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

It looks a little rough

but here's the website my asst. coach put together UCSC WRFC. What else...well I have seven hours to write two papers for my legal studies final...of course I haven't started. ARGH. Anyhoo, we're going down to SLO as a group of whores. Tri-tip 7s should be sick, hopefully we can convince the coaches to sign us up for stanford 10s 'cause 10s are a nifty way to transition from 7s to 15s. What else...mental strength/fitness are my goals, and upkeep of my skill set. I'm going to be in shape for pelicans damnit. Ok I guess that's it

Berkeley 10s = amazing

Where the frick else can you hop onto a pitch and mix with some of the nicest and most ridiculously skilled players for a nice fun match? It was pretty frickin brilliant, well run, and low key. I was running in slow motion though, and it was the first game where I didn't make a single tackle. Yeahhhhhh yeahhhh ok total inspiration to do this thing called shape. I'm actually worse off then last year, which is atrocious in unto itself. Well, my scrum half wants to practice with me and yea more on it later but I have to go to work!

Works been driving me into the ground

I only work 30 hr weeks but at 9:30pm to 3:30am the going has been a little rough. I don't really feel that great currently and summer school just started up. Picked up a nifty book from the library about black rugby players. My internal clock is just wonky though and the weather is flipping about as well. Went on a bike ride after class to run a few errands, I ended up with: a comic book, a mouthguard, and a tub of margarine. I forgot to pick up cups so I'm currently drinking tea out of a saucepan. My prof is a retired general who apparently has taught numerous vice-presidents of nations as well as a king. Weird. If this post seems scattered...well...frankly it is. My life has yet to settle down and its halfway through summer. The future is freaking me out. I think I'll do the sensible thing and attempt to find a job up north after graduation and practice with the blues (or something). Ahhh why didn't I try harder in college?! Alas, now I'm stuck with my lot in life. Well, the U23 team won their first game and lost in the 2nd. I wonder what happened to my site tracker...

oh and the team wants me to make a website.....AGAIN

That was FRICKIN amazing!!!!

So I'll start this post off by saying if I don't look back at some of my actions from the previous year and feel utterly humiliated by them, then I'm not really growing. Weeeeell it's that time of the year again. I was feeling shitty about myself because of my grades...worked hard...and fixed 'em. We lost the national championship last year...because we actually played a team that played real rugby. Screw ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that I've ever said, posted, or thought before. I'm going to add a little line at the bottom of this post and read past it at your own risk (chances are you're just wasting your time on uninformed idiotic jabber). Now I'm still uninformed and idiotic but at least I know I am. So screw it, I'm wiping the slate clean and I'm a rugby rookie all over again. And damn it all I'm excited!

So yes the Alex Williams rugby camp rocked my world like a real tackle should. I went to an "Introduction to Rugby" camp and learned more in three days (about REAL rugby) then I have in three years. Now I understand why Amara always said that we didn't play real rugby...and its frickin true. We have pretty intuitive/organic backs but our forwards are a roving band of marauding barbarians assaulting other teams into submission...we don't really play this sport called rugby.

So How Do I Like Real Rugby??? It's frickin' cool! It's faster harder safer smarter...it is everything good. So now...my goal is to use my raw strength and apply it to this sport. Every single aspect of my game can change for the better...and I'm so frickin excited to start. My core is strong but it needs to be infinitely stronger and I need to engage it in every aspect of my game. My whole body is disjointed and I need to coordinate my upper and lower body (with my...duh duh duhhhh...core). Nutrition is frickin important...had a hot dog yesterday and I crashed afterwards...now I know...no more hot dogs. Passing at the chest level, elbow up, using my fingers to flick the ball, going into contact facing forward like its a ruck, when there are two defenders and I want a maul I will attack one and turn outside in, when I want to sink I bring out my butt to counterbalance, I use my props to resist my locks and I want to sink at the same time as them, look over the top of sunglasses when I'm crouched so I don't need to duck on the engage, bend my elbows down on my binds, a new way to throw lineouts!, power position, lockouts are amazing, I won't move my pelvis up to try and drive up etc etc. I'll put more but I'm making breakfast!

The camp was incredible, the coaching staff.....Liz Kirk is my new idol! More on it later but the end line is...GO TO THE DAMN CAMP!!!!!!!!

---------------------------------DON'T READ PAST HERE----------------------

So I feel bad

being boring as tar but that's just how my life is going right now. Practice SUCKED (run 8 shuttles then go home) but 7s last week was fun. Played the All Blues/Cal A side twice and San Jose once. Got to meet Blaire Goefstansan(can't remember the spelling), but yea All star 8-man previously from UCSB...guess she's an all blue now. Lets just say damn she was good. I had a pretty nice day, made a lot of turnover ball but didn't have the fitness or pace to stay in the final game. We lost the first two against ABC and barely beat out San Jose. It helped to have two wings on our 7s side..actually it was probably because our old captain/fly-half was making devishly strong lines up the center giving us the punching power we were lacking before. So I just paid for the rugby camp...hope I don't regret it. More later...

I'm back....from Istanbul

Not much rugby blogging in Turkey...but I did pick up a rugby mag in England and I gotta say the new England jerseys look awful...possibly even worse then Australia's.

More rugby on the 7th!?

palo alto 7s site
Man I need to hydrate! I'm leaving for Turkey tmorrow and I just found out that if I drive up on the 6th I can make it to the qualifying day of 7s... I guess all the quality competition will be out then...man o man I'm going to bring my World Cup player cards to get a few signed! I know it's dorky but hey I'm totally a rugby geek, not just a player. What else....oh I think I figured out a way that I could go the the Alex Williams camp...I'll just have to leave early (bummer) or find a way to get back in 2 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic(impossible). Hehe...if anyone has any suggestions please tell me but I think it takes 2 hours to get from SF to Santa Cruz without traffic so maybe my hopes are just stuffed.

Well that was a clean sweep....

of losses =] And it was fun damnit! We played with Naima from Chico and Suzzanne from Cal and a few girls from BASH. It was definitely a fun but casual tournament for the women, with our only competition being an amalgam of San Jose players (mostly alum?) and a Cal/All Blues mash-up. Oh..I should mention that our jerseys were the awful margarine colored shirts we made for regional playoffs...oh ad the only sizes left were youth medium and small! Needless to say it was like running around in a corset for my fat ass. Nearly beat cal/berkeley the first game, lost to san jose, then lost to cal/berkeley again. Ran into Petrie at the tournament but I don't think she recognized me. She did set up contact with Amara for some sort of whores match with a few teams including Belmont Shore! Well anyhoo that'll be a hoot. We learned a lot in our games and it's always a bit of a switch up avoiding contact and all that. We ran in a good number of tries but our defense was pretty sluggish. I scored a try which was fun, and made my own conversion (to the chagrin of anyone watching). Weather was pretty nice too
Oh and there was this article. Palo Alto ArticleA local news class was out filming and did a number of interviews with various women's teams...I wonder if the footage will surface on the net. Ykno if it does I'm on it.

Well it's been nice chatting about rugby again (especially now that I know my grades: B+, B+, B+, A-!!!) Ha! Well I'll be off in Turkey so I won't really be able to blog so peace out yeh

7s season start!

Yea so we still don't have wireless.....but we're going to Palo Alto sevens! Woot! Uh I think we'll have seven people. So Amara made the Eagle pool and Naima made the Eagle team...so woot (u23) and Kathy Flores gave props to the U23 all stars.


Huzzuh

I died at practice...and I'll die tmorrow.

sorry I've been away

but our new place lacks internet access...it might be a while...sit tight though yeh? I'll post again this week with rugby news

SF Camp open for registration!

Williams Rugby Camp


So register now! And make your friends do it too!

What else, the Reddick sisters are off to Minnesota with the U-23 Grizzlies to frickin kick some ass.

Mmm what else...I dunno I have a paper due in person in one minute and I'm still doing this instead of my paper. I start work tomorrow. Meh.

Results of the Teddington Game....like a week late

So it's basically finals week and I'm trying to make up 35 pages of bull and finish off my grades...so yea a definite lack of rugby news.

But from last week, we played a lovely English side and had a blast. That was honestly the funnest game of rugby I've played in all year. We had a few classy whores on our side and it made for a fun match against a club with plenty of experience but a tad of a handycap (they had a couple decades on us)! It was just good clean fun, no worries, and I made a sick breakaway and beat a few backs for a good 30m before passing it off(not bad considering I haven't run in a month.../all year). I'll post pics next time but their waterboy was awesome!

So I just need to turn in my damn papers (and write them) and I'll be fine...*sigh* 7 more days to not fuck up..

So what ruggers are going to pride!?

(#*&$@@#@#$

Had practice yesterday, the days are blurring together but that sticks out as a beacon of fun. Ugh, it's remarkable how much you forget in two weeks. Funny how that works out...but yea the Teddington game is tomorrow in Monterey and it seems we'll be having some whores from chico and berkeley. It should make for an interesting match with the Reddick sisters playing side by side. Eh I hope I won't die but I'll admit the lack of sleep added with school stress and @(*#&(@# everything else should make for a tiring week.

This is the time that I need to buckle down. I have all summer to mess around, drink, and play 7s. That's why I almost hesitated on playing this game. I'd really like to pass all my classes for sure this quarter. What else....oh the coach for St. Mary's proposed that we make our league play double the amount of matches, each team playing each other twice...once home and away. Thus dealing with our shrinking league and balancing out home pitch advantage. Interesting but you could also see where burnout may come into play.

So I've calmed down a bit...

but things haven't actually gotten better. We have practice today to try and get back in shape because we're playing a match aainst Teddington WRFC. Their a social club side from England and I'm pretty sure we're going to get our asked kicked.

I'm still desperately looking for a job.

School is ridiculous.

Rugby is really taking a second seat.

LIFE IS FILLING ME WITH HOPE AND JOY AND DOOOOOOM

Mmmm....school. I have nine major projects due. I have five days to find a job. And rent + deposit for my house is due in ....yeah...you guessed it! Five days.


We bombed the alumni game.


Yup. They rocked us silly.


Looks like I won't have the cash to go to the rugby camp.


On the plus side if I turn in everything....I may just pass all my classes. And if I continue passing classes I'll be able to walk in time. Which is my longterm goal. Woot.

Talk about weird

The Championship Banner...on Ebay?

Weird huh? Well, judging from the rest of the sellers items...it's probably just an extra copy. If Iowa State is missing their banner I'd suggest checking out this guy.

Alumnae game is this weekend and I haven't raised my heartbeat in two weeks. So yea I'm going to be gasping air through a straw. To add insult to injury I can't even afford water. I'll be honest...I really need a job. And housing. And to pass all my classes. *sigh*

Our 8-man made Grizzlies as a prop and so did her sister. Western Oregon's flanker made the team as well as someone else on their team (I'll post the whole list when I get it). Cool stuff =] gotta love it when DII players stack up to our DI counterparts.

There's probably other rugby related stuff but I can't remember. I've been spending too much time around crazy radio personalities in the redwoods at four in the morning.

School Fun

So I was definitely a better student when I had 6am practice. Now I sleep in and catch up on foreign films (A Bittersweet Life, A Fistful of Dollars [to contrast with Yojimbo], and Barefoot Gen [for my wwii memories] and tune out of school. I'm about a week and a half behind/two weeks and am screwing myself over in 3/4 of my classes. Kinda scary. So I'm saying it in here to get back on track. *sigh* it's so much easier to be a student athlete.

mmm what else...Chico made a website! Now I should get off my lazy duff and put one up for us. I mean usarugby used the pic from SEVEN years ago for the National Championship program. I mean it's a fitting tribute to our alumni who kept the club going and gave it a base but yea...it would help if we had an updated website (with an alumni page...I really like how Belmont tributes alum).

Random topic...does anyone know where I could get some info on the norcal 7s league? I've kinda looked around a bit and can't really find stuff (I might just be distracted looking for a place and trying to pay my med bills).

Speaking of summer Theresa Champagne e-mailed this to me earlier...Women's Summer Rugby Camp. I'm going to try and go, hopefully I'll be back from Istanbul by them.

Hmm last random topic of the day is sports photography....



This is just a great pic of the two forwards captains of the day. Kinda funny what happens in a split-second eh?

I'm in school?

Heh, yea...back to being a student...pretty pleasant actually. It involves a lot of sleep.

So....what to learn about Saturday? I've been playing rugby for a wee bit over three years, I've won a DII National Championship and lost one. Coolbeans.

To be honest I'm struggling with the dichotomy of reactions across the team. Some people are furious, others depressed, some are proud, and others are ashamed.

I played a solid game, but it wasn't up to par for me, I didn't push myself the right way, I didn't prepare myself the right way I couldn't seem to push myself and all the while my housemate was tearing everyone to shreds with a separated shoulder and broken shoulderblade. Hence the guilt. I can make all the excuses in the world (and believe me, I have them) but really it comes down to fitness, communication, and mental discipline. This is how I failed my teammates and this is how I'm going to improve my rugby game.

I've go 7s to test out this regime. So there, I've said it. I'm guilty and prepared for the consequences.

But yea, other things, as a team we need to improve the attitudes of non-starters. I think I'm going to post my freshman posts, when I was young and ambitious. I want them chomping at the bit because I'm going to be. That's the reason for having depth...not just injury, but real intense opposition at every practice. We fell into the DII rut of complacency. So lots of lessons learned yeh?

I'm psyched for next year, it may seem ridiculous that it took losing "THE" game to get into the game but...well, it happened. Time to get fixin'.

May 6th

Lost it 26-19, second in the nation isn't half bad. I'll blog more later but frankly I have to ice my head.

http://www.mediazone.com/channel/rugby/jsp/2006/usarugby.jsp

but if you go here you can download the game free and watch me walk for the whole game! Heh...no seriously. But anyhoo, you should also definitely check out the Stanford vs Penn State game, the score doesn't reflect the nature of the match at all!

Right o, will post up more media coverage later.

In One Hour it is May 5th

the DII Women's Collegiate National Championship (damn that's a long title) is tomorrow. We're playing to defend our National Title.