The End of my College Rugby Career

Weird. I know that I should compose something...reflect, synthesize and summarize my four year run as a DII collegiate women's rugby player. But I can't...it's over. Yea there's a few more functions but all of these experiences are now part of the past. My family, my teammates, my homeland will now be a part of my past, an imagined non-corporeal space to be invoked but never returned to. I am now in exile.

Ok so back to the facts. I'm not all that upset that we lost, frankly we made it farther then I expected...I'm glad we won league...that was the only symmetry that I was seeking. It was nice to make it as far as 3rd or 4th in the nation. We won our first game 60-0 against Wayne State from Nebraska, the elevation was so bad that I forgot our lineout calls...we dominated possession anyways. I scored two tries. We scored all but one of our tries in the first half, we subbed at the half and "experimented" on running side to side (don't ask). Our second game against Shippensburg was obviously the kicker and we lost 12-7. They scored two in the first half and we just couldn't respond. It took a good twenty minutes to catch onto their scrum and then we started stealing all their put-ins (that's just how I roll). Unfortunately we couldn't do anything with our possession (but run sideways). They were PHYSICAL at the breakdown and could poach like pro cooks. We rallied in the first half and I scored our only try (just a penalty tap + a dive). Unfortunately the time just ran out on us. An easy way to put it is our strong people were to slow and our fast people were too weak for this match. Tons of injuries, our lock continued with a broken collarbone (lifting too...*wince*) and our inside fractured her elbow (and kept playing). The decision making on and off the field were pretty poor but meh. It's all over. I walked in my last game. I get to live with that for the rest of my life. Sucks. The knee on my striking leg is swollen to the size of a softball but it's just superficial, no ligament damage. My right wrist has limited mobility and my hammy nagged me even in the heat. My temple is throbbing where a knee clipped it. But I walked away from the game much to easily.

At least I played in my final game, at least I scored (more then anyone else on the team), at least I was making my tackles, and was stealing ball in scrums. It sucks that the team has turned into something where one can't get a "good job" unless you win. But that's why potential sucks.

Three cheers for the seniors.
Natalie Jacuzzi (the craziest funniest mofo I've ever met #15)
Michelle Sit (rabid sensitive chinchilla #6, #7, #8)
Cat Antonio (all heart loyal #7)
Lauren Lopez (my homo a gogo housemate prop lock and drop it)
Lynne Freeman (my dad, my best friend, two years and we're legally married #12)
Kerrie Kubo (me, woo #2)

I'm excited though, new chapter blah blah blah. Time to be a rookie again, build my way to the bench, maybe even start. I haven't decided which club I'll play for...Davis might start a team or we may rehab the amazons...or Fog...or maybe even Berkeley (but I doubt it). I do want to move to the bay...I have no idea what I'm going to do career-wise or ykno in life. But I'm pretty determined that this won't be the last time I'm at a USAR Championship. =] oh and a number of us are playing 7s in Palo Alto again. And we have goal....we're going to beat the Berkeley All Blues!!!! Fuck yea! Somehow! Mwahahaahaaaaa <-----total crazy joke (their 7s team last year was Ruth, Petrie, Blair, etc etc etc)

I'll be posting all sorts of media and crap. But yea I've really enjoyed playing NorCal DII Women's Collegiate rugby. I've had so much fun with the crazy muthas in our league from Sac State to Monterey so y'all better play club rugby 'cause I wanna play with you and against you again!

ps....no clue what direction this blog is going in...but it'll still be women's rugby, give me some feedback!

Off to the National Collegiate Rugby Championships of 2008

Yup, well wish us luck. And Belmont Shore. I'll be taking copious amounts of pics and videos so stay tuned. Let's bring it back to California...I wanna play a home game one last time =]

National Guard Collegiate Rugby Nationals (or whatever mouthfull you prefer) infogasm

Goff put up his annual predictions...and for once we're on top..but once again his predictions never matter because we all play very different types of rugby (not even styles...but types) and we'll see how things work out from there (we probably only got the nod because we've been rather good the last two years). I don't know if I'll say more because he is a subscription based site. What else on goff...oh he posted some guy's estimates on the number of collegiate teams in the US...so by my counting 329 women's colleges (versus 461 men's teams that's a lot more parity then I expected). Interesting stuff.

D1 and D2 are mixed and not demarcated but let's look at local available competition (and yes I realize other teams play out of state for games)

16 Women's Colleges in Minnesota with UM-Duluth
12 for ours in Norcal
61 in New England for Norwich (I'm pretty sure the Northeast has DIII women's collegiate rugby)
8 in SoCal for Claremont
9 in North Carlolina for East Carolina (yup that's confusing)
30 in East Penn for Shippensburg
4 for Wayne State in "the great plains"?
11 in the Pacific Northwest for Western Washington

and that rounds out the 8 in order of seeding...which allows for an interesting comparison. I will also repeat that it's just weird going to 8s without Mary Washington (they've made the last three).
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Some info gleaned (ok copied) from USA rugby, I'm kinda glad our match isn't being streamed online...just because I'm superstitious. It's pretty considerate that they kept DII out of Friday matches probably because they understand the financial burdens an extra day would put on the clubs. One can also infer that there are going to be four fields of rugby. DII Women's is being sandwiched between DI women's and DI men's...and I'd be concerned about the fields getting torn up if they weren't apparently made up of dead ass dirt to begin with. Hopefully this satellite picture from google maps is outdated...





MATCH SCHEDULE
Friday, April 18
1:30: Dartmouth v BYU (DI MEN)
1:30: San Diego State v Arkansas State (DI MEN)
2:00: St. Mary’s v Air Force (DI MEN)
2:00: Bowling Green State v Kutztown (DI MEN)
2:30: Cal v Tennessee (DI MEN)
2:30: Army v Cal Poly (DI MEN)
3:00: Penn State v Minnesota (DI MEN)
3:00: Colorado v Utah (DI MEN)
4:00: Northern Iowa v Stanford (DI WOMEN)
4:00: Virginia v Colorado (DI WOMEN)
4:30: Brown v West Chester (DI WOMEN)
4:30: UCLA v UC Davis (DI WOMEN)

Saturday, April 19th

9:00: Penn State v Florida (DI WOMEN)
9:00: Chico State v Indiana (DI WOMEN)
9:00: Texas A&M v Cal (DI WOMEN)
9:00: Vassar v Navy (DI WOMEN)
10:30: Coast Guard v Loyola (DII MEN)
10:30: Michigan v Radford (DII MEN)
10:30: Middlebury v Northern Colorado (DII MEN)
10:30: Utah Valley State v East Carolina (DII MEN)
11:30: Norwich v Shippensburg (DII WOMEN)
11:30: Wayne State v UC Santa Cruz (DII WOMEN)
11:30: East Carolina v Claremont (DII WOMEN)
11:30: UNM-Duluth v WWU (DII WOMEN)
1:30: Winner of Dartmouth/ BYU v Winner of SDSU/ Arkansas State (DI MEN)
1:30: Loser of Dartmouth/ BYU v Loser of SDSU/ Arkansas State (DI MEN)
2:00: Winner of St. Mary’s/ Air Force v Winner of BGSU/ Kutztown (DI MEN)
2:00: Loser of St. Mary’s/ Air Force v Loser of BGSU/ Kutztown (DI MEN)
3:00: Loser of Cal/Tennessee v Loser of Army/ Cal Poly (DI MEN)
3:30: **Winner of Cal/Tennessee v Winner of Army/ Cal Poly (DI MEN)**
3:30: Winner of Penn State/ Minnesota v Winner of Colorado/ Utah (DI MEN)
3:30: Loser of Penn State/ Minnesota v Loser of Colorado/ Utah (DI MEN)
4:00: Winner of Stanford/ UNI v Winner of Virginia/ Colorado (DI WOMEN)
4:00: Loser of Stanford/ UNI v Loser of Virginia/ Colorado (DI WOMEN)
4:30: Winner of Brown/ West Chester v Winner of UCLA/ UC Davis (DI WOMEN)
4:30: Loser of Brown/ West Chester v Loser of UCLA/ UC Davis (DI WOMEN)

Sunday, April 20
8:30: Winner of Texas A&M/ Cal v Winner of Vassar/ Navy (DI WOMEN)
8:30: Loser of Texas A&M/ Cal v Loser of Vassar/ Navy (DI WOMEN)
8:30: Winner of Penn State/ Florida v Winner of Chico State/ Indiana (DI WOMEN)

8:30: Loser of Penn State/ Florida v Loser of Chico State/ Indiana (DI WOMEN)
10:00: Winner of Norwich/Shippensburg v Winner of Wayne State/ UCSC (DII WOMEN)
10:00: Loser of Norwich/Shippensburg v Loser of Wayne State/ UCSC (DII WOMEN)
10:00 Winner of ECU/ Claremont v Winner of UNM-Duluth/ WWU (DII WOMEN)
10:00: Loser of ECU/ Claremont v Loser of UNM-Duluth/ WWU (DII WOMEN)
11:00: Winner of Coast Guard/ Loyola v Winner of Michigan/ Radford (DII MEN)
11:00: Loser of Coast Guard/ Loyola v Loser of Michigan/ Radford (DII MEN)
11:00: Winner of Middlebury/UNCo v Winner of UVSC/ECU (DII MEN)
11:00: Loser of Middlebury/UNCo v Loser of UVSC/ECU (DII MEN)

**Time has changed to accommodate broadcast schedule**

Webcast Matches
Friday, April 18th
2:00: St. Mary’s College vs. Air Force (DI Men)
4:00: Univ. of Northern Iowa v Stanford (DI Women)

Saturday, April 19th

9:00: Penn State v Univ of Florida (DI Women)
11:30: Norwich v Shippensburg (DII Women)
1:30: Winner of Dartmouth/ BYU v Winner of SDSU/ Arkansas State (DI MEN)
3:30: Winner of Cal/Tennessee and Winner of Army/Cal Poly (DI Men)

Sunday, April 20th

8:30: Winner of TX A&M/ Cal and winner of Vassar/ Navy (DI WOMEN)
11:00: Winner of Coast Guard/ Loyola and winner of Mich/ Radford (DII MEN)

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Ugh lots of stuff to deal with...I have a paper to write, gotta do laundry, one more practice, blah blah blah....am I excited to go to New Mexico? Hell no! But it's pretty crazy that 48 teams are going to be there..I think the state's gonna run outta ambulances, ice, food, and beer.

Everyone and your mother...

my mom visited me this weekend and it was stressful and nice. I'm just feeling old and beat-up again. Now I'm twenty-two and one more week of practice before the next round of eliminations. It's crazy that there are going to be 48 teams in New Mexico...that's a little nutso to me. I'm kind of sick of it all. It's been hot as hell at practice...hotter then it is in New Mexico. I miss winter.

Women's Rugby Videos

This shouldn't be taken the wrong way but home video-editing has really improved (at least among the D1 squads)

UC Davis:



Penn State:


And a wee little unedited video we took at Pac Coast Playoffs on Day 1...Western Washington in the cute blue number and our best friends from Cali Sac State in the white green and gold. (Ps I'm starting to notice that all of my youtube videos are of sac state playing...)

UCSC WRFC are the Pacific Coast Champions

after defeating Western Washington 36-10. In the first half we had an onslaught of four or five tries (three in the last three minutes). Unfortunately I personally let a try through, there were a number of penalties and I just turned my back and it was exploited for a try (their nine Heather Stephens was a wily old head). We scored a few more in the second half. We mostly just soaked up their pressure on defense and our scrums were also negatively affected because we had to play a man down for almost the entire half (two yellow cards...team penalties for silly stuff we'll work on). The refs of the tournament were fair and reffed a good game...but once again it illustrated how different LAUs stress different things. I mean things that slow down the game are pretty universally penalized but I've never seen a ref blow the whistle so many times for incorrect quick taps or a hooker striking a ball out of the tunnel(when trying to steal it). I didn't do too much in the games but I think I finally got over my cold so that's a plus. Now I just have to get my life in order, turn 22, prepare for my mom's visit (ie clean), study study study, work a little, fund raise for the trip to "the National Guard's" Elite 8 or Collegiate Championship Series in Albuquerque, New Mexico, buy books etc. Oh..and y'kno train five days a week. Ughhh. Maybe eat. Maybe Sleep.

Pictures to be posted later but yea it was cold in Washington. It wasn't significantly colder then Santa Cruz in winter...but it's spring. And there was a very stiff wind that we used to our advantage but made lineout ball pretty difficult. Then again it didn't rain while we were on the pitch...there was snow on the ground the day we arrived though (at our host family's house not on the field).

Ahh it's good to have that feeling again, my team is my family, wherever we go is home, and trust me sometimes it really is a traveling circus =]

**Edit** just a little addition...
Women's Rugby: Shippensburg Shuts Out Norwich, 30-0
Apr 6, 2008

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - After beginning the season by winning its first 16 games, the Norwich University women's rugby team lost its second straight contest on Sunday, as the Cadets were soundly defeated by Shippensburg, 30-0.

The Cadets (16-2) were dominated by Shippensburg from the beginning of the game, and could not get anything going. The 30-0 final score marks the worst loss for NU in a number of years.

"Confusion best describes this weekend," said Norwich head coach Austin Hall. "On Friday night, we played one of the top Division I teams in the country (West Chester), and we played to our potential. Today, we just fell off the map against another excellent side. I must give a lot of credit to West Chester and Shippensburg; they have both built very strong programs and played well this weekend. We have our work cut out for us over the next two weeks."

Norwich (16-2) will have a second opportunity against Shippensburg (17-1) on April 19 in Albuquerque, N.M., in the quarterfinals of the National Championship.

*edit* this caught me off guard at first but then I realized it was just a typo on the journalist's part...Norwich faces Shippensburg in the first round of 8s and not the quarterfinals (because those matches are obviously still up in the air). Final seeds are up:

2008 Seedings

1 Midwest #1 University of Minnesota- Duluth
2 Pacific #1 UC Santa Cruz
3 Northeast #1 Norwich
4 Southern Cal #1 Claremont College
5 South #1 East Carolina
6 Mid-Atlantic #1 Shippensburg
7 West #1 Wayne State
8 Pacific #2 Western Washington University

It'll be weird without Mary Washington

Blogging from the field of Pacific Coast Regional Collegiate DII Women's Rugby Playoffs...

Damn that's a long title...but yes indeedy it's day two of this fine but frigid tournament. Which means day one already happened and what the hell am I doing up at 8:30 in the morning after a match...*sigh* Well yesterday the team was under the assumption that the match began at two...funny story...and we got a call around 11:15from the other coaches asking where the hell we were. Our opponents from Central Washington were already on the field warming up...our match was at twelve. Brilliant. So having 25 panicked girls running around trying to pack their gear after packing down a big ol' breakfast was a wee bit of chaos (PS our host family is amazing). The match got pushed back like half an hour but it was still really tight. The chill and the wind were the only things that was really different then Santa Cruz. The stiff wind made it hard to hear calls and even harder to through a straight lineout ball. We scored three tries in the first half and they dotted one down after a weakside play with their swift winger. Their flanker was having a hard time hitting her mark (she was overthrowing it) but I was damn impressed that she could throw the ball completely straight for fifteen in that wind. But yea final score 17-5 with UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs to face the Western Washington Flames at er 1? this afternoon...I need to check my own schedule. Pics of the match to be posted when I get back home in Cali Cali!

We really do have something to play for today. Western Washington were cool girls, they're a nice team and they hosted a pasta social dance party after Saturday's matches but.......Sac State left it ALL out on the field yesterday. They had the heart, the skills, they just lacked the healthy bodies. Seriously the match started with tit for tat tries between the two sides until sac state pulled ahead but then their season long lack of subs started taking a toll (they only have 16 players). Existing injuries were taking out people left and right but somehow they managed to dredge their broken bodies around the field so they could stay on and help their mates. It was gutwrenching broken ankles, broken collarbone, major concussions, a girl tore the rest of her ACL...tightened her brace and kept playing. In the last 20 minutes sac had about four or five healthy players but the whole team was playing their guts out. Western Washington were pretty vicious in striking at Sac's vulnerabilities, repeatedly targeting their outside center who was moved to wing because she had a broken ankle. Sac fought all 80 minutes of the match and goddamn if they didn't deserve the win...a few more healthy bodies...the insane level of passion and commitment for your teammates--- this is NorCal D2 Women's Rugby. It's hard not to be parochial, I love Norcal rugby. Let's show the pac northwest what we can do. Let's bring this shit back to Cali

T-minus 2 days till Washington

Here's some updated info:

PCRFU 1 = USARFU 2
PCRFU 2 = USARFU 8

Seeding:
1 NCRFU 1 | UC Santa Cruz
2 PNRFU 1 | WWU
3 NCRFU 2 | Sac State
4 PNRFU 2 | CWU (2009 seed will be URFU1)

Dates: April 5/6, 2008 (Sat/Sun)
Host: PNRFU, WWU Rugby Club
Venue: Polo Fields, Ferndale, WA
Point of Contact: Rocky Denhartog and Kerry Griffin, 360-920-8425 (c)
PCRFU MC: TBD

Saturday Matches:
12:00pm Match A: NCRFU 1 v PNRFU 2
2:00pm Match B: PNRFU 1 v NCRFU 2

Sunday Matches:
11:00am Match D: Loser A v Loser B
1:00pm Match C: Winner A v Winner B


Winner C = PCRFU 1
Loser C = PCRFU 2
Return To Top


So our first match is against Central Washington. Uh...I might have to drive (which if anyone knows me is a terrifying prospect (I'm over-cautious) I need to do my laundry, survive two more practices and...I dunno...shit like that.

T-Minus 3 Days Until we fly to Washington

Ahhh and it's going to snow! I'm from SoCal...like Southern California...I can take rain in Santa Cruz but I'm used to sunny warm days with a gentle cooling breeze. I've seen snow once! How do you dress? What do you wear when playing rugby in slush/rain/snow ahhh that's terrifying. If any ruggers abroad have tips for snow now would really be the time to chip in. *sigh* I only own two pairs of pants and they're both jeans. *grumble* oh and it's 6 o'clock practice which is doing wonders for my illness. We were doing drills for 30 minutes in the dark. Blah blah blah need to fundraise...what else.

Ohh I saw Wendy's article and shot a brief msg to their webmaster...mainly just talking about how Iowa State beat us last year and for fucksake to give women's rugby credit in their LAU.

Oh so beyond early morning practices our flight leaves from San Jo at 6am...so we get to wake up at 3-4...grumble mutter grumble. Maybe I'm just tired and wheezy and sick of coughing but it really is exciting...I'm just not the peppy person. It's so weird practicing contact again... what else..
The seeding is firming up for Elite 8s in New Mexico:

1 Midwest #1 University of Minnesota- Duluth
2 Pacific #1
3 Northeast #1
4 Southern Cal #1 Claremont College
5 South #1 East Carolina
6 Mid-Atlantic #1 Shippensburg
7 West #1
8 Pacific #2

Well Pacific will be settled this weekend and if Norwich doesn't get Northeast I'll have my socks shocked off. Dunno what's going on in West. Well off to my 6 hour block of class. 9 days till my birthday. There were a lot of numbers in this post.

not much in rugby news

but I got an A-, B+, B+ this quarter! Mwahahahaaa not too shabby. I'm still trying to kick this cold while still earning some money over spring break. The trip to Washington for regionals is rounding out to 250 a player (for the flight and cars) so yea obviously housing and grub will up the price tag *sigh* and 250 would buy me a terabyte hardrive as well (or more realistically it would get me that much closer to a deposit so I can actually have somewhere to stay this summer). MMmmm what else...

My mum said something really adorable the other day. I guess one of the various rugby catalogs came with a rugby spectator guide and she called to tell me that we had to make it to Stanford because now she understands rucks and mauls and offside laws and wants to see me play again. It's kinda funny how mother's think they're making perfectly reasonable requests when they're actually asking you to move a mountain for them. That and we've already made the National Championship match TWICE and she had to wait til now to learn the damn rules to appreciate the game. *sigh* At the very least it's good motivation to get in shape and sharpen the skills for Washington. No one is looking that far ahead yet (except my mom apparently) but yea...it's post-season and hopefully it'll be a long one. Fourth year. Last chance. What's that old rugby refrain?? That's right...'Redeem Thyself' (a new mantra perhaps?)

Damn GO Navy Go

heh...taken straight from goff...

March 22, 2008, Annapolis, Md. - An aggressive Navy side took advantage of every Princeton mistake to steamroll the inexperienced Tigers 115-3. Breanna Strand scored 23 points in the first half to lead Navy’s onslaught. Flanker Michelle Akins replied with three tries in the second half for Navy.

Breanna Strand (inside center) went to my high school, and I knew she was a good rugger but damn...=] good to see that she's kicking ass.

Makes me wanna kick this cold and get back in shape

Finished finals...I'm exhausted

I think my mental toughness has been upped by leaps and bounds. I've been going nonstop for literally a full week (like 22 hour days). I can't believe the sheer amount of shit that I've accomplished. Now that the quarter is over for me I can relax and....deal with the massive amount of shit that's been accumulating.
I need to get back in shape for regionals (I've been running on coca cola and burritos for the last seven very sedentary days)
ughhh

oh and sleep.

hmmm....oh Univ San Francisco joined our league so we'll technically have six teams in our league now if Monterey and San Jose muster up the numbers. Which is awesome but I'll be a slug alumni by then.

Er...the top 20 ranking was finally updated but I don't really care cause we haven't moved.

That's enough rugby news for now right? Er Belmont Shore did pretty damn good at the Champagne Classic. That's about it. It's 9 o'clock and I'm to tired to even drink a beer.

So I skipped pelicans

And that was probably my one and only chance to play at the elite level. Meh. Life and priorities...right now I need to focus on school...I say that every year, every quarter but it's true. School isn't just a money sink for a piece of paper and the older I get the more I believe in it. *sigh* What else...Humboldt forfeited so there was no game on Saturday...something funky may occur and Humboldt and possibly Reno may move down to D2

What else....


WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALES! WALES! BREAD OF HEAVEN! Ahhh it was good to see m'boys win the grand slam. I haven't seen them play so well with such confidence since four years ago. Ah to see Martyn Williams and Shane Williams and Hook and Gethin and Byrne and Ryan Jones and Alun and Ian and Shanklin and Huw and even mister macho Mike Phillips and bleeding Gavin Henson....ahhh hahahahaha and all those who doubted the awesomeness of Wales and Argentina can suck it =]

NorCal DII Women's Collegiate League

Yup UCSC beat St. Mary's 32-13 yesterday and we won league. I dunno it's just a cool accomplishment to have won league for all four years now. I've had my ups and downs with rugby but man it's been worth it. Yes there was only three teams this year but each match was hard fought and a difficult battle for all sides. More on this later but finals are just around the turn and I have no days to write 15 pages ahhhhh.


What lies ahead...

Women's Collegiate D2 Regional Playoffs

PCRFU 1 = USARFU 2
PCRFU 2 = USARFU 8

Seeding:
1 NCRFU 1 (UCSC)
2 PNRFU 1 (WWU)
3 NCRFU 2 (Sac State)
4 PNRFU 2 (CWU) / URFU 1 (UVSC) (pending March 29 challenge match)

Dates: April 5/6, 2008 (Sat/Sun)
Host: PNRFU, WWU Rugby Club !!! (news to me)!!
Venue: Bellingham, WA

Saturday Matches:
Match A: NCRFU 1 v PNRFU 2
Match B: PNRFU 1 v NCRFU 2

Sunday Matches:
Match C: Winner A v Winner B
Match D: Loser A v Loser B

Winner C = PCRFU 1
Loser C = PCRFU 2

Hmm so we have two seeds again? That's peculiar...

2008 Seedings (a la usa rugby)

1 Midwest #1 [University of Minnesota-Duluth]
2 Pacific #1
3 Northeast #1 [Norwich]
4 Southern Cal #1 [Claremont?]
5 South #1 [Charleston?]
6 Mid-Atlantic #1
7 West #1
8 Pacific #2

and the bracket is as follows
Day 1 in New Mexico
Pool A: Midwest #1 vs Pacific #2
South #1 vs Socal #1
Pool B: Northeast #1 (which is Norwich)vs MARFU #1
Pacific #1 vs West #1

and the rest who knows from there, Norwich is doing a gnarly job ripping up the DII rankings so we'll see how that works out. It is kinda peculiar to have two seeds. I'll try and fill out more info when I'm not in finals week...

Sac State Women's Rugby vs UCSC **EDIT**

We won it 12-7 in an in-cre-dibly close match. More details later but other big news. Apparently UC Davis beat Stanford 10-0. YEA....jeez talk about big news especially since the aggies seemed to be struggling a bit this season (with a 1 point victory over Humboldt) **edit** Actually they were in second place **edit** but shit...way to know down one of the top teams in the nation. More details later, but yea my old bones need to take a rest!

pps. so I guess there is a lot more to this story. Stanford had a couple starting players off at a U20 eagle camp and their Sr. capped Eagle flyhalf Jossy Tseng sat on the bench because she was late to the teams warm-ups.

A) that's a pretty cool show of integrity on Stanford's part, (as well as the diff between D1 and D2...hell we couldn't spare the players)

B) Stanford is still on top of the Norcal D1 charts due to point differential

C) a weee bit cocky on Stanford's part.

Yup ok that's it, now I have to finish my five page film paper today, go to practice, try and read a 500 page book (in a day), write a 20 pg paper by sunday, play in a game, read five novels in two-three days, may or may not have promotion/relegation match, may or may not go to pelicans camp, write five pages, read a few hundred pages, write two pages, read a couple thousand pages and catch up on a months worth of work, take two DEATH final exams...and fin. The next fifteen days are going to be....H E L L!!

Passing updates to Pac Coast Regionals

I know I'm ripping straight from Theresa Champagne but whatever...it's important news

1)DI vs DII relegation/promotional match is on March 15 at the DII location with winner choosing where they want to go (so far it looks like Univ. of Nevada Reno (UNR) will be the DI team in the match 0-3 with a lower point differential then Humboldt)

2)THE VERY NEXT DAY....is the pelicans camp in Davis...greeeeaaaaat. That's going to be brutal. Griff (stanford's head coach, duh) with Brett Amos (our backs coach) and Ryan Luis (St. Mary's head coach) as assistant coaches. (I'll probably try and go and suck...mostly because I'm not quite up to scratch and am still recovering from stupid stupid hamstring)

3)on the same day, March 16th there is the DII scheduling meeting in Davis or sac (what is with early march!?)

4) DII regionals is set for April 4, 5, 6, in the Pac Northwest.....really??? ehhhhh that sucks..oh well

5)the URFU has appealed to enter the regional playoff competition and they have a good chance of winning the appeal (they did some restructuring so the #1 seed is prepared and expecting to travel...unlike the last THREE years *grumble* so PNRFU gets gipped a seed (ie #2 seed in PNRFU won't go. Which might or might not mean Western Oregon is out

It's the big game against sac this weekend. I am SO stressed about school

Our match was postponed against Sac State...

it rained, their fields are closed, our fields are closed. And we're all very bummed together. Yea so slight updates, last weekend Stanford kicked Chico and Sac State played St. Mary's in a very close match. It was fierce and fast rugby with the first half seeing the Gaels ahead by 7-0...in the second it was try for try before sac tied it with a try on the last play of the game and their flyhalf made the conversion to take the win. Yup.



From Goff
-------------------

1 Norwich (1) 15-0
2 Shippensburg (2) 11-1
3 UNH (3) 7-2
4 UC Santa Cruz (5) 4-2 (???) 20-0 over Santa Clara
5 Minnesota-Duluth (4) 12-2
6 Brockport (6) 7-1
7 UW-Milwaukee (8) 15-1
8 Bowling Green (9) 10-2
9 Grand Valley St. (10) 6-5
10 Texas Tech (16) 5-4 34-5 over University of Texas
11 Siena (11) 6-1
12 Wane St. Neb. (12) 6-0 Season opens this weekend
13 Colorado State (13) 3-1 Season opens this weekend
14 Coll. of Charleston (Unr.) 3-0 49-0 over South Florida
15 Georgetown (14) 5-2
16 Slippery Rock (15) 4-1
17 Sacramento S. (Unr) 4-1 19-17 over St. Mary's
18 Rutgers (17) 5-3
19 Mary Wash. (18) 8-4-1 34-5 over Maryland
20 Oklahoma (19) 4-2

What else...Western Oregon lost to CW (edit...they didn't go to the Stanford Invitational...sorry..that was western washington who had a flanker? that won forward MVP of the tournament )

Rugby Updates in DII Norcal Rugby

1) San Jose State Dropped out of league for this season which is a major bummer because they've traditionally been a very strong team (placing third in the nation back in 2000, and making Elite 8s in 2002). Kinda odd because it seemed like they had more the sufficient players last year. But such is league, Santa Clara is playing this year and San Jose is out

2)Pictures!!! Weeeee of the UCSC WRFC vs Santa Clara WRFC match...actually we've had these for a while and I've just been too lazy with midterms to post them
Kickoff


Lots of pics of backs play



Skipping through traffic


Santa Clara was always coming up hard on defense


But sometimes wingers just have their day (Kelly McMahon by the way)


3)

SACRAMENTO STATE women 46 – Santa Clara 10 Referee: Rob Hendrickson
Referee Coach: Sam Reagle

Saturday morning at Sac State was a great venue and time for the spirited game between Sac State women and Santa Clara, who unlike the referee, drove up the night before. Sac State scored first and in the first minute, followed with dominating possession and break-aways for the rest of the half. Santa Clara found itself needing to commit too many players to the tackle in the first half, and Sac State led by 27 - 0 at the end of the first half. Santa Clara came back to play to a much closer 19 - 10 second half.

Well this will make things interesting...

4) I totally misspoke in a previous post, we don't have a game for another week and it'll be against sac state not st. mary's

5) Yup, Humboldt State held pretty close to Davis losing by a single point. Davis came away 7-6. Interesting how Slug Fest kinda set this one up way back in fall

6) GAAAAAH! Will someone tell USA rugby to frickin stop using frames on their websites? NO ONE USES FRAMES....ugh. So ugly and useless and frustrating.

7) there's a note up on pelicanrefs that a ton of clubs need to respond to keep in contact with them

ok that's it...back to midterms....the six nations has been pretty ugly but so much looser then the world cup play (thank god I got tired of sleeping through matches) Kelly White (of Belmont Shore) is going to HK 7s with the rest of the Eagle squad and they're looking for donations...I just don't have 500 bucks to support

9 days no post

And this one isn't very interesting. Rugby rugby rugby...rugby rugby rugby. There. Good. Now back to miderms

UCSC WRFC vs Santa Clara WRFC

We won the match 20-0 against a very solid team. We scored four tries in the first half and were held scoreless in the second. I definitely wish I could have been in this one but I've decided (or rather my leg decided) to sit out another week (it's two weeks till the next game). Santa Clara's acting scrum-half did a good job interfering with our nine and they had a very physical squad that had a number of great punching runs. Our squad improved on sticking their tackles, mauling off lineouts, and...that's about it. Our offense should have been tighter in the second half...but our field was in no state for sharp backs play and the wet weather and staunch defense from Santa Clara kept us out of the 2nd half score sheet. Yea...I really wanted to play damnit!

Our next match is against St. Mary's and Santa Clara's next match is Sac State...I'll try and remember to post the other scores in our league and yea I can actually post pictures because unlike the chaivis game...someone actually took some!

UCSC vs Chavis and updates on our match against Santa Clara

SANTA CRUZ Women 36 – Chiavis 0 Ref: Davis

(Chiavis stands for Chico & Davis Combined Side)

Both teams had a number of rookies with some of them this being their first game. Santa Cruz dominated the game by the scoreboard but the play on the field was very competitive. SC scored first with 25 min left in the half, 15 min later they put one under the post the final score of the half went to SC at 2 min. Both teams changed a number of players although it still was very spirited SC scored on three break away runs @ 22, 7,and 5 min marks. Final Score: Santa Cruz 36, Chiavis 0

Great hospitality I was able to get a very cold shower at the JH locker room, change my clothes have a burger with the ladies then off to the End Zone for another burger and beer with the men’s club. I got home about 10 so it was a great rugby day.

-a la pelican refs of course

Because I love match reports/caps here's another one posted on the Stanford site...ps something tells me their game footage ended up a lot better then ours.

"Stanford 27, UC Santa Cruz 22
It was a great day for rugby on Saturday when Stanford faced the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Santa Cruz put up a tough challenge for Stanford with their physical play, scoring a try off a five-meter scrum and another off a run from their very mobile #1. Stanford also scored twice twice in the first half, with a wide run over the line by flyhalf Jossy Tseng and a zig-zagging run down the center by freshman wing Mara Stark-Alcala.

In the second half Santa Cruz maintained pressure and scored twice, including another try set up from a run by their #1 after a penalty. While still not entirely switched into the game, Stanford did manage to pick up a bit of momentum and scored four tries in the second half. Credit goes to Stanford captain and 8-man Erin Kobashigawa for leading the forwards throughout the tough physical play, flyhalf Jocelyn Tseng for making several key breaks, and rookie Maya White for leadership in the lineouts."

Oh and we got some good news from our athletic coordinator and we may be able to use our lower pitch (which was ruined by the ultimate Frisbee team)for our first league match against Santa Clara. Down side being that Santa Clara hasn't actually played us since 2004...*sigh* either way I don't think I'm playing because I'm having issues jogging for 100 meters much less fit and able to play a whole match. I did 25 minutes of one of those arm cardio things with WAY too much resistance and I think I won't be able to lift my arms tomorrow (someone else set the machine). Meh. Now on to school!

UCSC mixed side vs Chico/Davis B-side

It was the last game of pre-season with a score of 36-0 with our side victorious in a well contested match. The DII kickoff tournament was canceled due to uncommitted sides we sought out a B-side match against a mixed Chico Davis team (their A-sides were duking it out in an earlier match). Don't know the score to that game but I'll find out. We pretty much were still finicking around with our lineup and were swapping around combinations, two of our vet forwards (myself included) had to sit it out for various reasons (@ #((*@#& hamstring). But yea overall big improvements.

Chico/Davis (or Chavis for short) were coming up very hard in defense and putting huge pressure on our midfield. They also fielded kicks particularly well and it resulted in a very back and forth start for the first half. The team worked well together scoring 3 tries in the first half. Our side definitely calmed down the nerves and brought up the aggression in the second half...with two great individual tries by one of our 10s Kelly McMahon. Defense has improved leaps and bounds and I'm really excited to say that there were no major breakthroughs in our line which probably helped keep our tryline untouched.

Will post pictures later...

So I pulled my hamstring pretty bad

and it fucking hurts like hell right now, I can't find a position that isn't giving me a migraine this really sucks...I'll be resting it for two weeks minimum..which probably takes me out of the first league game...and considering we only have four league games...yea this season is kinda up for grabs. Yea it's too early to tell...it's just a pulled hammy but I've never had this happen before and I don't want to do permanent damage. If we had a trainer I would feel comfortable pushing it but frankly...we don't and ipso facto I don't. I quit the news team today so I could focus on school and frankly I can't hike up the mountain right now and run around like a journalist. So overall...shitty day yeah? Oh...the rest of the DII teams in our league flaked so the DII kickoff tournament is off...and so I guess we're trying to schedule something with Chico's B-side. Yea well... time to focus on school and healing...any tips would be great.

Ref Report and photos of Berkeley vs UCSC...what is it? 4th annual clinic and scrimmage

UC Berkeley 5 – UC SANTA CRUZ 25 Referee: Anna McMahan

Berkeley hosted Santa Cruz on a gorgeous day for three 25 minute periods. The game was played on Berkeley's all-weather turf field, which made for a smaller, odd-shaped pitch lined for soccer and lacrosse. Despite the lack of proper field markings and goal posts, the two teams came together for a fun friendly after participating in a skills clinic.

Set pieces and forward play were fairly evenly matched between the teams, but Berkeley had a difficult time containing Santa Cruz's midfield and back three.

Santa Cruz also employed a strategic kicking game that kept Berkeley in their own half. UCSC scored three tries in the first period, and one try each in the next two periods, while Berkeley's lone score came in the last period. No conversions were attempted due to lack of uprights.


And pics...
Berkeley always teaches us the coolest new tackling drills...


Under the watchful eyes of Street, Ellen, and Chou



Yea the lines were kinda funny, the guy in the striped shirt was the touch judge...our winger/fly-half Kelly McMahon (of no relationship to the WRWC eagle flanker) keeping her legs pumping despite a tough Berkeley tackle



Showing that she still has the wheels to finish 'em (also note the lack of a try zone)

Who said I was panicking?

I'm too sore to think but there's practice today. Ugh. School is quite nuts already. The berkeley game went well all things considered. Our backs were pulling off plays and our defense was improving. Lineouts were strong which was surprising after friday's practice (where we couldn't snag anything). We played their rookies and beat them pretty soundly 7-8 tries to 1 (there weren't any posts). Side note, they had the coolest astro-turf I've ever been on (I'm not normally a fan). Anyhoo I guess their big game is going to be against Humboldt. We won't be going to the stanford invitational for some reason...and hopefully the dii kickoff tournament is still going to occur. Er...what else...our sub-units were working pretty well but the connection between backs and forwards were still a little shady. We were switching people around like popcorn so all things considering the results were pretty good (we had a flanker at scrum-half at one point). Yep. Oh and I scored a try...fun stuff.

Pics will probably go up later...

Post-Apocalypse 100th post

Well if you're wondering why my posts have dropped off the fact is I was saving up my posts so I could hit the big 100 on the first practice of my last season at UCSC (which happened on Monday). But yea, then a few nukes were dropped on the teams lap and I've been too busy just trying to handle it. Basically we had some unexpected losses that hurt emotionally just as much as they impact ourselves as a team. I've been struggling to keep my view of the situation empirical because frankly I can't deal with the emotional side of things right now. I'll admit it really shoved me at the crossroads of whether to become a spectator/fan or continue playing but really, I'm going to stick with it as long as I can and play for fun and to provide guidance for all those silly little munchkins we call rookies.

That being said we have a scrimmage this weekend against UC Berkeley, and we'll see how we can stack up *sigh*. My personal goal? Win league. We gotta win league. Oh sidenote stanford is playing belmont shore on like the 26th? It'll be interesting to look at the result (unfortunately we have a dii tournament). OH other bummer news...our stupid ultimate club wrecked our home pitch so now we'll have to use the stupid effin top field that is always rained in/closed. GREAAAAT. I looooooooooove indoor circuit training. Blergh so yea...very sarcastically happy 100th post.

Storms, Blackouts, and Hangovers

Yep that's about it. We had our power knocked out yesterday, I signed us up for internet, installed a router, a wireless bridge, got Kaspersky, fixed my car (replaced the battery, and have been perusing internships. It's been stormy so I haven't been able to exercise much which isn't great but yea...not a whole lot to report. Goff put up the awards and Blaire won one and Blues took best club *shrugs*. Oh I got a kit for christmas which is pretty awesome, a kyoto jersey and shorts to represent =] but essentially that's it, practice will start on monday so I'm looking forward to a brand new year of rugby.

Spinning the Color Wheel *UPDATED*

So I switched around some/all of my colors on the site....and it looks ok. I'm learning about photo editing etc and hopefully I'll have something cool to post soon (as well as fixing my damn header that's been f'd up for ages now. What else is new...I'll be learning how to edit some video clips tonight...so hopefully some of that will reach fruition....yea just working on technical skills this break. I'm running a bit but I'll definitely need to ramp it up before we go back to school. Pictures to be added and man....my website REALLY comes up when you search random phrases on google. I'll probably edit this post tonight and put up some pics..

so it took longer then a day...but lots of edits and some pics!


Obviously not an ideal lineout...we forgot to teach some of the rookies against stepping too much into the gap

Ye olde standing ruck and forwards milling about in the line of death (don't worry if I was playing I'd be the old fat bat hanging out with the wings too lazy to even walk to the ruck.



Both teams receiving a pep talk from the master



The two teams, our coach, their coach, and the coaches' coach




In totally other news I was flipping through my links skimming for some info (trying to liven up break a bit and I noticed an interesting little factoid). While I'm fairly certain that we were hardly playing Stanford's A side in our little scrimmage against them back in November, their schedule/results say something quite contrary. We were listed as playing their A (which as I said I'm pretty sure that we did not) but it's interesting that we had the second closest score. The only team finished a match closer then us was the Scottsdale Lady Blues (a very respectable DI SoCal women's club) 24-21 with Stanford A coming out ahead. Which all in all is pretty nifty. Their results page is here so check it out for yourself. It's always so difficult navigating the strength of a side especially with D1 teams (with a-sides, mashups, and whatever the hell crawford is) and all of it means diddly squat because pre-season is all about rookie learnin' anyhoo. Oh but while I was looking up info for this I stumbled upon this:

STANFORD Women 27 - UC Santa Cruz 22 Referee: Anna McMahan

On another beautiful day for rugby the UC Santa Cruz women's team met a mixed A/B Stanford side on Stanford's lovely pitch. The game was tied at the half with two tries and one conversion apiece, but Stanford's slightly superior fitness helped them edge ahead by one try in the second half. Both teams played with intensity, and the game was marked by open play and committed defense. Stanford's 8 and 10 stood out, as well as UC Santa Cruz's 1.

At first I was kinda confused because I couldn't remember who was prop that day...yup you guessed it



mwahahahaa...ok so that really puts me in a better mood 'cause I've felt like I've played atrocious this pre-season (and excepting Scrum by the Sea....it's because I HAVE been playing shitty...) but ignoring all the stupid drama, and day to day frustrations...none of it matters.
a) it's pre-season...so woot...now it's time to buckle down and get in shape Season and Post-season is the only shit that matters
b) I was playing out of frickin position (which is useful and had it's reasons but deep down it's demoralizing for hookers to have to play prop...it really is)
c) I love the goddamn sport and so help me I'm going to keep playing till I get better at it and can play it in all its glory
d) after four long years of practice I think I've actually gotten decent at throwing lineouts....imagine that!

So hell yea I'm happy and looking forward to the upcoming season:
Jan 12th we've got our annual camp/scrimmage with UC Berkeley
Jan 19-20 is a stanford tournament
Jan 26 is DII kickoff tournament (whatever the hell that is...I'll check with our coaches)
Feb 2nd our first league game against Santa Clara
Feb 23 against Sac State (always a strong competitor and recently won a round robin match against Davis)
March 1 against San Jose
March 8 against St. Mary's
March 15, our promotional/relegation match against the #6 seed D1 NCRFU team

Nuts schedule eh? I'm glad I'll only be taking 17 creds...incidentally I'm going to be joining the news staff at KZSC....maybe I'll do a feature on norcal women's rugby...maybe on the All Blues and their involvement training collegiate players (with all the camps and sending their senior players out as coaches to local college sides). Or maybe on the folding/merges going on with the rest of the local club sides. etc etc...just ideas.

Yea collegiate ruggers kicking ass...

The U.S. starting lineup is: 1. Farrah Douglas (Chicago North Shore), 2. Lisa Butts (Berkeley All-Blues), 3. Jamie Burke (Berkeley All-Blues), 4. Shaina Turley (San Diego Surfers), 5. Stacey Baker (Philadelphia), 6. Liz Dilley (Washington), 7. Beckett Royce (Oregon Sports Union), 8. Blair Groefsema (Berkeley All-Blues), 9. Kim Magrini (Keystone Rugby Club), 10. Jossy Tseng (Stanford University), 11. Nathalie Marchino (Berkeley All-Blues), 12. Mel Kanuk (Maryland Stingers), 13. San Juanita Moreno (Oregon Sports Union), 14. Vanesha McGee (Philadelphia), 15. Ashley English (Berkeley All-Blues).

>Reserves for the match include: 16. Heather Jennings (Seattle), 17. Jaime Lange (Olde Girls of Glendale), 18. Kati McCormick (Univ. of Wisconsin – Milwaukee), 19. Jillion Potter (Univ. of New Mexico), 20. Rose Whitmore (Berkeley All-Blues), 21. Meg Crapster-Pregont (Cornell), 22. Ashley Kmiecik (Emerald City Mudhens).

Now I don't know about you but I'm a twenty-one year old out of shape lazy ass brute of a hooker who plays for a hippy sport-hating non-violent school for a goofy ridiculous motley DII team. I've only been playing rugby for four years but it's pretty cool that because of our clubs location I've:

played against Jossy Tseng (recent scrimmage against stanford)
played against Lisa Butts (Berkeley 10s scrimmage and maybe at the Chico Holiday Classic a couple years back)
got my ass routinely kicked by Blair Groefsema all summer long at palo alto 7s
trained with Shaina Turley at the Williams Rugby Camp
was coached by Ashley English at the Williams Rugby Camp (oh lord I suck at agility ladders)
had San Juanita Moreno on our sidelines cheering for the other team (PNRFU playoffs)
watched Vanesha McGee do her crazy awesome (when we hosted DII Elite 8s)

I know I've mentioned similar stuff before but eh it's a good motivator to get in shape and stop sucking. I don't have nearly enough talent to keep up with them but I'd love to give them a challenge once I move to a club side.

ps I really need to stop being lazy and learn how to edit video and fix my damn header illustration.

Schooooooools out for ...winter. Yeah!!!

Pelican Ref Report for UCSC vs Fortuna High School Girls Rugby Team

UC SANTA CRUZ women 57 – Fortuna HS SoCal 11 Referee: Rob Hendrickson
Fortuna High School girls drove down to Santa Cruz for a campus tour and friendly against the Slug women minus their seniors. As this is still pre season for the Slugs, and soccer had not yet released their lower pitch, the match was played on the upper field opposite the pool which was hosting a regional youth swim tournament.

Notwithstanding the score, the Fortuna girls played hard and well, consistently exhibiting the best open field tackling this ref has ever observed in HS girls play. The Slugs got a good run and a chance to hone their kick-and-chase game.

I could be experiencing a brain freeze but how would they score 11?
1 try and 2 conversions (ehhhh? why would you have two conversions?)
3 penalty kicks (I don't think thy had any)
3 drop goals (ditto)
ummm yo no se

National Collegiate Rugby Playoff Venue Change

breaking news


April 18-20
USA RUGBY NATIONAL GUARD COLLEGIATE PLAYOFFS: Division I Men and Women, Division II Men and Women (All Pools)
Albuquerque, N.M.: Balloon Fiesta Park
Hosted by: the Albuquerque CVB and USA Rugby

May 2-3
USA RUGBY NATIONAL GUARD COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Stanford, Calif.: Steuber Rugby Stadium
Hosted by: Stanford University

May 17-18
USA RUGBY SENIOR MEN’S CLUB PLAYOFFS:
Austin, Texas: Zilker Park
Hosted by: the Austin Rugby Club

May 30-June 1st
USA RUGBY NATIONAL GUARD BOY’S HIGH SCHOOL AND BOY’S AND GIRL’S U-19 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Founders Field
Hosted by: the Pittsburgh Harlequins

May 31- June 1
USA RUGBY SENIOR MEN’S CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
Glendale, Colo.: Infinity Park
Hosted by: City of Glendale

So yea, the solution to screwing over East Coast teams is by making them take TWO transnational trips. That makes sense! Anyhoo I don't really mind, makes things cheaper for me. What else...I'm almost halfway through all my shit......

1 page coversheet for my radio work
edit my journal
1 page paper on radio and civil rights
1 final
1 three page paper on surrealism
1 last meeting with all the radio heads at kzsc

I may actually get this shit done!!! Well ff to do it.
oh an my story on the Second National Food Bank's Holiday Food Drive went well but probably won't see air..sadness oh well I think I'll pass being a TA

ps....I just want to put this down. Queer Butch Asian. Yup, thanks for listening.

Fortuna High School Girl's Rugby Club

Our developmental side did relatively well against a strong High School side but more importantly our team made nice connections with some future collegiate ruggers. They came in at around 10-11 Friday night and we hosted them at various people's houses. The next morning they were taken on a tour of campus while I led the field crew setting up the pitch, the match was a full 80 minutes. I'll post pictures later, they had a large pack with some solid locks that gave our side some things to think about in the scrums. Their lifts were sharp and we were breaking in a new line-out thrower. Their backline was especially dangerous in the last quarter of the match where they repeatedly threatened to score. Both sides drastically improved during the match and yea...it was really hard being on the sidelines. After the match we had sandwichs etc and both teams coaches college coach was there to give away gifts from the South Africa Women's National team which was pretty freaking sweet.
I'll post pics later

I'm Out

For a little bit, we were idle this week but we should be hosting Fortuna High School next weekend for a little camp, scrimmage against our rookies, and tour of the school. Their coach Tina, among being one of our star alumns, is also a u19 forward coach. So it should be a good and telling challenge. Personally I'm out of the rugby loop for the next two weeks. School is my #1 and with 20 creds I have a LOT OF SHIT TO DO.

Side note I took a peek at the PCRFU playoff bracket posted by Theresa Champagne and it looks like it'll consist of the #1 and #2 NCRFU teams (norcal) vs the #1 and #2 PNRFU teams (pac northwest...ie oregon + wash). This is different because the last two playoffs involved only three teams (with Utah always backing out). Sooo yeah. I don't even know who normally gets 2nd in the PNRFU league...I could research it but a) the acronyms up there are hella confusing and b) I could just defer the question to Western Oregon's coach =]

ok peace

Wooohoo New Ranking For DII Collegiate Women's Rugby on Goff!

Damn...ykno I'm really sick of saying that mouthful...I mean shit it's almost like GLBTQQIA. Division Two Collegiate Women's Rugby. DII CWRugby....I mean that's shorter at least...suppose it wouldn't work if their is a CW rugby team. Really the whole club side thing is really confusing to explain to new players...with women's senior side I always end up abbreviating it as SS which just sounds wrong. Anyhoo enough rambling.......

Goff ranked us #5 in the nation and acknowledged the fact that we're in our preseason...which is cool. I just don't know where he's getting our record as 2-2. We won three games at slug fest and lost one. We won four games at scrum by the sea and lost one. And we lost to stanford.....so that's either 7-3 or 2-3 (if you're grouping our wins as single units) actually I just have no clue how it adds up. Either way I'm just really glad we're up there again, it just makes my heart light up a bit....I was getting a little worried because he hadn't updated in a while.

Anyhoo

I'm FREAKING OUT! I have four odd essays plus two stories plus making myself available to my students and finals. Oh my god I have no idea how I'm going to do this I have no time for rugby and holy freaking A I don't know how howhowhwowhowhwowowowhowwhow I'm going to do this. Really. I'm not going to fail out of college my Senior year. That's just DUMB. Ykno I'll worry about jobs later. I'll worry about life LATER. This year is about surviving...I'm no smart driven person...so yea screw ambition I just want to graduate. I have a WEEK one WEEK I don't write one paper in a week! AHHH.

UCSC vs Stanford Picture Gallery

Just to add some pics illustrating points made in previous posts....


We were popping them a bit in their scrum.


...and pretty freaking solid in our own lineout.


When they had won a ruck they REALLY created seperation..



We weren't the only ones hovering...


Yea Alyson is a beast


Lastly the team is going to be playing Fortuna High School in a week, with an emphasis on our rookie team learning the game against a really strong high school program coached by one of our alumni and All American Tina (damn I'll look up her last name). I probably mentioned this before but meh...if I did I forgot.

Nice little tag on goff

Goff had a nice little update on our game with Stanford...my head feels better and I'm pretty beat and only moderately behind in my schoolwork instead of the standard OMFG panic mode. Hmm what else...I'm really not working on my life though. Kind of worried that I'm completely screwed out of school. I know a lot of type A club side ruggers who are uber professional women with kick-ass jobs and education...I'm just wondering where I will fit into that. If I don't get a good job out of college I won't have the funds to go on trips or even pay dues. What if I don't get decent healthcare from my employment...will I be able to risk injury day after day. What if I do get injured...how will I continue working? I mean...I'll have to continue working but what about concussions and their debilitating effects...ehhhhh. I need a good job and I think I have to move somewhere cheap with jobs....like Durham NC...or Oakland...or Long Beach...I mean there is no way I could afford to live in Santa Cruz...I'm currently paying 650 bucks a month for a hole in the wall! I don't know what I'm ranting about...I just don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going.

LOST!

Maybe I'll go into radio...

Concussion!!!

I made it two tournaments without injury and whabbam...hello concussion. I was looking forward to resting this weekend SO much. Ahhhhhhhhhh. Well on the plus side we just played Stanford's B+ side and showed some bright spots but not a whole lot of team synergy. Eh...we were breaking in two completely new players and still had tons of rookies. We actually led the majority of the first half and they tied it just at the whistle. They notched up a cluster of scores early on in the 2nd half but we fought back a bit. Fitness was as always an issue against a D1 team and we ended the match with a try. Final score Stanford 27-22 UCSC. Not too shabby with a lot of players playing out of position (WILL I EVER HOOK AGAIN!?!?!?!?)...we dominated scrums in the first half and did pretty well there all day, our lineout was ridiculously solid and I'm really excited for our outside center Alyson ....something or other...I'm concussed what can I say. While Stanford was fielding mostlly b-side they did have some of their top players out there like their really amazing hooker who I'm too concussed to remember and Jossy Tseng (probably mispelled I'll edit this when the world stops spinning) and maybe somebody else. As always Stanford showed smart rugby, we managed to disrupt their precision and the were definitely weak in rucks (in the sense that they were always either poaching or setting up a picture perfect ruck and not necessarily driving...they were definitely winning rucks with speed and not power). They beat us around the outside a lot but that's to be expected...I made a nice break, assisted in a few tries, and nearly caught a few of their wingers. Saw Tina Neesburg there which was cool and talked to her a bit, come to think of it I probably sounded like a douche because I can' really think straight. Hence why I 'm stuck on campus with an inability to get home or really think of a better plan then waiting for my gf to get back from a field trip and take me home...we need to take care of our injured players better....any ideas on keeping injured teammates involved? Uhhh oh so is it official now that refs are playing longer advantage laws even if it isn't beneficial to the team with the supposed advantage? Just curious, I find it really weird cause the other team will commit an offense and retain the ball for two or three more phases before we'll go back to the penalty. This is the fourth or fifth reff that's done this, both in norcal and socal. I understand it's meant to free up the game but it's frustrating having to put in a number of tackles and rucks just to bring the ball back across half the field to where the penalty was originally ....originally...I can't think right now. Anyhoo hope everyone had a good saturday.

I have to post this POS just because it was such a pain to make

UGH

I was going to color the pins by TAU but I'll have to wait until after my six page paper, 5 page draft, midterm from hell, and two radio stories are turned in. AGHHH

Do mention if these are inaccurate...it was pretty hard to tell..

Scrum By the Sea 07

Wow these tournaments have really acted as pillars in the last four years of my life. It's crazy that this is my last year. Pass or fail out of college, either way it's on to real life. Saying that its a heavy feeling is an understatement.

Our backs captain just found out that she has a 200pg report to write for her internship on sustainable logging practices in Northern California....all I have to do is...well...not that much. So I just can't fall through the cracks...what would Prof. Thomas think of me...


Right well back to old age and rugby. I can't really tell you much about the tournament because we were in the social division and I was too lazy to try and find all the scores...or rather I was too busy juggling the 14 odd rookies we took down there (out of 19). Yea...it was definitely a weird experience being the only person in the 12 person van who remembered the old breed. We played surprisingly decent considering we had 1 years leading the team. I don't have a snot of leadership in me, a major weakness I know. But yea...the first day started with UGLY victories against Univ. of Arizona, Oxy, and UCLA B. None of our backs hit anything at full speed and had trouble realigning, our forwards had a lot to learn. I made two breakaways by running the right line...which was just weird being a hooker with 35-40m runs...wish I had the gas to finish them...*sigh* sprinting workouts for me. Got a little peeved the first day, but it was a necessary evil, we needed to train hookers so I was propping 4/5 of the games. On the second day we played U of A again and clicked more, and it was a lot cleaner. We scored about two tries in every match barring the last one against UCLA's A-side. PS while I always love this tournament I think it was kinda nuts to have the social division square off against the highest scoring teams in the serious division..just because almost every one of those games ended with an ambulance. Not that it couldn't have happened anyways but there is a huge difference going from playing fellow DII teams to UCLA's A-side which I'm not sure but supposedly was giving chico a hard time. Either way we held them to 3 points till the half when we made a few subs and our defensive line (which is all we were really doing) finally collapsed and they scored 3-4 tries on us. Eh. Overall a fun tournament and I'm kind of glad we won't be traveling that far again for a long while

le *gasp*

So I spend my Wednesdays in the Lionel Cantu GLBTQI (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex) center because its right next the the radio station and its just a comfy place to hang out and study. The staff there has always supported our team and thanks to the center, UCSC recently was ranked one of the top ten GLBT friendly colleges in the nation. Pretty cool eh? Well I just flipped through the Advocate college guide and under the category of the best place to check out ladies:....duh duh duh...is the Women's rugby team!! Seriously! That's frickin' great!

hehee

Ok in other news Chico went up four spots in Goff's D1 ranking solely because of their performance at slug fest...which is pretty funny that our goofy little tourney is getting press.

What else...hopefully we're going to scrum by the sea...I don't see why we wouldn't...it's pretty much the coolest west coast tournament ever.

Slug Fest '07

Woo! I can't move my neck! I'm missing a ligament in my right forearm! I have a dead leg that just won't go away! And my middle finger is jammed! Slug Fest went pretty cool, our rookies learned a lot. I can only really speak about our scrums and we were teaching A LOT of new props and locks and hell they did really well. I can't tell you scores because I was front row the entire time and lord knows we have no memory. We won 3 out of the 4 games...beat SLO, UCLA, and Sac State and Humboldt beat us so fun games all around. The tournament was kind of a weird bracket hybrid (I think someone was watching too many world cup matches). Chico and...I want to Humboldt came out on top. It was bloody hot for Santa Cruz with the weather at 80 degrees. We had lots of teams come out: Sac State, Humboldt, Reno, Chico, Davis, SLO, UCLA, and us...pretty damn cool turnout.


Lots of interesting comments were being slung around on goff and now the comments section on articles have vanished...odd.

What else...lots of hostility towards Flores...I think she's running a damn tight ship with the national team and I trust her...but who really cares what a DII collegiate hooker thinks anyhoo.

I really need to get on track with school. The quarter is halfway over...I need to get on this shit.

more on slugfest + pictures later.

oh and a TON of our kids have rolled ankles...what the hell our pitch isn't that bad.

I'm really disturbed right now...

So I was checking out the links that people take to get to my site and yea...someone found my site when they were searching for...and I quote "welsh gang bangs". Yea. So I'm like no freakin' way and so I searched google. Lo and behold my blog is the FIRST thing that comes up for "welsh gang bangs". Really...really people? Anyways...now that I've established my dominance on the subject of "welsh gang bangs" I guess I'll return to rugby blogging.

Which is to say that field crew kind of sucks....and I can't believe two facts.

1) the IRB provides 0 funding for women's rugby (or at least US women's rugby)

2) that it's going to cost the individual woman eagle 1500 frickin bucks to go on tour. Then I realize that I paid half of that just to compete in Elite 8s at the collegiate DII level. Eh....well it was worth it and I'd imagine it'd be a million times more rewarding to do it for my country. Thing is...I couldn't imagine how much money one would have to make to be able to take out expenses like that...geez talk about a lot to handle.

Ok anyhoo
another short clip from last years PCRFU playoffs.

Wendy & Blondie make a good point

Yup, promotion of women's rugby so I'll be deleting stupid rash comments shortly. Hopefully no offense was taken..its more of a frustration over the administration then at the individual team. But the situation was just stated more succinctly with a two word phrase. So full apologies for that one.



Lastly, Slugfest is set for t-minus two days and I'm pretty frickin excited. We have more D1 teams then expected...and I'm in charge of field crew. So posts, security rope, flags and pads...at least we don't have to spray paint the lines by hand again (yes you heard that right...from HAND, if anyone is wondering why the lines weren't straight last year). So far we have UCLA, Sac State, Humboldt, SLO, and others confirmed and chico should show. Can't wait to see our rookies in action. We should actually have some lock-sized locks this year...'magine that.

Final final note....I totally forgot that DII women's s/s (senior side) wasn't sponsored by USA rugby.


little clip of a PCRFU playoff match Western Oregon losing a lineout to Sac State

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!

Couldn't Help it

The world cup is starting in 11 hours. SO many surprises. Dwayne Peel is Captain? Hook is fly-half, wales has five ex-captains on the bench. Argentina moved their star fullback to fly-half(when they have a fab fly-half) etcetcetc

and this was way too cute