The two day 32^nd Annual Rugby Kickoff Tournament will be ground zero for the girls’ teams and its coaches on January 30 and 31. Although teams won’t be playing for a cup, the coaches find the tournament just as valuable to build team skills.

“We approach it as our first opportunity to play with our brand new players. We can see where we are at and get a feel for our depth and go from there,” Amazon coach Sefesi Green said.

He, like many other girls’ coaches, hasn’t made any special preparations with his team for this tournament. For the girls, this is an opportunity to show their skillsets and grow from there, and it gives the coaches an opportunity to analyze the experience level of each player.

Each year, the number of teams attending the tournament grows. NorCal Girls Rugby Chairman Karen Chance attributes some of this year’s success to the City of Rancho Cordova’s $25,000 donation to field repair work.

“We won’t have any gopher ridden, ankle buster fields. It’s all grass; they look beautiful, and we won’t be kicked off due to weather,” Chance said. “It’s all very exciting.”

The tournament will be held at Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova. Each team will play three 30 minute games per day. The 30 minute time frame gives the coaches enough time to assess their players’ performances in order to make changes for the following games.

The following are the girls’ teams that will be competing:

Bishop O’Dowd

Chico

Danville

Land Park Harlequins

Mother Lode

Pleasanton

Renegades

Rio Linda

Sacramento Pokice Athletic League (Amazons)

Sierra Foothills

Solo

Valley Panthers