Women's Rugby Footage?! On the web!? No Way!

Thank you Agent of Change for Good! Whoever you are you're a frickin angel! Anyone who is a fan (or coach, admin, ref, or involved player) of the women's game knows it's nigh impossible to watch women's matches online. Often we have to sustain ourselves on poorly shot clips and snips on youtube...which is nice for recruitment but not as effective as a teaching tool. With how few Eagle matches there are you'd think interested women's clubs could request DVDs of the match. Utilize bitorrent to quickly share matches and make the material available because frankly streaming is not the most sustainable option. I know I'm just griping...*sigh* especially since all I can do is sit on my ass. Ugh. Well here's some videos of the Women's Eagle 7s squad in Dubai





there are more on the AgentofChangeforGood's channel

What else...I only got to go to one practice and it was more of a conditioning practice for Belmont Shore's men's team. Only two of our girls went but luckily (and unfortunately) it was two of the fittest girls on our team, and while I'm getting pretty antsy being on my ass all the time I'm pretty glad I didn't have to get through this practice. To start out with there were about 35-40 guys who showed up (I guess all their eagles were at a camp somewhere) and it was an amalgam of Belmon Shore, CSULB, and Belmont's youth program. So they started out running on this long thin strip of grass (about 100m in length) with numerous palm trees every couple of meters. The drill started with a group of about 3-4 running through the course with a ball popping the ball to each other. The ballcarrier would run up to a palm tree, transition the ball to the proper arm to create separation, turn, step out of the line to create space and pop it to a person communicating and coming with speed from depth. Pretty simple drill right? But I really liked how they used an organic drill (the ballcarrier would just choose a route to a palm tree and the support had to react and reposition themselves to keep the ball flowing in bounds. It was also nifty that the opponent was something physically there and easily visible from ones peripheral vision and not just a cone or something. The players were instructed to really burst through the drill and then jog it back and the coach broke up the drill once or twice to emphasize communication, timing in respect to both the ballcarrier choosing to turn and the support, as well as doing the whole thing at pace. All in all they probably ran the drill about 15-20 times through. One of the important points that their coach finished on was emphasizing the importance of turning on the heat at the end of the drill. Players were apparently slowing down near the end of it and he reminded them that working your way down to the 22m it's the last bit where you have to really turn it on and be more precise! It's the whole red zone bit but I thought it was neat that he was reminding them of a meta-purpose within the drill. After this the guys were nice and sweating (they had done some sort of four corners but we had gotten lost on the way there and had missed it) and he split them up into forwards and backs mostly in order to group them by approximate fitness levels. The forwards ran 8 sets of steep beach stairs two at a time and then switched to what the backs were doing which was 25 or so sand sprints from the water up to the sidewalk. After this the two groups got back together, got a quick pep talk and then did a grueling 16 hill runs. Now I know you're thinking I mean hill sprints or something...no...I mean hill runs of about a half a mile or so each...it took the fastest super league (non-eagle) players about 45+ minutes to finish, the rest of the pack finished in about 60. Yeesh! Mo finished about 8th but I know she was killing her knee and the other girl we brought (a rookie) managed to finish about 4th from last (and only because she skipped the beach sprints and ran cross-country in high school). Long story short I'm glad I missed that one, at least in my current couch potato state (thanks doc!).

From a coaching perspective it was pretty neat some of things men's coaches can do. If the coach was talking, everyone shut the fuck up and listened. If the coach called on you, you answered. He was allowed to crack a joke, you were not. Some guy was late and he reamed them in front of people, he made sure they knew that he noticed. After the run he gave 'em a pep talk (they have their first league game right after the holidays) and basically told them they needed to work harder but fuck their teammates who didn't show up for holiday practice. It was neat that he just said it outright that he'd bench those that didn't come, no excuses no bullshit. He called out player's names who he noticed were pushing it in the run (and not just the people who finished first), it was cool seeing them perk up after being mentioned. Overall the coaches were extremely supportive and positive during the drills and especially through the run. Telling them to push it, but lots of positive feedback as well. I dunno it was a neat, efficient practice. There was the head coach, an assistant coach, two managers and a trainer as well as parents of the two youth players on hand. Talk about nifty!

Oh and I also got to talk to the assistant coach about defensive organization drills. They teach a three position defense as well but they emphasize pushing out rather then in. His point was that fitter teams benefit from an outward pushing defense and that was their reason for doing so. Their positions were post, nine, and 1st receiver. Post pushed up and took the inside channel or anyone running back inside, nine protected from a nine drift and pushed up and out, and 1st receiver took the same sort of line and took the (duh) first receiver. His basic drill for teaching this was having a set of halfbacks and some forwards on offense and then have the defense in groups away from the drill, do some fitness like a couple of push-ups and then run into the drill and set up a defense. As players get more comfortable with the drill he sets up a couple stations spread out on the field so they have to run in and set up a defensive line, come up, then retreat backwards, reset, come up, then run to yet another station and repeat. Like the All Blues defense he stressed filling in on the weak side first, going post weak then post strong then 9 weak 9 strong then 1st w and 1st s. Oh and I got clarification that when the defense needs to put more people weakside posts don't really move, people on the strong side (not p,9,1) run behind the line and reinsert themselves on weak side when necessary. I know this is a confusing way to put things but we really really really need some defensive organization so I'm just writing down my notes and kind of comparing and contrasting. He was a bit harder to understand then the main coach and he was probably unsure about how much I understood about rugby. He also mentioned that grubber kicks are really effective against centers who run up aggressively in defense. Which I thought was odd because it would seem like fullback position would also be a factor in that sort of calculation. The gist of it was Belmont Shore a top super league men's team uses the same three position defensive organization off of the breakdown as the All Blues except they push outwards where the ABs push in. So it'll be interesting to see what UC Berkeley does (UC Santa Cruz's season).

Oh well. This has been a long winded post. It's always fascinating seeing how different coaches coach. Well I'll be moving to the bay and there are a number of phenomenal coaches in the area, hopefully I'll be able to catch practices with Kathy Flores, Alex Williams, Ellen Owens, Griff, Mary T, and others. This should be an interesting year =] Now lets just heal up this hip! Two more weeks and we'll see!

Rugby Short Films

Seem to be popping up everywhere with the end of the quarter.



Like this vid from UVA


Right, so I'm waiting on Wednesday to see the specialist and if need be get surgery in the two week window where I still have health insurance. Alright. Wish me luck.

Actually, I broke my hip

Yeah. Got the X-rays and I have a fracture on my hip (socket). Yup. (@#(&#*@()* I'll find out more on Wednesday and I'm praying to @(*#&@#(*& that I just have to rest it. I can't afford surgery and my student insurance drops me at the start of January. Obviously no insurance packet will pick up the tab for an existing injury (or not for 6 months) so if I need pins and crap I'm fucked. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Well at least my parents know (and my mother is freaking out about the money (and not me) sooo I'm going to have a pleasant break...I get to work on my resume and try and get a job...with a BROKEN HIP. Awesome! Like I'm not already the worst candidate ever. *sigh* expect more depressing crap as my life spirals down the drain. Please note that I'm not actually this emo but putting up with all the people in my life who are is forcing me to be emo here. Ugh. PS it's weird when your LAU representative friends you on facebook. Really...it is. Wish me luck anyhoo.

Probably not a fracture

and most likely I just did some major soft tissue/muscle damage to the area that stabilizes my hip. So it's just a waiting game between rest (which I suck at doing...all I do is sit on my ass UNTIL I get hurt and then I'm crutching around like a spastic 11 year old), ice, and arnica until my check up on Thursday. Joy. On the plus side I've written the last essay of my undergraduate career (and am only one bullshit horror film final away from being done with this shit!) Yea I just need some rest, I pulled an all nighter last night killing two essays with one jittery 4am session. Now I just got to remember to stop leaving my (@*&# cell phone in places I can't easily reach it (and the crutches).

Sweet! I might have dislocated my hip. Yes. My hip.

Isn't that cool?? It's only finals week, right before I move out of my house, have to visit the fam....alright alright I know I've already given the long list before but j@#@# c@#@Qt of all the luck! Hopefully it's nothing major but I'll find out on Tuesday. Until then I don't know what to do. Ice, rest, Ice, rest, arnica, Ice, rest. Ugh. I wish I knew what it was...it was just a bunch of snaps in my hip region/side of my leg when I went down in a tackle (my stupid fault looking for the offload in a scrappy scrimmage). I knew something wasn't right but it didn't hurt that bad and I tried to walk it off but my legs were super shaky from the adrenaline. After taking a walk I started to feel it more and my leg just felt like dead weight that was pulling my leg out of it's hip socket. Basically my leg just feels like it's falling off so um I'm just figuring dislocation. I can walk if I severely limit my range of motion but I can't take stairs or lift my leg vertically without the "falling out of its socket uncomfortable gross and ghostly sensation". Erm. So. I hope it's alright. If anyone has any ideas I'd love for you to comment. This sucks but such is life. Maybe I'll actually write my last two essays...heh...

Wrapping it all up.

My senior seminar final is over. One class down, two to go. It's really just small things now...8 page paper aside (it wouldn't be bad but I've run out of things to discuss in the class). I have about a week after Wednesday to get my shit clean and packed, fix the car, say goodbye to my cat, and move. Bleh. The list gets shorter and I wish it wouldn't. It's weird leaving my family here at UCSC, the team and others. We had an Olympic lifting clinic instead of our normal practice which was fun 'cause I got to hang out with all the kids and learn something new. I did olympic lifting through high school and I never really got it until now. A big thanks to our volleyball coach and OPERS staff for taking there time to help us out on this. I got a nice farewell after practice, heh a 35 odd person group hug...the club has grown so frickin much. Now we just need the infrastructure to adjust to the numbers. It's weird thinking that in a week I'm not going to see these women three times a week...I mean 4 years of habit is gonna be hard to change.

Lots of exciting things are happening locally in rugby land. Our alumni Vanessa Wilson is trying to start a HS team at Santa Cruz High School, the students she works with in Watsonville HS are also interested in starting a rugby team. She's looking for help in that regard so if anyone lives in the south bay area and wants to help out just leave a comment and I can hook you up there. There's so much rugby developing in the South Bay just as I'm leaving it =p ehehe oh well it's all good. The more rugby the better, right? I wish I could help more then I am, I'm just loaning her a few rugby games on dvd.

Berkeley apparently doesn't start up again until February =p at which point I'll for sure have a job and then I get to worry about scheduling conflicts. On the plus side UC Berkeley appears to have a packed calendar so I ought to be able to watch and or participate with somebody. Maybe I can get a UCB gym pass for Christmas...

What else, speaking of fitness it's pretty nifty, we've got a number of girls in the south bay (LA) and I think I can convince them to go train with Belmont over break. The landsharks are doing fitness/light drills with their mens team on Tues-Thurs and hopefully I can convince our kids to go out and train with them. So hopefully a few of them can play 7s with them over summer or something. (I'll be down for two of these practices and I'm looking forward to getting my ass kicked!)

Right, and here's a lovely short film by Jessica Vazquez from Sac State (damnit and I could've been in it too if my car had been working...and yknow...I wasn't terrified of driving). It's an awesome film so check it out.

Losing Home Again...

On a positive note I'm going to be living with my teammates family in Oakland for a very cheap rate. Which fixes a couple of my problems with one stone...but I've still got a crap load to do. I spent four days down south with the fam which was fairly relaxing despite all the work on my plate but my ride up left at 4:40am this morning...and I went to bed around 12-1am (getting my best friend nice and sauced to make up for missing his wedding). Ugh..I can't believe finals are next week, I'm completely unprepared for my seminar final (plus two papers...which wouldn't be a big deal but....) I still have to fix my car, pack, organize moving, move, write a resume, completely replace my wardrobe, learn how to act like an adult and present myself well, get a job, figure out how I want to improve my education, insurance, taxes, cell phone bills, become an adult. Shit.

Short choppy steps! Also on a nice note I've managed to drop around twenty lbs this quarter (woot I'm now 202...and 5'2")...which is pretty damn good considering it's mostly from improving what I eat (fiber + anti-oxidants + carbs + veggies - bacon - sausage - mayo - sugar). I mean I'm sure I've lost a fair amount of muscle because I've been more of a coach then a player this quarter but my next goal to get firmly under the 200 mark because I'm definitely going to have to lean up and get fit to play for/learn from ze blues.

Other rugby notes...because y'kno this is a rugby blog:

STANFORD women 50 – UC Santa Cruz 17 Referee: Tony Redmond
Stanford 50 (5G, 3T), Santa Cruz 17 (1G, 2T)
A pretty open game played in good spirit. First penalty after 22 minutes and no more than 8 in the entire game, the majority in the last 20 minutes after players lost their shape through tiredness, which is to be expected at this stage of the season. Stanford scored 34 unanswered points in the first half as they were faster and more controlled at the breakdown, which led to a nice supply of quick ball that their backs made full use of. Stanford scored first in the second half and then went to sleep to allow Santa Cruz to score three times (starting with an intercept try) before they finished off with a last minute score to reach the half century.

Speaking of the Stanford match...I did my usual snooping about and found the professional pictures of the match and gee whiz...biased or not (they were taken by a Stanford Faculty) they were pretty humiliating to go through. Out of curiosity I pulled out all the pictures where our players were attempting to tackle their ball carriers and there were about 71 pictures of missed tackles. Yeeeesh...I know what we're doing on Tuesday...

Also from the week before Kathy Flores seems to be making her presence felt in the collegiate league with her new team getting some pretty high complements from the refs (despite and in light of some favorable but low-scoring matches against established semi-final D1 finishers UC Davis)

UC DAVIS MINI-TOURNAMENT Referee: Bjorn Stumer
Arriving at Davis' Pioneer Park expecting a match between UC Davis Women and St. Mary's, I was pleasantly surprised that what was on tap instead was a mini tournament between Davis' A & B sides, St. Mary's, and USF.

On tap, four 30-minutes mini-match, and a 20-minute one to close the proceedings.

UC Davis A-Side vs. St. Mary's 15-0. The Davis ladies just too strong for a St. Mary's team which, though well drilled and committed, is obviously rebuilding. Three unconverted tries by Davis and no score for St. Mary's.

UC Davis A&B Sides combined vs. USF 0-0. If you lamented the fact that the USF ladies have long advertised for a coach, fret no more. One Kathy Flores (of World Cup & Eagles fame) came to their rescue, and the results were immediately apparent. Although the USF ladies are a new and inexperienced side, they are the ones to watch in the near future. A sturdy pack, and a great back line helped them keep Davis at bay. Much back & forth, but no score.

Another UC Davis amalgam & USF. USF seemed to improve as the day went by. Their pack grew in effectiveness, and their backs dazzled with their runs and their tackling. USF 5 - Davis 0. The score could have been higher if the USF ladies had passed a bit more.

St. Mary's vs. UC Davis B Side. St. Mary got the best of Davis on this one. Plenty runs, and much tackling. The close score reflects the closely matched skills of the two teams. Final Score: St. Mary 5 - Davis 0

St. Mary's - USF 5-5. USF continued to surprise as, for a new side, they play with skill and panache. This last match was an abbreviated one, with two 10 minutes halves. The first half saw a try scored by each side with no conversions. With a couple of minutes from to go in the second half, with the agreement of both coaches, I ended the match. This due to a collision between two of the St. Mary's ladies. In 35 years of Rugby I have never heard the sound of two heads hitting as hard as on this occasion - a sound like the throwing of a coconut against the wall. Both ladies went down and were assessed by a doctor on the sidelines. A visit to the emergency room was recommended for both, even though they were on their feet, albeit groggily. Spectators reported to have heard the sound of the collision clear across the whole length of the pitch. My best wishes to both players!

In spite of this frightening episode, this was a glorious day. Beautiful weather, committed sportswomen playing hard, and with their customary good behavior. A goodish crowd on tap, and fun for all."

Alright so hopefully I'll be able to get in contact with some Davis players and get the lowdown on this suddenly competitive hoedown (yea that was cheesy) here.

Oh and the Davis Double Deckers did it again and won the Chico Holiday Classic, beating out UC Davis 44-0(who must be tired of playing them by now) and SLO 34-0 for the win. You can tell that the DDDs are itching at the trigger to take on the Pac Coast league coming this fall (or spring...I really ought to have someone explain the women's senior schedule cause it sounds confusing as hell). While I'm on that note I really should get on finding out when the All Blue practice is in January...

Hmm speaking of joining up and recruiting...it's kind of mondo frustrating that Berkeley hasn't updated their website in ages...I mean...you'd think that winning the National Championship would be a cause for updating your site right? I mean even just the heading...2007 nat champs...it's one digit change and it's 2008 champs..*sigh* oh well. Seemingly in direct contrast you have NY, which (I don't check up often, but) always seems to keep their stuff up to steam publicity wise...and here's nifty new recruiting video they put out (ok I think it's a little hokey...I mean they throw every buzzword and the kitchen sink out there but there's some gloss to it) but NY always seems to win the team unity contest (but maybe that's just the view from across the nation)




One final note...did you know that using your knee or heel to quick tap the ball is illegal? Doing so results in a scrum on the mark with the put-in (duh) to the other team. Yup. Now you know.

A break from resting...

Every once in a while I get curious as to why people visit my site. Since k-train is about the only one who comments on my blog I really have no clue other then checking out the referral page which basically shows what (weird and wonky thing) that people searched in order to pull up my site. More often then not it's some peculiar mish mash of phrases that google smushes together as a result for some especially odd search queries. One thing that's encouraging is the number of really odd search terms are far outweighed by fairly relevant ones, which is cool 'cause it implies that it might actually be useful for something. Here's a list of some from the last couple of weeks...(and no...none of them have beat "welsh gang bang" from the first year that I started this blog) So without further ado here is a list of randomly selected searches (excluding those searching for really boring stuff like...ykno...game results and such) in addition to my lovely commentary track:


mouth-guard pushups discipline (sometimes you just wonder what kinky crap people are looking for)
rugby and stereotypes(this came up a few times...maybe someone is writing a paper?)
how many times is a scrum won against the head(I don't know...how many licks does it take to finish a tootsie pop?)
chico davis(I'm glad my blog comes up SECOND when you search "chico davis"...this doesn't say anything about the area I swear)
hangover blackouts(so they checked a rugby blog...of course)
rugby hooker in college (woo +1 points)
Laura Cabrera rugby November 08 (*gasp* I might have included useful information for once)
rugby mmo(and I thought I was nerdy, someone apparently wants to go online and play rugby with people all over the world...instead of doing it in real life)
my cheekbone hurts(pobrecito! Ask a trainer not a hooker)
tina best alumni (?? It wouldn't be weird but it was searched in some Slavic version of google)
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN UNTOUCHED THROW-IN ENTERS THE THROWER'S GOAL FOR NEBRASKA (I don't know, sounds like soccer which means bzzzzzzzzt wrong sport)


Alright, this concludes my helpful little section...where all of your random ass questions can be answered...even if they are ridiculously off topic and I don't understand why you even clicked on my blog...

I'm stressed and sick and about to be homeless again.

The long story in a very short amount of time. UC Santa Cruz scrimmaged a B side Stanford and lost 50-17. It wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't exactly good either. Territory wasn't that bad of an issue but possession killed us. It was hard to watch from the sidelines as our defense (if it had applied a modicum of pressure) could have helped enormously. While scrums were initially fairly steady, our hooker had issues getting the ball back in the second half and our put-ins were being driven back eliminating any possibility of a platform (rucks were a lost cause). Stanford did a good job spreading the ball wide and simultaneous tiring out our pack and creating massive overloads (which they often didn't end up exploiting). It was surprising the sheer amount of knock-ons they had during the first half (that was about the only kind of infringement in the whole game). The three Santa Cruz tries came from our backs. The first was an intercept try, the second by...well I didn't see it but someone told me it was from exploiting a break in their defense, and the third a score on the outside thanks to an overlap. Eh lots of other stuff happened but I have a cold and I'm going to move on. Yea I'm sick. It sucks. I'm stressed 'cause my landlord was layed off and he's moving back in early January so I have to pack out before them. I get out of finals on dec 10 then go home dec 17 and won't be back till the very end of december. Leaving me precious few days to repack my life and move it up to Oakland IF I find a place (NOW) to live and WORK all this DURING finals. Ahhhhhhhhhahaha! Yea and I have a brainsucking deathcold and I can't think. Soooo real life is kicking my ass right now and I'm going to take a nap.

Fun at Flanker

My shoulder has been feeling fine all week so I joined in on practice today. Fun stuff, did some forwards work and while the scrum wasn't great, it was holding up a lot better then it was on Tuesday. We ran a full XV vs XV which was fun as hell. Definitely was sloppy and our pack still needs to work together as a unit but it went alright. Ack I think I saw my first broken nose, one of our flanks face planted into someone else...that was pretty rough. Oh so I went in at flank which was magnificently fun and made a number of plowing runs (it's just so damn easy when you aren't grunting away in the front row). Anyhoo captains were elected, field captain is Rebecca "Becca" Rozo-Marsh (#9*), forwards cap is Kari "Lenny" Lentz (#8*) and backs cap is Rosie "Jersey" Chesney (#10*). I'm planning on sending them a packet so they can really review the laws of the game/memorize the damn hand signals. I may be living with one of my rookies family...interesting....hopefully we don't get killed too bad at Stanford ('cause it looks like I'm meeting them there...which is bad timing...with them seeing their daughter play rugby for the first time 'n all). Oh and our prop decided to remix a familiar standard with an operatic version rewritten as "The pitch is alive with the sound of scrummaging!!!"




Isn't it a great picture...now we just need her to redo it in a jersey and perform it before games (what's great is she really is a classically trained opera singer)

alright updates on my life situation and much much more coming up (aren't you excited)

Feeling nerdy!

Yea this post doesn't really have a point...we've got a match against stanford this sunday. Our scrum was creaking at practice but since I was out (and plenty of folks were chattering away with the forwards) I decided to watch the backs practice receiving kicks and counter-attacking. I think I'll be ready to practice by Thursday, my shoulder/neck feels alright. Luckily I don't have to play on Sunday..heh who recently beat St Mary's 126-0. Stanford also recently lost to the Davis Double Deckers 44-19 (not to be confused with UC Davis) a strong women's D1 senior club (but new to the scene). What else...oh I've been learning to program in small basic (a language developed to teach CHILDREN how to program...) and I've had a lot of fun with it. Not surprising my first program relates to rugby. Here's a screenshot of it.



Isn't it spiffy? Updates on the UCSC vs Stanford match to come. And hopefully I get a house I'm interviewing for!

Niggling Neck Injuries

are never a good thing. It ends up when I smashed up my face at scrum by the sea I also did in my neck. I didn't really feel it on the day of the tournament but I've definitely been feeling it all week and it's not been pleasant. I can't really tell what triggers the sharp excruciating pain but it seems to be when I lean my head back and tilt it a bit...somewhere in my right shoulder/neck. It's getting slightly better but I think I'm going to pull myself out of practice...which stinks but yea, there's no reason to hurt myself in pre-season. We have a game this coming weekend against Stanford but I doubt I'll be in it (time to really blood the rookies). Eh what else...Japan beat the US MNT!! That so makes my day! Um and Blondie's back so hooray for Saturday's a Rugby Day. If anyone has any advice on my neck I'd love to hear it...I've never had neck pain like this in my life but I don't have the cash to waste my time/money at my school's health center (which has mis-diagnosed me like 5 million times and charges up the ass). OH! That's the awesome news that I forgot! Our team might have trainers! We might ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO USE OUR SCHOOLS TRAINERS!!! We've never been able to do that in all five years I've been at this damn school! How awesome is that...we can finally have injuries evaluated by someone who actually gives a shit and stop compounding injuries through ignorance. And it starts next quarter. @(#(&@#(*@#&*(@*(&#@#*&(!!!!

And the All Blues for the win!

First off, duh, I have to say that the All Blues won the National Women's Club Rugby Championship. So hat's off to them! They beat NY 25-17 in what is reported to be a rather awesome match. I don't have the roster for who was in the match but a lot of it seems similar to the squad I got to see in action.

UC Santa Cruz was down at Scrum by the Sea, lovingly put on every year by UC San Diego. We thought we were going to field two sides but for some reason or other we didn't get two teams in. Which ended up being chill and we just made full subs at the half. Which is awesome that we're starting to build up a squad that's big enough to do that. Played our first match of the year against Univ of Arizona was a bit of a struggle. Our rookies were still getting used to the idea of a flat defense and not playing sandlot soccer. It didn't help that they had a pretty brutal 8 + 10 who refused to go down in the tackle and had stripping arms that would make a D1 flanker jealous. Yup so our ability to set up rucks really suffered as a result (cause our rookies thought rugby was supposed to be played at this constant, pop the ball out of contact pace. The second match was a lot smoother, it helped that it was against UCLA's B side so the fundamentals were there, rucks were cleaner and even existed. Oh, forgot, we won both games by a couple of tries which says a lot about our attacking potential. We had almost no possession and territory in the first match and still managed to pull off the win. We scored off of probably the two times we had the ball. The second match against UCLA B had three tries, including a sweet little chip over the top by our fly which she recovered, was tackled, placed, and then was picked up and carried over by our 8.

Right so that was the end of day 1.

Day 2: A good match against Davis B (who was fielding more of a split side) at this point we had some significant improvements in our phases and defensive organization. We still had the odd flanker hanging out with the fullback...^^; oh and I scored a pretty cool try off a tap and go about 30 m out, ehheh which was good fun 'cause I tried out the whole juking thing in order to shift the point of contact and it worked pretty damn well (thank you Berkeley). We won that one pretty handily and it was just a nice clean match with a number of buddies on the other team, like UCD's 10 Jen and our 8s twin.





Davis' 8 on the left and our 8 on the right. Did I mention they both wear scrum caps?

What else...then we played a rather scrappy match against Humboldt. It was sloppy on both sides but unfortunately a certain player on their team felt it necessary to bring violence and dirty play into the mix. Unfortunately a yellow card didn't seemed to deter her...anyhoo their scrum-half was quite nice. We beat them handily but they scored the first try against us in the tournament.

Last game of the day was against old friends and league rivals Cal State Sacramento. With a number of grizzled vets they pretty much ran riot over us. They had been slaughtering teams all tournament and I think we held them to about five or so against us. It wasn't pretty but at least it was pretty fun all around. Their lineout wasn't as effective as normal but it's 'cause they were training in a new hook. But their backline was pretty lethal with no one on are team willing or able to tackle them.

So four wins one loss...not bad. I propped for the tournament, which was a pretty new experience for me. I really need to learn how to lift because I was getting frustrated being so useless during lineouts (I wasn't particularly helpful at fire). I'm pretty happy with the prop pair (excluding me) that we have, our locks got some work in, we have some really nifty rookie flankers. We have a lot of aggressive speed in our backs and for the most part their handling isn't too bad and they aren't shy of putting pressure and tackling. Our lineouts definitely need work, it's a big adjustment with completely new pods and new hookers. (the ball's going in wonky to pods that are only getting halfway up). Our scrum is improving, everyone has a better grasp of what is necessary to hold a scrum up...now we just have to rebuild it so they're working together and really popping the other side (we were kind of sitting ducks at the tournament, and never got clean ball because of it). Not too many injuries, a bruised rib, dislocated knee, broken shoulder, and a neck injury scare. I swear it just isn't scrum by the sea if an ambulence doesn't drive on the field at least 4 times a day.

Networking-wise it was pretty cool to see the old farts on the teams for probably the last time. Rabbit from U of A, props from pretty much every team...ahhh nostalgia. Speaking of which it was pretty funny I got to talk to Oxy and apparently they've been wearing the same set of jerseys for the last 5+ years...and there's not a single rip on 'em. I don't know how that works but either way I'm jealous. Well I got confirmation from the woman herself...Laura Cabrera is retired (she was down there helping coaching UC Berkeley) I was surprised to see that she wasn't down in Florida at least helping out the Blues. I talked to Ellen Owens head coach of UCB about showing up to a few of her practices to just watch her coach and she was super nice about it =] Oh and total sidenote I heard this rumor from my coach that Kathy Flores is going to coach the new Univ San Francisco team that's joining our league. Heh well if that's true holy shit it's a whole new ballgame. We'll see how that develops.

Uh this following stuff is from a post that I was working on right after the Berkeley Hit like a bear clinic:

I love learning from the All Blues. I was a lot more open/less shy about asking questions this year and as a result got a lot more out of it (player specific). Mari Wallace was working with the hookers and some of the key words / phrases she talked about was being responsible for ones own balance and stability. The technique that they were training involved the hooker having only slightly offset feet with wide footing, bind on the number, it's more important to have flexed have engaged arms, hooking foot used as handbrake and lifted on the engage (core to keep body even, props not leaning over to bind either, locks are responsible (new bind) to keep front row together this will allow props to focus on engaging square. Props should rest their outside arm on their thigh/knee to maintain balance while setting up, also ruck post x y and their responsibilities. and practice new style of throw in, bend at the hips then knees, work on my core! Yea those are my scribbled notes...sorry I'm too lazy to edit them into something coherent.
----------------------
*sigh* I wrote an 8 pg paper yesterday in 3 hours I'm just a little too tired to make sense.

but long story short I love how much you can learn from them.

There's so much more to talk about but this is it. I'm tired. Run with it. More pictures, stories, gossip, and techniques to come. Next next sunday we're playing Stanford. Hopefully we'll do better then St. Mary's who lost +100-0 or something like that. Sorry for the long delay on this post. I've been busy trying to find a job, a house, and pass my classes.

A Rougher...Longer Week

Yup one guess why I haven't posted in a while. That's right. Midterms! And me procrastinating...a lot. So much so that I can't even write one lousy post to inform you that I'm being lazy and procrastinating. Eghhhhh. Anyhoo I need to get back to studyin...ah hell who am I kidding...procrastinating so I'll have to post after Tuesday. Yup. Updates on the camp, slugfest being cancelled, the rookies progress, NAWIRA 7s, the Women's Club post-season, and run-ins with ruggers around Santa Cruz. This and much much more...as soon as I can force myself to write this @(*#(*@#&(*#@(*& paper!

A Long Rough Week

I'm finally getting back into being in school...doing those great little things like reading occasionally and participating in class and occasionally thinking. Practice has been doing swell...we're down to about 25 rookies or thereabouts which is a lot easier to handle...relatively speaking. We've gotten into contact but not positional stuff...or rucks really...erm yea tomorrow should be interesting. They're fairly comfortable with contact and we worked them into the "try dot" drill (two players, one gets the ball, they both have to run around a cone and the ball carrier tries to score on the opposite starting point while the defender attempts to tackle) which is always a fun one. Intensity is improving but handling fundamentals fluctuate a lot...inconsistent passes etc. But duh they've had like six practices. The ABs are holding their annual Hit Like a Bear clinic and yea we'll see what happens at the scrimmage. What else..I'm beat and should hit the sack for tomorrow.

sidenote...I didn't realize the National Women's Club Championship was so close..well hopefully they provide dvds of the matches like last time.

Delayed Match Report on the All Blues vs Minnesota Valkyries

Partially because I had an irritable night afterwards...ach well I'm letting myself get annoyed lately. Focus on school...rugby is secondary (heh...like I could ever pull that one off).

So the official match scores are up on Hail Pelicus apparently the ABs beat the Mudhens a while back 102-0. Last Saturday the All Blues took out the Valkyries 53-14 in a bruising match. There weren't a whole lot of injuries but you could definitely hear the hits from the sideline. Berkeley had the Valks pretty contained for the first half but as substitutions rolled in for both sides after the half Berkeley's defensive organization definitely suffered. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Christy Riggenberg scored both tries for the Valkyries.

Berkeley was fielding some familiar stars but not all of them. I'm getting a wee bit better at picking out the squad, Chou was at 1 and Biscuit was tighthead...couldn't tell who was at hooker but she looked familiar..might have been a Cal or Davis alum. It was odd seeing Tina at lock, and one of their flankers used to play for the London Wasps, Street at flank, Blair was 8, Jossy was at 9 and Steph Bruce was at fly. Ruth Bryson was at inside and I think Meagan Verdeyen was at outside. Natalie Marchino at 14 and Ashley English at 15. The roster definitely switched around a lot but yea this is how it was at least for a bit in the first half. The All Blues weren't having their typical rampant backline runs despite seeming to have a speed advantage. Props has to be given to the Valkyrie defense and their scrum for preventing Berkeley from using it as a good platform for attack (which is starting to look like a bit of a pattern). Jossy had a great match at 9, and scored a try off a defensive scrum when she used a perfectly timed hit to jar her opposing scrumhalf's pass, chased down the ball, and touched it down for a try. Berkeley did a good job stripping the valkyrie ballcarriers in the first half leading to a good number of turnovers. Berkeley's outside center also had a tendency of making a few fifty-fifty passes and the ABs pop passes were a little rough in general. Stephanie Bruce made a few great runs and seemed to boss the backline pretty well. Her inside center had made a few rugby league-esque tackles that weren't called. On the Valkyries side they were pretty good at maintaining possession for a good couple of phases when they had the ball but their runs weren't really breaking the gainline and often ended up with a speculative kick and a turnover of possession to the ABs who were all too happy to switch gears and attack. Berkeley wasn't able to counter-ruck as much as they normally do.

On the sidelines there was a good amount of spectators including a number of AB alum which was a cool show of support. I got to talk a bit with Ellen Owens (UC Berkeley's head coach, ex Grizzly U-23 coach) about the somewhat difficult task of pinning down the effects of the new ELVs. Lois Bukowski was also in the stands as well and one of our own alumni whose name is escaping me... who just moved back to the bay and apparently is looking to rejoin the blues. Sidenote I had no idea Laura Cabrera used to be a fly-half! Yea I know I'm just a kid so I'm not privy to all this info that's a duh statement to everyone else. Jen Crouse was also in civvies on the sidelines and Cabrera was patrolling the sidelines with coaching clip in hand. HP from Stanford was there and so was ORSU for part of the match and San Juanita Moreno (3 full caps at outside center u-23 eagle and grizzly and Western Oregon Alumni). Right so overall a good day to be a rugby spectator =]

The ABs played their last league game on Sunday against the Fog beating them 55-5. One of my D2 buddies Georgi Ellis (alumni prop from Cal State Sacramento NCRFU #2) started for the ABs on Sunday which is pretty tight. Long story short uh All Blues won the PCRFU (duh) ORSU takes 2nd seed and the Mudhens take third.

Other matches: ORSU beat the Valkyries 46-15...dunno how competitive/serious the match was. ORSU also beat the fog 45-12. Yea Treasure Island saw a helluva lot of rugby last weekend.

Anyways...shit that was a lot to talk about. Erm...what else...this weekend the Davis Double Deckers are hosting a round robin at Davis with Chico State, Sac State, and the Sacramento Amazons. The Berkeley All Blues are hosting their annual 'hit like a bear clinic' at treasure island on Oct 18th 9-4 and hell yes we'll be there for $25 bucks in advance it's a steal (but they haven't posted a site so we can't sign up yet). We'll be hosting our own tournament on Nov 1st. Scrum by the Sea the weekend after that...our match secretary is giving us our schedule tomorrow at practice so we'll see.

Ugh that leads me to shit...so I kinda screwed up and overstepped my self imposed boundaries on my involvement with the team this quarter. I'm only here for a quarter and I'm attempting to stay as far away as possible from any sort of decision making or advisory role when it comes to vet stuff. I'm here to coach rookies and keep my skills sharp "." I've done a fairly good job shutting up but this shit is hard! It's their team now, they can do whatever they like....argh fuckit I'm not going to discuss it. It just sucks being a politics major where you're TRAINED to identify and question the origins of policy making. But this turns me to a happier subject.

So tomorrow will be practice #4 and we're still getting around 40 rookies out to practice...maybe it's down to 35 but still that's a shitload. And the pace is still going well...we introduced light contact with pads yesterday. Needless to say I'm stoked. Our lines are looking serviceable, everyone is picking stuff up fairly quickly and integrating well with the rest of the team. There are some exciting ass kids in this bunch and fun folk as well. Had a film night team dinner on Tuesday and played the most ridiculous name ice-breaker ever (mwahahahaaaa I know 9/10 of the rookies names). Ohh! The new coach from ORSU. Apparently she played her college games for Reed, played for ORSU, then moved to Connecticut and coached a bit there (her names Myca? Mica?). Seems nice, loud, clear. Yup. Danni my old prop showed up yesterday and was helping instruct as well. So four forwards coaches...erm so I might slip into more of a player mode which is fine with me.

What else...Women Eagles posted a cool new set of videos interviewing different national team players on "what it means to be an Eagle"

with Jamie Burke:


Ashley English:


and Emily:



Er lastly there's been a lot of chit chat about the format of PCRFU playoffs because Utah is finally gonna be involved this year (or so they say). Initially the PNRFU were going to get two seeds and NCRFU #2 was going to get bumped out so Utah would have a spot. Now it looks like there is going to be a challenge match between PNRFU #2 and NCRFU #2 hosted by PNRFU over the spot which seems to be fair especially because NCRFU still holds the top PCRFU seed spot (and national ranking). But yea when it comes to UCSC's post-season stuff it's really up to these young guns. So as it stands...

PCRFU Playoffs

Host: NCRFU (natural rotation - NC '09, U '10, PN '11)
Dates: April 3/4, 2009 (Fri/Sat)
Venue: TBD
Point of Contact: TBD
PC MC: TBD
------------
If PN2:
Match A: NC1 v PN2
Match B: U1 v PN1
----------
If NC2:
Match A: NC1 v U1
Match B: NC2 v PN1

++++++++++++++++++++++++
Match C: Loser A v Loser B
Match D: Winner A v Winner B
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Winner D = PC 1
Loser D = PC 2
Winner C = PC 3
Loser C = PC 4

Lastly I've been checking out my options for moving to the Bay. North/West Oakland or Emeryville looks to be my best bet balancing the price/security issue. I'd be jumping into some deep waters for a kid used to the beachy (heh in more ways then one) parts of LA but I think I'd have enough of a support network. BLeh my paycheck was waaaaaaay smaller then I had hoped (they took out damn near 500 bucks in taxes) but I ought to have enough (if I don't have to fix my damn car...at this point maybe I could convince someone to just steal it...). Right...well I'd join the Blues...duh. I heard some rumor from Ellen that Vallejo is trying to start a women's team but it's late and this has taken the better part of an hour so I'll look it up later.

Two Practices Down, A New Coach? and a Showdown on Treasure Island

The last two practices I've been working almost exclusively with the rookies. Doing the same old shit but things are running smoother (kinda). There's still about forty-five girls coming out. We'll see what this number inevitably shrinks to. Lots of talented rookies, and for the most part a good attitude and work rate. Everyone seems to be picking up the drills fairly well. I'm still suffering the ill effects of this cold but hopefully I'll be able to kick it. I got new running shoes for everyday life and they're a vast improvement to what I was wearing before. Apparently a woman showed up after Thursday's practice asking if she could help out coaching (people are saying that she's used to coach ORSU) obviously this would be a frickin amazing boon but the details are sketchy 'cause I wasn't there and I can't get any concrete answers about the incident from anyone. I'll definitely update as the details come in. Kickoff for tomorrows game is at 12:30 and I'm totally going to be their for the All Blue vs Minnesota Valkyrie game, it's at SFGG field. Sidenote, apparently there's a collegiate round robin oct 11 in sac I don't think we were invited but I'll try and post more details about it later. Yup that's it. Short but sweet.


Some quick **edits***. We'll see how much of a match this turns out to be...I did a little research in the morning and San Diego recently beat the Valks 31-26, a close match and the Surfers are no push-over team but yea...this is going to be against the All Blues. Also while the Valkyries traditionally hold a strong spot in the national seeding they kind of squandered their #3 seed last year by losing 17-7 against ORSU (a team that the All Blues beat last weekend). The Valkyries will be having a rematch against ORSU on Sunday while the ABs will play the Fog but I won't be able to catch those match ups. Hm apparently the Valkyries played the Twin City Amazons on the same day and won 19-12 which is a better sign. Did I mention I dislike the midwest's TAU site (I couldn't find a single mention of women's senior club rugby)? Granted I wasn't super searching but it should be easier then that. Also in the lead up to this match the Valks beat Chicago North Shore in an a-side match 53-0 (Chicago having some standout eagle 7s players like Pam Kosanke and Teena Mastrangelo). I checked the Valkyries official roster and it was kind of odd 'cause their website lists Barb Fugate as their coach while their cipped roster lists Martha Daines and Jane Tierney (also listed on their website) and their site seems rather up to date so I don't know the story behind that one. They have 26 rostered players like Kris Zdanczewicz (World Cup Standout flanker and duh fully capped Eagle) Christy Ringgenberg (current captain of the world cup bound Eagle 7s squad). There are probably more on the team but I'm just a little norcal journalist (*cough* *cough* more like starstruck fan) so I don't know the ins and outs of midwest rugby. Oh it should be noted that the Surfers participated in last years Sweet 16s (by beating belmont who in turn had taken the spot from Austin) and lost in the first round as well to the Atlanta Harlequins (the only D1 team in the south). Just for sake of comparison the ABs have 45 rostered active players. Alright that's enough number running for today.

Quick Tangents and Long Meetings

1. SO several weeks ago I played a quarter of a match against the All Blues. As previously mentioned I got the snot knocked out of me in scrums resulting in a number of reset scrums. After the game a tall ridiculously fit lock gave me a chiding for all the discomfort I was causing in the Berkeley scrum (discomfort from resetting a million and a half times). I didn't recognize her but she was definitely an elite level athlete so I just tucked the incident away into memory for a later date. Long story short I think it might be Chris Trucano of the Twin City Amazons. Which would be frickin awesome...er to be uh kinda insulted by the...alright anyhoo moving on.

2. the ABs won against ORSU up in Portland, Davis Double Deckers beat Fog, and the ABs are playing a friendly against the Minnesota Valkyries which I'm totally stoked on going to see (on sat) and will play a league match against fog on Sunday. Fog will also be playing ORSU on Saturday.

3. ugh the meeting with the rookies was poorly organized and dragged on. Oh well a couple of people were stoked.

First Practice and New Coaching Roles

It's a weird experience overstaying one's visit. Last thursday was the first practice of the season (vets only) and there were 13 of us standing out there. We had a few missing but shit almighty if it wasn't weird waiting for the senior corps to roll around half an hour late. All the people who just frickin ARE rugby to me...it was bizarre. The chemistry of the group is different, more serious, less joking around. Eh I guess it had to go in that direction but it's damn weird seeing so many serious faces on the first day of practice in preseason.

We did some lines, some rucks, poaching drills, pop tackling drills and ended with a wonky fitness thinga-ma-bob [(sprint, push-ups, sprint, sit-ups,)x2 +hill sprint + run through sand + kick accurately + bear crawl back - from where the ball hit the dirt]. Uh yea. Since there were 13 people I was kinda odd man out and I talked to my coach about helping coach in fall because it's not really set if they want me to play or not. (Two of our vet props won't be playing for fall and we don't necessarily have a hooker either) but obviously it'd be advantageous to be safe and train someone for each open spot. Conversely it might be helpful to have structure + a vet in the front row. So we'll see how it plays out. Plus I tweaked my shoulder somehow so I'm resting that up.

Coaching-wise I'm trying to make an effort to give specific tips to improve technique issues rather then trying to convince players of the importance of doing or not doing an action. Basically I'm a pair of extra eyes.

I've done a bit of outside fitness lifting and such on Wednesday and then played a round of basketball. Worked on Friday and tossed thousands of boxes (weeee that burned the hell out of my arms). Didn't really work out this weekend 'cause it's the first weekend I've had free basically all summer. I'm stoked for my classes so far but I've got class right after practice so I'll have to leave early. Dammit oh well. We've got some sort of meeting today with the rookies...dunno what the fucks gonna be said...in fact I don't think anyone does. It's rather frustrating but you gotta give the kids the leash and let 'em run with it. *sigh* Occasionally I don't think they've heard the phrase "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Yea we only got 3rd last year but we've won league the last five, and pac coast the last three years, and had been doing a fairly good job retaining rookies considering the size limits of our club structure. At least learn and consider the previous system before you start tearing it down. *double sigh* One more quarter....

ps fog just posted this with clips of their game against the Davis Double Deckers WRFC

Rugby Recruiting, Stereotypes, Team Structure, and Dues

First off I've been doing a lot better staying off my computer and keeping active. Yesterday was my last day of work so I made it a race to see how many fix-it tickets I could finish in my half day (14). They were ALL third floor problems *grumble* I hate college 8 kids *in a whiny tone* "ummm so like I bought this shelf can you help me assemble it? " NO! "Ummmmm likeeee sooooo we want a second fridge" ok....go out and buy one! Arghh it's only been three days and they've already screwed the paint job we worked on all summer long. I could complain forever. It's over. Done. Alright new topic...

I only worked a half day yesterday since it was our schools fall festival (where clubs compete with sororities + frats to save their souls jk jk) uh but yea it was personally disheartening to see what my school is transforming into. Ugh where are the hippies!? This is UC Santa Cruz! Where are my smelly vegan hippies at?! Where are my die-hard extreme eco-terrorist political activists?! Where are my spiritually centered sustainable I compost my own crap farming folks? Where are the people who can walk out the door without an hour and a half MINIMUM of makeup + hair??? Where are my sensitive uber-otaku nerds at?! Ykno I don't actually mind the sororities we currently have, they're actually pretty cool and empathetic and it was a little sad that they were falling in with us in agreeing that Santa Cruz is making a turn for the worst. I'm allowed to be a little bitter, I caught a lot of stick today. It sucks promoting a sport where there is no body type and gah @(*#)&@*# it just pissed me off. Yea they're freshmen but c'mon...wake up...you're going to college...being an ignorent asshole just doesn't cut it to be cool. Just some fun sample quotes. "OH Noooooo rugby is too intense *giggle*"...and as they're walking away "sHe'd snap me in half...*heehee* He'd snap me in half" Or how every third guy would be like "women's rugby no thanks *hahaha*" and a couple of guys would say "well if you count as a woman I guess I could play women's rugby". Yea...normally it slides off the back but 4 1/2 hours of that..yea it sucked.

Got a number of enthusiastic rookies but we'll once again see how it'll turn out. Man I wish I could stay another year. But I'll get over it...I'm sure. It sounds exciting this year with more teams in our league. Pre-season should be fun though, we've got a number of good D1 matches lined up (Stanford and Davis for sure) plus scrum by the sea. We had a scrambled meeting that was basically a re-iteration of a meeting that I wasn't invited to. I'm skeptical but uninvolved in the new power-structure. Before last year we never voted for captains. They just stepped up. I'm a politics major...I'm not really down for democracy in all situations. Anyhoo just curious what other collegiate clubs do. (and I'm really doubtful of voting for a captain, field captain especially before practice has even started). MEh. They're club not mine.

I paid dues, 30 bucks for a collegiate player and 20 for Pac Coast Territorial Union. I can't recall what our club dues are but I'm sure I'll be reminded of it sooner rather then later. I want to do a survey/some research to see what kind of dues that the different levels of rugby charge. Breaking down women's senior club to the proposed super league, d1 regionally, and dii. Yea it'll take some footwork and I got distracted looking at the New York Roster...I'm such a sucker for a well maintained web-site.

Important side-note! Alex Williams (Berkeley All Blues Head Coach)is running another one of her collegiate/high school developmental camps early in January. You should read up on Alex William's Rugby Camp and email her on the contacts page to tell her you're interested. I went to this last summer and it was awesome! Meeting players from all over (as well as a number of u-23 eagles preparing for their tour to NZ) and learning from some of the best coaches and players in the nation! Yea just go alright!

Fitness-wise I was pretty drained after opers but I still went through my handling practice. Twenty-five static passes a side (still working on turning my damn shoulders towards the target and passing across the chest). Also worked on 5 dummy and then a back flick pass. 5 Dummy and then that weird 7s pass around + behind your head. Lastly I did fifteen dummy and pass.

Today I'm lifting light weights (gotta work on my hamstring and surrounding muscle) and then a pool workout. And painting our new janky home-made scrum machine...we'll see how it works out. Our old backs coach designed it...ehhhhh....yes...optimism.

Fitness

will no longer be my enemy. I can do a lot of cool things when I'm fit. I want to be fit so I can have more fun playing rugby. So I'm going to *gasp* spend less time on my computer. I don't want to be the most out of shape player on the team. I want to be able to lead by example. Yep. Heh we'll see how this works out. Well I'm off to get my heart rate up. Tomorrow is my last day of work. OPERS the annual recruit rookie-a-thon is tomorrow. It's lead by the next gen of kids...we'll see what comes out of that. Alright I'm stalling but I want to survey the teams of goffs proposed women's super league and see what their rookie and member dues are. A project for another night.

**Radio Edit** I practiced fifty static passes (splitting them half with my r and l)with my new favorite passing partner (ie the random broken anchored hanging umbrella in my backyard) while chasing and picking the dribbled ball that results from a successful pass (also working on the novel idea of passing across the chest, looking before I pass, turning my shoulders and keeping my hips square ahead, and making sure my follow through is pointing at the target). Got warmed up a bit with a few dynamic stretches then headed off on a twenty minute bike-a-thon changing pace and direction around west side SC. I made two stops to do some circuit training in well lit areas. The first one was just 10 push ups and the second stop was shoulder pressing a rugby ball size hunk of concrete, 2x10 for each arm and 2x10 bicep curls with it. Yea...I did just spend more time describing the exercise then doing the exercise...damnit! *sigh* Whatever it was good to get my heart rate up for thirty minutes. (not that I don't get a workout dragging ladders and furniture (+tools) around an entire college 10 hours a day =p

Berkeley All Blues vs Emerald City Mudhens

aka starstruck day 2. Well I managed to be less starstruck then the last time I saw an All Blues match and as a result I remembered a bit more about the rugby this time around....granted it helped not getting rocked on the pitch. It was another who's who-fest on the sidelines with Jen Crawford (who has been to 3 world cups and and eagle captain aka Berkeley's super-experienced backs coach with 23 caps), Laura Cabrera (hella experienced eagle), Lisa Butts (current Davis captain? and eagle and world cup reserve hooker/flanker) and more I'm sure.



Wow...even in a team of Berkeley's caliber Blair makes and impact. The way that she targets the binds of players, ducks under tackles, with her pace, power, and work rate she was really part of the lube that kept the ABs ticking over with tries. With Blair in first pod and Street in 2nd the ABs had a powerful attacking platform off of lineouts. Emerald city seemed to hold their own on their own scrums keeping the ABs from using it to its full potential (in the second half the mudhens occasionally got a drive on berkeley but not in time to affect the unleashing of the all blue backs). Ashley English was on the pitch at fullback linking up with Natalie Marchino (for some reason the usa rugby stat site has her under Nathalie...?) at wing for some spectacular tries. The All Blues were doing a great job hitting everything at pace and playing multi-phase rugby. The kicks by both teams were well placed and props has to be given to the Mudhens pack and fullback (who I'll figure out her name eventually) for their tenacity. Near the middle of the second half the mudhens had the ABs pinned in their own twenty-two for a good amount of time, putting them under pressure as their forwards doggedly kept driving the ball to within inches of the tryline. Unfortunately due to an eventual mistake and infringement by the mudhens (can't remember if it was for coming in from the side or diving over the ruck) but the ABs were able to clear the line and the mudhens didn't really get another good scoring opportunity after that.

Injury-wise Stephanie Bruce or Ruth Bryson had to go on for the other but I really have a hard time telling them apart so I can't tell you what was going on with that. One of them made an amazing 60 yard breakaway but was tackled from behind just as she made the tryline and was injured in the process. Chou had to go out when she took a knee to the eye socket at which point Mari Wallace moved to prop and that east coast hooker that I played against at pumpkinfest (Audrie? Something like that) came in at 2. The ELVs didn't really come into play as far as I can see (it's hard to judge whether the added space behind the set piece is really affecting anything) but there was one quick lineout that was done in a spectacular fashion. For the whole game she had been sprinting into the fans to retrieve kicked balls and I thought she was just trying to keep the game moving. Well next thing you know the mudhens take a floating high ball into touch from their half and Marchino is a blur into the crowd taking the ball mid-flight (and nearly taking out a spectator who was stepping forward to catch the ball) and throwing it in rather flat to Ashley English who preceded to open up the unprepared mudhen defense (it was a hair backwards and not where the ball went into touch but behind it...which is why I brought up the ELVs). Apparently the rule only counts if a spectator hasn't touched the ball yet hence her full body dive to prevent the spectator from touching the ball...this kinda sounds like a grey area law but I'll email a ref and post an update if I'm wrong. Oh and street was awesome off of scrums and harrying the opposing scrum-half...the first scrum of the game she wrapped the 9 so fast she was unable to even pass the ball to her backs.

Final Score ABs won a lot to 0. The game was played in two halves and I'll post the official pelican refs score later. The match took place on the goose-poop pitch on Treasure Island.

Oh and I talked to Lisa Butts (2 full caps) after the game to get a bit of a scoop on the new Davis team. Apparently they played an extra third against Berkeley because Sacramento (amazons I assume) canceled a match against the ABs last Sunday. The team was mostly made up of chico + davis alum with some chico state players filling up the ranks. They have a number of u-23 players (grizzlies I think) and they actually held berkeley to 38-0 during the first game and only conceded the rest of the points in the extra third. Berkeley didn't even score a try until the 23rd minute of the match (which after seeing Berkeley in action the last couple of weeks is a pretty mean feat on it's own). Once again a really strong start for a teams first match against last year's national champions (Lisa Butts of course used to play for the Berkeley All Blues and helped them on that road to victory).

Well next week in Norcal Rugby...the ABs are flying up to Portland for a match against ORSU (I assume) and the Davis Double Deckers are playing Fog somewhere in San Francisco! Specific...I know! Hehe anyhoo hopefully I'll be there and I can get a better hold of this new tough team in Norcal women's club rugby.

ps total sidenotes...didn't know that Street (Allyson Hemstreet)and Natalie Marchino are the captains of the All Blues. And rookie dues for the All Blues run $75 bucks and returning vets are ~100+ bucks. Yup.

Getting Schooled and Cleaning up my room

ALL BLUES 59 – Belmont Shore 7 Referee: Preston Gordon
Assistant Referee: Eric Rauscher

Because SFGG's main pitch is being re-seeded, this took place at the Job Corps field a little further up the island. We kicked off just after 12:30 for 4 20-minute periods with open subs, as requested by the coaches. The opening quarter of the game was fairly even, with both sides working off a little summertime rust. The All Blues did a little better with support play and passing, and ended up with 4 converted tries by halftime. Belmont Shore did well but couldn't quite match their opponents.

The second half was about the same, and the All Blues scored 5 tries, 3 of which were converted. Belmont Shore put one across the line towards the end of the match through some good recycling, and converted it, leaving the scoreline at 59-7 to the All Blues. I think that flatters the winners a bit though - this match wasn't really that lopsided.

This was the first match under the ELVs for everyone on the pitch, myself included. I thought everything went pretty well - the 5 extra meters of space at scrum time seems to create more attacking opportunities. I don't recall many of the others having an impact either way.

Thanks to Eric Rauscher, who showed up to touch judge, or rather, be an assistant referee. He and I stuck around to assist Don with the first half of the SFGG-Greggs match that happened right afterwards. That was a great game (36-32 at the half) and I would have stuck around for the rest of it had I not had family waiting for me. Next week's match should be a cracker!

-pelicanrefs.blogspot.com

yup...I know it's a slow repost...I've been working 60+ hrs a week and yea it's got me all muddled. The game against the All Blues was awesome...I was only in for a quarter but it was so cool playing against the who's who list of world cup players, eagles, and u-23 eagles. Ehehee I know I have issues with being star-struck but it was cool playing against Tina Nesburg, Mari Wallace, Jossy, Street, Chou, Blaire's sister, Vix, and those were the ones I noticed while I was being pummeled to a pulp (hmm seems I know my famous forwards a wee bit better then my backs). Belmont did damn well (before Lenny and I were subbed in) to hold off Berkeley. I was pretty surprised by the number of knock-ons and penalties that the ABs committed and some major credit has to be given to the Landshark defensive pressure which was the cause of a number of these mistakes. A good pre-season friendly for both teams for sure. I gotta say it was an awesome experience being surrounded by so many veteran players and against such a skilled side. Regina Sheck added additional structure and leadership to an already solid and experienced Belmont pack and I can't believe how effortless they made scrumming against the all blues look. Regina played 8 and was our primary kicker in the match and there is more info about her here (Heh and now I can say that I've played with a world cup champion against half the eagle roster).

Long story short I got schooled for the twenty minutes or less that I was on the pitch...for the first couple minutes I was fine, had a few straightforward carries, made a few yards, rucked a bit and that was fine. But lord once we packed down I was toast. I played loosehead and I haven't propped in a full scrum since oooo last fall...and I only do it during rookie tournaments...ehehe. So I held my own for the first two scrums until they realized that I didn't know shit and just started dropping, pulling, barging, holding, and popping me at will. Then I died. Only time in my whole life that I've been chastised by a ref for sucking so much in the scrum. And I quote "If you can't take the hit maybe you shouldn't be out here". Yup. Ouch. I was keeping my side off the ground but I was basically limbo-ing and my spine was doing a stretch-armstrong. I'm in total awe of my opposite number and any prop that can keep the scrum steady while she's doing the things she does (cheers to Brooke and Amber). Wish I knew her name but she wasn't particularly friendly during the match or after...eh...it's kinda a Berkeley thing (which isn't meant in a harsh way but Berkeley tends to be serious + elite and deservedly so).

After the match was pretty fun, got to hang out a bit with the Reddick sisters, Alex from Fog, Georgi Ellis from CSU Sacramento. It was cool 'cause Alex Williams stopped by and said hi (I went to her summer camp last year) and everyone basically assumed that I was playing for Belmont now which is a hard thing to correct when you mumble a lot like I do. Kathy Flores was there as well and it was also super cool to see Miller again (Belmont's forwards coach) heh she's so badass! Heh Kasey, Kate, Shannon, Fuj, Grace...yea I miss Belmont even if I was ridiculously dorky and awkward when I played for them (not that I'm much improved now).

Anyhoo enough sentimentality. Apparently I completely missed that our women's club LAU dissolved and now there's just a pac coast competition. Wonder if they'll still be a TAU playoff...I feel that step always helps prepare our collegiate team to gear up for post-season play and prep us for Elite 8s (I'm only bringing it up because I imagine it serves the same purpose for Women's senior side teams). As goff and a number of other blogs have mentioned that there are two more teams that are trying to settle into the scene and they are Budd Bay out of Olympia, WA and the Davis Double Deckers (which I think I mentioned earlier seems to be a mix of UC Davis alum, chico players, and sac alum...but I'll try and post a roster later in the week). Anyyhoo both teams played a match against a strong side and did fairly well for a brand new club. I can't recall the budd bay match but I'll look it up later. Davis played the All Blues and held it 61-0. Oh and there seems to be a lot of questions about club rugby in norcal and I thought that I'd mention that the Sacramento Amazons seem to have been having issues with dues/admin stuff with Pelican Refs and thus have been in 'poor standing' so that might be why things are going through a bit of a shift.

BLeh...lots of rugby so little time. Apparently rugby magazine is going to be distributed in Barnes & Noble stores around the country as well as college campuses...which is neat and while I don't super like the magazine it's kinda one of those things ya just gotta buy cause it has rugby on it (and actually is about the sport and not about stupid fuck fashion...thank you Ralph Lauren....you didn't invent rugby...*sigh*) I'm going to the Berkeley vs Seattle game tomorrow...no I don't actually know which seattle side it is...but we'll see. Maybe I'll get the guts to do and interview. Meh...probably not seeing that I'm so poorly prepared. Then again if the Berkeley All Blues ever updated their website...............


**UPDATE** womeneagles.com updated their website and expanded their 7s roster. Did you know that there was a women eagles youtube channel? Nope...I didn't either (well kinda but then I forgot about it) Alright that's it goodnight.

Bruised Black and Blue + Controversy

aka I survived being homeless for a month, subletting in a house of angry vegan serial killer locals, scraped through five weeks of mind numbing summer school, and still managed to protect my few remaining brain cells from the paint fumes that I'm gassed with every day at work. I've lost 14 odd lbs from biking my ass off everyday, managed to find a reasonable place to live in the fifth gnarliest housing market in the US (people are paying 800 for a 10x10 room...1000+ deposits...you can rent a living room for 550 a month plus 800 deposit I'm not shitting you), had to tow my car three times, and finally got enrolled in my senior seminar so I can graduate after fall quarter (FINALLY). Yea...I might just have scraped by another summer, holding on by my teeth and bloody half-torn off fingernails. Ah well, I'm two months from done. Then I have to deal with the real world. Ugh.

So, as much as I like CA it's too damn expensive for me. I've got an old teammate in portland telling me stories about how she's working 20 hrs a week for 10 bucks an hour, getting full benefits, paying 200 a month for rent and living fat as a cat! Now I love avocados, CA coastal weather, and the kickin' culture but frankly I can't stand this shit. I'm thinking about moving to Washington....I could play for the Mudhens/and or seattle or something and it'd be cheaper and coastal and my bff/inside center may be moving up there as well.

Right....so what does this have to do with controversy? Heh...Goff of course! It was an interesting piece. I mean as a pretty longtime reader he hasn't said anything particularly new...it's a mish-mash of his previous editorials whisked together and displayed like tasty carrion to encourage some bloodletting.

Now I'm not going to address it all....hardly...I just want to mention a point, a small personal opinion. Elite level isn't a cure-all for endearing the sport to the whole of the US. It's a significant chunk..yea...but we're going to have to come out with a mix. Developing an exclusive elite cadre of teams doesn't exactly encourage participation and support. I don't see why creating one has to cut the other out or in simpler terms why they have to be mutually exclusive. I can see why the goals might be separated but I don't see why everyone is witch-hunting women's collegiate (d2 *cough* *cough*) rugby culture. It's fun, and relaxed environment to learn the game. If someone is particularly motivated to become involved at the elite level there are age grade all-star teams to play on to get funneled into the serious athlete pool. Yea the collegiate level coaching is frustrating (and probably worse then the high school level at times) but it does spread the word and I'm kinda sick of it being reviled by every commentator and journalist alike (The Albuquerque papers at nationals and blogs like gainline.us is chock full of mud, slung by certain insecure men at women's teams for even existing much less occasionally using a few cuss words around the pitch) . When D2 men's teams act up they're pretty much ignored... why can't those concerned with the women's game be equally courteous?

Yea 98% of college players have to be completely retaught in order to play at club level, but at least the interest has already been peaked, the hurdle of introducing them to contact has already been broached, and their bound to know more of the rules then the average rookie off the street. Yes clubs occasionally pick up that super-athlete from other sports who are chock full of athleticism and master the game immediately (and you don't have to deal with the cockiness of a kid who thinks they already know everything) but how often does that happen? One or two a season? Just appreciate the collegiate rugby that exists, the competition is getting fitter every year...(just look at Ship elevating the D2 game...they recently took a close loss to Penn State one of the perennial contenders in D1).

Oh sidenote on the elite club level...I really wish Berkeley/WomenEagles.com would update their site more often, especially rosters. With USA rugby being as uninformative as ever it'd be really nice to have updated rosters. It wouldn't take too long and it'd give a heckuva lot more recognition for our women's Eagle heroes. Sidenote number two I really miss the blogs that the Eagle teams used to do when they went on tour and Jen Doan's photography being public and available. It brought the game so much closer then an itty bitty blurry streamed clip could ever do (I mean ideally both) but yea if someone could just screencap and torrent the games imagine how much help it would provide to the *crappy* collegiate teams to watch women's rugby done right. PS I'd totally be willing to do some web/graphic design gruntwork (don't just judge me by this site I can put effort into things if I want) into making a poster for the WNT or Regional Sides if someone would shoot me a handful of decent res photographs (+ permission to work with them). Cause hell yea I think a lot of kids would pick up an Eagle poster (even if it was mondoboring and just a roster WITH THE NAMES OF EACH PLAYER ON THE BACK). The World Cup WNT cards were hella awesome I just wish there was more uh...sports-ish stat info on the back...basics like height weight, what tours they've been on or something....

Alright enough rambling...I'm glad to be back...and with a vengeance...stories of my ass getting kicked last weekend by none other then the Berkeley All Blues to be posted soon...hopefully with pictures.

Homeless

as of tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Busy Busy Busy

Working and looking for a place to live. Packing up my life and preparing for the road ahead (being homeless)! Yup so things are rough, I played touch last Tuesday but missed on Thursday I'm going to skip out again tomorrow. But I've got a bunch of places to check out. I'll probably make it to Palo Alto if we manage to scrounge up enough players...but I don't know how wise it'll be. My hand is STILL screwed up, and so is my cheekbone and my wrist is acting up at work. Ugh. But yea. Passed all my classes with B's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I guess that's it. Peace

Ixnay on the first tournament

Because June 28th is Pride! Oh my, I managed to graduate and everything...four long years...heh the whole thing feels anti-climactic after rugby season has ended. Navy is up here chilling with us. I start my job tomorrow. It should be all fitness, I'm really going to push myself to keep up a good pace at work, get some muscle back on these bones, maybe eat a little better. Not much to report, NASC isn't really my thing but MARFU and Northeast have done well. *sigh* Not much rugby news besides that...here's some pictures to kill time.

This one is at Alumni...


This one is a random pic of the fog game

There's Not a Whole Lot to Say...

Ahaha I'm done with finals and it's finally summer. Sorry I've been mondo busy, NASC stuff is going down so yea....a bit of regret but there's no way I would have had the money to play in it (nor would I have made the team with my fitness level (-50). Heh oh well...not a whole lot of rugby stuff to talk about...*sigh* Wales just got it's ass whupped by South Africa which isn't surprising even considering the lack of top players on both sides. Summer 7s ought to be starting soon. I know my next match will probably be on the 28th in Palo Alto...hopefully we can go to Santa Barbara and Tritip as well, that'd be great. Anyhoo yea more updates once practice starts up again and my room looks less like a disaster area

My face hurts

...and I'm procrastinating. We tied the game against the Fog which is damn good considering we were spread pretty thin and had to get creative in our positions. We showed the same weaknesses that we payed for in New Mexico (slow to the breakdowns, susceptible to stripping + poaching, poor support). *sigh* it was a fun match. I had to switch to prop fairly early in the first half and while Lenny was jumping we had their lineout beat. Jacuzzi went out with a separated shoulder, same ol' Natalie...just a lot of side to side, they had pretty good wings and better soft hands then we're used to playing. It's a shame, hopefully we'll (heh I mean UCSC...I'm alum now) be able to play them at decent strength in pre-season, I'm sure we could give 'em a tougher match. Oh...breakdowns went to hell with both sides killing the ball or conversely interfering with the competition...which made for a messy match.

I caught a fist to the eye (non-intentional), a couple lumps to the head, more damage to my hand, and some tiger stripes... not bad for a match against a club side.

Mmm afterwards it was quite fun talking to some of the Fog women. I got to shoot the shit with ruggers from all over from Chico to Pitzer it was neat. I guess they joined up with SLO last Champagne Classic and we talked about how fun those kids are. One of 'em had played for Belmont under Herb and Kiwis and playing abroad. I talked to them about playing after college and I think I've become attached to my rash decisions (like beating berkeley once at palo alto 7s). Another one of my kind of baseless plans is to move to Berkeley once I graduate spend the rest of the year as a tackle pad for them (just to pick up some stuff) and then maybe look towards moving to Davis. Or maybe I'll like Berkeley....

Gotta say though, this was a wakeup call...I forgot how much different club rugby is compared to DII collegiate rugby...hmm

oh and I can't remember for the life of me how I know their hooker...maybe it was palo alto 7s but I don't know how she'd know my name/recognize me.

Ahhh my last KC was nice. Was pretty cranky when I first arrived but I did have a massive headache from my cheekbone/orbital...but ended up being a nice function. Got a sweet women's springbok backpack in recognition of four long years =]

Gotta say the class of 04-08 kicked ass...we never lost a league game. Nuff bragging...there's so much more to be done in my rugby career! (er...including minor stuff like writing three papers this week so I pass my classes so I can ykno...graduate soon)

Gotta Love the Message

and I love the senior vids...I'm a sentimental hooker



practice tomorrow...I'm definitely going to regret not running this weekend

mmm side note...I've been sick since three weeks before washington...uh you count the months but I'm friggin tired of it.

Best Alumni Game Ever

Yupppp I'm procrastinating again. Right...ok six hours to write a six page paper.

Wait I was talking about alumni game this weekend! Which was both interesting and informative. (this post is really late I'm sorry)

We did fairly well against a pretty all star group of alumni. We scored twice, once at kickoff as well as the start of the half but they caught up when we lent them our inside and outside center, and wing. We lost by a try....*sigh* I'm kind of getting sick of that...I had to make a few gnarly tackles on Tina (Fortuna HS' coach) and Tank (Davis' asst. coach). It was definitely my favorite alumni match...maybe it had to do with being a senior...maybe because I was hydrated and slightly prepared.

It was also informative...Davis is making a women's team (coached by UCD's coaches) and it's going to be a mix with Chico...which is pretty exciting. I'm really interested in playing for them but I still want to learn some stuff from the All Blues first. I know I'll only be a tackle bag for them but I just want to listen to their coaching and ask a lot of questions...anyhoo sorry for the super belated post.

Game against the SF Fog this weekend. Let's win it slugs!

remembering what it means to be sore

and man does it suck. I jogged to the local park on tuesday (8 blocks total =p). Hiked across campus and went to practice yesterday and running felt a lot better on turf. Biked my ass off today...but yea my quads are killing me. My hammy seems to be ok and my sprint is getting faster again but my knee still lacks flexibility. Dunno what I'm going to do about that. I'm starting to bike again at night to combat my insomnia. It's fun and freeing and makes me feel like I can fly (or make 50m in 5s ahahaaaa jk).


Oh and I got a job...I'm doing work crew this summer...so moving furniture, cleaning, painting, and then moving the furniture back. So I should get thrashed this summer...only problem is they only pay once a month =p so I may need a second job...hopefully not in cash control again. Right...and I don't have anywhere to live *sigh*. I may live out of my car.


Alumni Game this weekend..I'm not looking forward to that...last year they smashed us and all the kids refuse to take the game seriously...*sigh*. I care less about this game...I wanna beat fog...I wanna win my last college game even if this one doesn't count. I wish my tighthead was here though. Oh and we'll be getting the good pics from washington PCRFU playoffs soon (I know it took foreeeeeeeeeevver) but here are some nice ones from Nationals in Albuquerque.

Despite the warnings to the coaches that dangerous and high tackles were going to be harshly penalized....they weren't. We made our fair share but the crackdown was nowhere to be found. Wayne State in Yellow, UC Santa Cruz WRFU in black and gold

eh just a scrum pic

8 man pic after we stole the ball against the head

Kelsey Setliff a natural born wing at outside center...

Kelly McMahon with the ball and Lynne Freeman in support (Lynne-O being my roommate for four years...)

Making a go for the outside corner Kelly McMahon and Mashawna Miller in support (two lethal runners man they'd be good with some training)

But really to no avail...this was pretty typical of the game. Backs would try and make a run...get smashed (crushed, demolished, decimated etc)..and the forwards would be exhausted trailing a million miles behind

Typical Ship Quality #2: They could strip the ball out of contact/in rucks like kids grabbing candy (gotta say they were better rippers then any of the D1 teams we played in pre-season) the only ball we won was from set piece and that doesn't go very far when you can't retain the ball for more then a few phases


yup so maybe I'll post more later but that's just a few snapshots from the field...hats off to ship...they were one beastly fit and ferocious team

Quickies

So yea Stanford and Ship are the DI and DII national champs! Congrats! I have a midterm today and I'm totally procrastinating! What else...I need to write a resume this weekend, get a job, figure out whose couch I'm crashing on...ahhhh. This summer is interesting...I could be crashing in Fresno if I can find an online course over summer or working and living on campus.

Alumni game coming up...we're going to have our asses kicked...I wanna play with the aluni...and near the end of the month we have a game against Fog (exhibition/scrimmage).

One of our lovely rookies has pictures that I'm going to post up here so check back soon. My coach kinda has me convinced to go with Berkeley though...

back to studying!

D1 Championship Rugby Updates

Same old same old up at Steuber Stadium, Stanford beat Navy 40-20 (in a pretty close match till the last quarter of the game) and Penn beat Brown. So it's the same match-up for what....like the fourth year? I don't know if it was my frosh year but definitely for the last three years. Call and BYU won as well..kinda boring stuff actually.

Well that's cool...they're revising the All American Selection Process

So here is a mish mash of information garnered from a rugby nobody.

There's a new selection process with new people ranking it, Keenya Warner (who I totally gushed over at team registration in new mexico...but forgot that she was a center not a wing...btw I'm really glad I got the trading cards for the women's world cup team because I've met seven of them and was able to recognize the opportunity thanks to the cards) (I really ought to start getting them signed), Chris Ryan (USA 7s attack coach), and Sue Whitwell (forwards coach for the USA Developmental Team). They're going to pick two teams for DI and one team for DII. They're looking positionally. Yea....secret hope. But as my astute teammate pointed out...maybe if I'd have a chance if I was as fit/played as well as I had my soph or even junior year. Yea...thx teammate.

I'm still pinwheeling and horribly behind school-wise...just trying to recover and catch my breath during midterms. I'm going to be missing the championship games at Stanford 'cause my old fly-half is getting married. Or at least I don't think I'm going.

I still don't know which team I'm going to play for post-college...mostly because I have no idea where I'm going to be.

That also goes for summer...actually I have no clue where I'm living over summer or fall. I haven't actually decided whether I'm staying for summer...yeaaaaaaa about that. It's like losing the engage and getting driven back...I need to take the time and readjust my positioning...get my studs firmly back in the ground. Deal with school in the short term and make sure I pass my classes this quarter. Get back in study mode.

Rugby career wise I want to 1)get in shape (for the first time ever) 2)learn club level rugby (which means good coaching)...which leaves me with one option if I stay in NorCal.

oh some videos, gotta say I love both sides of women's rugby

Stanford...


GO Bre and Navy!

SLO...(not really 100% work safe)