Tuesday, February 17, 2009

NorCal Select Side Developmental Camps Spring 09 + U23 Grizzly Info

Ripped straight from the email list but it's important info:

Hi everyone

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mari Therrien and I'm coaching the U23 Grizzly select side this year. I've been playing rugby for over 12 years and have been gradually transitioning from player to coach. I've played select side rugby for over 10 years and been coached by lots of great coaches including the current WNT coaches. I was an assistant coach for the Grizzlies last year and am taking over as head coach this year as Jarred moves on to coach the senior side. The Grizzly coaching team this year will also include Michelle Stephen (Grizzly asst coach last year, ORSU hooker) as our Tight 5 specialist and Krista Gust (ORSU, Senior Grizzlies) as our backrow specialist. We like open, fast moving rugby and that's the style we'll be playing this year as we look to capitalize on the new ELVs. And we all play and coach rugby because it's fun so we will have lots of fun as we work to create a great team!

On April 25th we will be holding a regional U23 Development camp in the Bay area. This camp is open to all U23 players and will NOT be a tryout for the Grizzlies. The focus of this camp will be general skill development for all players from rookies to more experienced players with the goal of exposing more girls to select-side rugby without the pressure or expectation of tryouts. From all of the regional camps 40-50 players total will be invited to a tryout/training camp which will be held in May 9-10th. This training camp will most likely be held in Portland as it is the most central location in our territory. If players are unable to participate in one of the regional development camps and are still interested in trying out for the Grizzlies U23 team they will need to contact me directly. We held a skills camp in Oregon last weekend and will be holding camps in Seattle March 8th and Utah April 11th.

Please encourage all of your U23 players to come to this camp; the more the merrier! We'll incorporate a lot of rugby principles into fun games and I think everyone will have a good time! Throughout the day we'll cover a lot fundamental skills and hopefully introduce some fun new ways to work on them that you can bring back to your club if you wish. Coaches are welcome to come to the camp to see what we're working on and provide input on your players. We're still working on the final details for the camp including field space so I will email you as soon as we have a location nailed down. Assuming it works for the location we'll probably run the camp from approximately 9-3. (If you have any info on fields or could host this camp please email me!)

If you can distribute this information to all the U23 players on your team I would appreciate it. And if you can get a gauge of how many players from your team will be coming and shoot me an email that would be great! As you know it helps to know if you're planning for 45 players or only 15 players!



Thanks!

Mari Therrien
maritherrien@gmail DOT com
U23 Grizzlies Head Coach


I think this is a super cool idea because I know personally I've always been too intimidated to try out for select sides (uhh we'll just ignore the fitness and financial issues =p) but a...this is a really neat opportunity for LAU to get together and have some fun while yknow...developing. Oh yea and I made a slight mod to her letter because she originally sent out the wrong dates for the norcal camp. Alrighty and I'm still stoked for practice tonight...despite the downpour and thunderstorms.

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