Well there's some thunder....

looks like NorCal just caught a break and is getting a bit of rain. Hope it continues on down to SoCal.

In other news goff's dII rankings provided some interesting reading material...the comments section was particularly enlightening.

I guess the Midwest TAU sends its 2nd place D1 team off to the DII playoff competition and it has been found to be violating USA rugby competition rules. They're apparently taking steps to change that and according to Goff, Iowa State might well be back in the D1 competition this season.

So lots of stuff to wrap our heads around.

It doesn't really matter, Norwich looks to be a very threatening team, and they held Iowa St. to a point last year in the semis. We only made it as close as a converted try...so who knows how we would have fared against Norwich.

Long story short, yes the midwest system looks like it was violating USA Rugby rules but we lost the game and that should be the end of the story.

One more season and we'll probably be moving up ourselves. I'll be moving on to a club side...it's pretty crazy thinking that just four years ago UCSC had never made it past regional playoffs...our little motley crew is growing up bit by bit. (ps those who've wondered why we haven't moved up in the last two years is because by the time we've finished with the final game the team we have to challenge hasn't practiced for months or has been let out for summer) We've improved the PCRFU system as well and have scheduled our challenge match to before Elite 8s.

This is my last year and my last shot to clench another gold medal. Real life is closing in but I want this picture to haunt me every time I hit the track, lift weights, or pound some poor git into the turf....and make me hit harder!


They're a great team but I know my mantra for the year....FUCK USARUGBYKINDOFBUTMOSTLYTHEADMINISTRATIONWHILEACKNOWLEDGINGTHEDIFFICULTYINREGULATINGANATIONALSPORTWITHSUCHASMALLBUTATTHESAMETIMERATHERLARGEBUDGET!

Half of my state is on fire.

Our game on Sunday was canceled because UCSD lost a few players to injury at Stanford 10s and couldn't field a team to play us. I'll admit I'm slightly bummed because I wanted to establish my pre-season lack of fitness as early as possible.

Slug Fest is still this weekend...looking forward to throwing our rookies into the fray. School is really bogging me down. I still haven't watched the third place game for the rwc...*sigh* sometime this week.

On a really cool note goff has started ranking DII teams...which is really nifty. I think I'll re-subscribe the next time I stumble upon some money.

Women's Senior Club just finished their Sweet 16s in Texas and are moving on to quarters/finals in Florida. It's funny that such elite athletes play on the same fields we usually slog over in April.

Gotta say, before this summer I probably would've rooted for NY but after meeting the All Blues and going to a couple of their camps I guess you could say I was bitten by the bears. They're pretty frickin awesome and nice to boot.

Not sure if Scrum by the Sea will be going down 'cause the fires.

We really could use some rain.

Grizzlies, blog readers, pumas, and bathrooms

1st off I totally forgot to mention the fact that one of our kids made it to the second lvl of u19 grizzly tryouts and was invited to seattle...so congrats to Olivia "Guinness" Estrada.

2nd I quickly threw another hit counter on the blog and I'm pretty happy that 8 whole people have started reading my blog again ^^;

3rd ze pumas are into the semis! against south africa.....not so cool...but hey I'm still backing the pumas....and please dear god will the French beat the snot out of the bloody poms...please!!!

4th The Bathroom Issue Hell @(*#&&(@#&(*@# yeah! I cut my hair in my 2nd year of college, its just comfortable for me. I don't identify as trans, I don't really consider myself to be butch and yet left and right I'm mistaken as a boy. Initially I corrected people but after the months rolled by and the hostile reactions to my polite clarifications I frankly gave up. Most people just pretended they misheard me and continued calling me by male pronouns or would become flustered and start calling me "it" (one of the best instances was a flight attendant who argued quite fiercely with me over my own sex and gender). Whatever, that's just how it is, but public bathrooms...SUCK. When one uses a public restroom it is because you have a base and natural need, it is not something that will resolve itself, and if each day that routine task causes confrontation...if your core identity has to be questioned and battered every single day...let me just tell you it's wearing. Ugh. more later. less later. I don't know. I'm happy someone is suing

Quick neat news

So we've been getting a lot more support from our campus in the last year. Not necessarily from the student population but from the staff and that's pretty frickin neat. I'm working on a short radio piece in the glbt center and I noticed they have an article about our team on the wall...which is pretty awesome. Our team has always had a pretty strong amount of glbti members and its neat to see the reciprocal support from the center (weelll actually they've always supported us but its nice to see a studly picture of myself on the wall).

What else...uh so we're still having a decent amount of rookies coming out. Some good fit players yknow. And it sounds like we'll have 12-15 players show up to the camp in Berkeley so I'm stoked for Sunday!

Berkeley Camp and Procrastination

Ugh I'm procrastinating.
I skipped school today to take care of life. My car broke down on Saturday and I had to walk home at 2 in the friggin morning. Today I got to call a tow-truck and take it to the shop. Hung out in a park and did some reading....had pasta and olive oil simmered chicken (instead of fried chicken) and road around on my bike a bit.

I've spent the last four hours watching the SA vs Fiji game however...which is just ridiculous. I mean...I'm procrastinating my procrastination. I'm so distracted on my computer I can't even sit through an 80 minute game....ooo well at least I finally got to watch Z beat Bryan Habana around the corner. I think I might just root for USA after this....nahhh.

Ok what else...press releases...
UCSC Currents
Santa Cruz Sentinel

I think the KZSC news department is trying to suck me into them but I'm refusing...too busy avoiding work. What else...got an email from Alex Williams reminding everyone to sign up for the All Blues camp..(you don't have to pay in advance) 'cause it'll help them organize better.

What else....meh maybe I should finish that gdamn SA Fiji game

updates

It's been an interesting summer surrounded by the hot young women's rugby stars (present and future) from the pac northwest. Amara and her sister made All American as well as other fabulous honors. Went to a lot of camps...I dunno...resparked my love of rugby. There's been a lot of planning going on behind the scenes with our coaches, captains, and players to make this year different and so far its really been working. Practice is awesome, quick, and efficient. I'm really pushing myself to do drills at pace and I'm actually sore almost on a daily basis (which is pretty damn good). I dunno, the power structure in our team is great. We have a whole batch of rookies that are coming along nicely and for fucksake Argentina is into the quarter-finals...HA. I mean Wales are out but hell, to be honest they were never in the game.

Other announcements...
All blues are holding another collegiate clinic next Sunday Oct 14, 9:30-4pm. 25 bucks for an all day clinic on the always beautiful SFGG pitch on Treasure Island. I feel like I've spent half the summer on that pitch and they seriously need to pull out that stop sign on the freeway entrance...cause its damn near suicidal in a student car trying to go from 0-70 in two seconds before a car rear-ends ya. Ok back to the point, the All Blues have been doing a terrific job improving collegiate women's rugby in the area. The initiative which seems to have started this summer just shows how much a top tier club team can contribute to their area. I mean realistically I know its a long term investment, providing young players with the fundamentals of the modern game thus saving the time normally spent re-teaching the college player the foundations of the game. I mean for a measly 25 bucks you can develop the fundamentals so you can start playing the sport correctly from day 1!

Well anyhoo...I'm going...even if I have to ditch my job (never work with money!) and hopefully some of our rookies will be free as well. As is we have about forty players! Heh..its been a long long while since we won the national championship with a team of 17 girls. We have a preseason chock full of excitement, including playing fellow runners up at the national level...dun nuh nuhhhh Stanford. Of course we'll be playing their b-side but hey I've certainly gotten better at scrummaging since that time their pack FLIPPED ours. Also I hope our team goes to Stanford 10s.

Hmm I'm on the right track in terms of exercise but I need to fix my damn food situation or I'll never make pelicans. *sigh*

What else....oh some of our youngins are off at the grizzly u19 tryouts tomorrow...they'd better do Santa Cruz proud! Relations with the boys team are improving....annnnnd I guess that's it for now.

Oh and I'm a TA for broadcast journalism, working, and taking twenty units. HA!