallbrook (which became a club team in 2015 after its school enrollment dropped) won its fifth-straight DI title, while Kent finished second, Danville third, Pleasanton fifth, and Morris seventh.

The aforementioned teams and more will convene for the first girls high school club championship on Saturday-Sunday, May 21-22, 2016. The event will occur on the West Coast, at either San Francisco’s Treasure Island or Central Washington University, home to the DI Elite varsity Wildcats.

More details are forthcoming, but first the organizing committee wants to hear from the entire club-team community. On Thursday, Dec. 3, the committee is hosting a coaches summit in the form of conference call.

“This isn’t a committee call; it’s totally inclusive,” Fallbrook coach Marin Pinnell said of the coaches summit. “We want to hear what other club coaches have to say and what they want in a national championship. Once we have that, we’ll take it back to the newly formed committee, and work that into the event.”

While there’s hope that the single-school and club championships will be contested at the same venue in the future, it wasn’t a possibility for 2016. The single-schools are leaning heavily toward Lindenwood University (St. Charles, Mo.) as a venue, and club teams unanimously agreed it was time for a West Coast location after three years traveling to Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin for nationals.

“We’re just trying to move forward from here and continue to have an awesome event as we always have in the past,” Pinnell said.

For information on the coaches summit call, contact Marin Pinnell (marinpinnell@gmail.com). Stay in step with club nationals at the event website: http://hsgirlsrugbynationals.club.