The Florida Youth Rugby season gets a soft start with the extensive Florida Winter Festival this coming weekend in Orlando.

The Festival itself will feature teams in seven brackets from Men’s and Women’s adult teams to Under 10s.

Six boys HS teams will participate, including defending state champs Orlando - Dramatic Florida Final Goes to Orlando. The Tampa Krewe, which was a state playoff team last season, will also compete, as will Sarasota HS, Sebastian River, Cape Pirates, and Wellington HS. Those teams will each play two 40-minute games.

There will also be three middle school teams - Cape, Wellington, and Sarasota - and those three programs will also field U12 and U10 teams.

It’s part of Florida Youth Rugby’s plan to encourage high school programs to, wherever possible, spread their reach to younger groups. Building through the very young has been the plan for several programs around the country, including Key Biscayne and Okapi in Florida.

After this weekend, the league season begins in earnest. For more on the Florida Youth Rugby Boys HS season, see here: Changes in Florida HS Leagues.

The Florida Winter Festival kicks off at 10am local time at the Emery Hamilton Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., Saturday Jan 14.