All Done with Rugby for 2011

And so we finish our youth rugby for 2011. There is still a lot of old boys Roosters rugby to play for Coaches Dacey, Hughes and Golding in the fall, but the opportunities for the kids are at an end.

What a year. We started with our first year of high school rugby, a full four years ahead of the originally assumed schedule. We had a great cadre of enthusiastic and dedicated young men, and parents familiar with our program, who fell in and got things going. And bam! the girls got themselves going, too. We didn't expect this, and we all managed to make this team go, too.

A big part of this was a great coaching turnout, with a ton of new coaches, and almost all of our coaches getting official USA Rugby Level 1 certification in February. Now we have a core of truly trained and highly experienced coaches.

We had two great high school seasons, with both the Warriors and the Gators going into the playoffs. We did very well, better than we expected, and are set now to really capitalize on our first year with our Spring 2012 season.

Coming with the high school season in 2012 are plans to tour. We don't have a destination set yet, but we intend to tour, likely in July 2012. This can separate boys and girls trips, or a consolidated trip; all of this needs to be worked out. Parent-volunteers will be crucial for this effort, as the coaches have too much on their plates to plan and conduct a tour.

And then we have the annual free-of-charge FCPS spring break clinic in April, and by then it'll be time to register for and start training for Summer 2012, our seventh year. We'll have an all-new jersey design again, and we'll get it going, just like we do every year.