The Dinner/Auction Committee is doing  fabulous job in setting this whole thing up.  It promises to be a memorable, spectacular evening with a bunch of people who share a common goal of supporting the Western Washington University Men’s Rugby program.

There will be several members of this year’s USA Rugby National Championship Final Four team to help with the evenings festivities.

We’d love to see lovely faces at the event.  Get your name and meal choices in now!!!

Navy and White Dinner/Auction:  Preparations are continuing for the “Navy and White” Dinner/Auction set to happen Saturday evening, May 18, 2013 at Settlemeyer Hall on the campus of Bellingham Technical College.

This whole affair has been generously underwritten by Jim and Karen Solimano and we are extremely grateful for their contribution.

Members of your WWU Men’s Rugby Club will be assisting with the auction at the event and this will give you a chance to meet the movers and shakers of the team that has done so well this year.

The program will begin at 5:30 PM with a Social Hour (no host bar – wine and beer) and the start of the Silent Auction.

Dinner will follow at 7:00 PM and you have your choice of entrees:

Wild Alaskan Salmon

Pistachio Crusted Chicken Breast

Slow Roasted Prime Rib of Beef

Eggplant Parmesan Marinara on Linguini Pasta

Dinner will be followed by the Live Auction which will begin at 8:00 pm.

We have had contributions from several area businesses and a long list of private donors so both the Silent Auction and the Live Auction will have plenty of items for you to bid on.

In addition, during the event, there will be a media presentation highlighting this season’s WWU Men’s Rugby Club action.

Tickets for the event are $50 each and include Dinner.

Go to the WWU Men’s Rugby Club website:  www.wwurugby.org  to reserve your seat at the table and to order your dinner.

WWU Boys and Girls High School Rugby Summer Camp:  The WWU Campus Recreation Department is sponsoring a Summer Rugby Camp for high school age kids that will be run by WWU Men’s Rugby Club Director of Rugby and Head Coach, Paul Horne, and WWU Men’s Rugby Head 7’s Coach, Adam Roberts.

The camp will run from July 8th thru the 12th and will have a full days schedule of activities all five days.  Each day’s session will begin at 9:00 AM and continue on through the evening program which ends at 7:00 PM.

Campers will stay in one of Western’s dorms and will be supervised throughout their stay including the time spent in the dorms.  Campers will either be in a single or double occupancy residence.  Campers will have full-time camp counselors assigned for a 7:1 ration.

Campers living in the area can opt for the “Commuter” option which gives you all the regular camp options and includes lunch but no overnight stay in the dorms.

Campers will receive a Rugby shirt, rugby ball, lodging and food, and activities throughout the week.

Cost of the camp is $495 if registered before May 1st and $550 after.  Commuters will pay $375.

Go to www.wwu.edu/campusrec/summercamps.html for more information and to sign-up.

But probably the biggest worry for the team was, what effect would the sun have on them?  Coach Horne scheduled the training session for 11 am, same time as the kick-off of the game with Cal State – Chico, to get the boys acclimated to the conditions.  Temps at game time were supposed to be in the low 90′s and that was worrisome.

At the end of the training session, though, the boys were starting to get settled in, get comfortable, and have some fun.  But in the end, they still weren’t sold that they belonged in the same league as these other teams.

And then Saturday dawned…

The boys got to the field at about 9:45 am for the 11:00 am kick-off, again we were worried about being in the sun too long.  We didn’t start the warm-up until 10:15 am or so and were finished by 10:50 am.

And then the fun really began, the two teams lined up side-by-side and trotted onto the field, players not in the game had to sit on the bench, and there was an AU trainer (who was the fastest ankle taper I’ve ever seen) on the field as well.  Lots of water, all the little details that go into a National Championship event there with nothing for the teams to worry about except playing.

And play they did…but it was all Chico at first.  Chico’s Head Coach, Beau McSwain, started nine seniors and their two big studs were the no. 8 Mike Morello and team captain and winger Tyler Poland.  Chico was big and it was obvious they had spent a lot of time in the weight room…and they came out on fire.

Western, just like they did in the NCRC Championship game against Eastern, came out slow and sluggish.  Chico took the ball right down the field and after a couple of rucks, handed off to one of their hard running centers who slanted in from about 25 yards out, broke a weak tackle attempt and touched the ball down just outside the posts.  Their man converted the easy kick for a quick seven point lead not two minutes into the game.

And, showing the grit that has characterized their season, Western didn’t panic.  The ‘non-panic mode’ has been a trademark of this team all year and even though they have only been behind at the start of a game twice this year (Eastern and Chico) they’ve always had that sense of cool…

The boys began to click, move the ball, attack with their ball control style, and it paid off for the Western boys as winger Jake Romano touched down, with 13 minutes gone in the half, for the first of what would be eight tries on the day.  Quinton Willms couldn’t convert the difficult angle kick and the score stood 7-5 for Chico

Chico would answer at the twenty minute mark of the first half with another unconverted try to make it 12-5 Chico

And then Western began to put the ‘pedal-to-the-metal’.  Matt Jensen, who played an outstanding game, put two tries across in a span of six minutes, neither converted, to give the Vikings the lead at 15-12 with eight minutes to go in the first half.  Western added another three points with a Quinton Willms penalty kick seconds before the half for an 18-12 lead at the half.

At the end of his halftime talk, Coach Horne challenged the Vikings to ‘put Chico away’ with a ten minute burst to start the second half.  The Vikings took Horne to heart and scored two tries in the next ten minutes by Spencer Stevenson and Gio Trujillo, who was an absolute beast all day..  Willms converted Stevenson’s try and the score was 30-12 10 minutes into the second half.

But Western wasn’t done…Louie Henson got a try, Jake Romano notched another, and Gio Trujillo scored his second of the match.  Willms converted one of the three and the score was 47-12 with three minutes to go.

Horne began to substitute at half with the thought keeping players fresh for Sunday’s West Regional Championship match.  And the subs that went in played well and didn’t allow Chico to even sniff the goal line until they scored with no time left in the match.  Chico converted for a 47-19 score and the ref blew his whistle to end the game.

In the game that immediately followed the Western/Chico match, Cal State – Long Beach took on Arizona, with Arizona being the heavy favorite.  Arizona got out to a 17-5 lead with about 20 minutes to go in the second half but Long Beach, down 17-15 with no time left, was able to push across a try with no time remaining, to win the game 22-17 and a slot in the Championship match on Sunday against Western.

The loss by Arizona was a huge upset and now no one has any ideas about how this is all going to playout…but it should be fun to find out.  Stay tuned.

It was a great trip down from Seattle…we didn’t leave anyone behind, everyone made the flight.  Thanks to Ned Kelly, Sam Hobbs, and Kevin Kinloch for taking control and getting it done.

While we were waiting for our flight, Matt Jensen took advantage of the time, found a conference room and proceeded to record a presentation for  his Bio-Chemistry class.  He e-mailed the presentation to his professor and was good to go.  These kids never fail to impress…

We’re at the Riverpark Inn in Tucson …getting ready to head to training at University of Arizona at 11 am.

More later…

After beating Eastern Washington in the NCRC Championship match at Magnuson Park in Seattle, April 13, 38 -14…that is when the fun began for Western.  For some odd reason USA Rugby had sited the West Regional in Austin, Texas with the hosts being the Austin Rugby Club.  When one thinks about that siting and the teams that qualified (Western, Cal State – Chico, and Cal State – Long Beach) and the one ‘at-large’ team (Arizona) that would be included in the bracket, it made no sense at all.  See the story about this in Rugby.mag, click here.

Needless to say, the amount of money that it would take to get the team to Austin was daunting so Director of Rugby, Paul Horne, and Team Manager, Jeff Lombard, began working the phones and gathering support for a change of venue.  At first it looked like the West Regional might be moved to Chico’s campus, then it was on at Treasure Island in San Francisco, and finally they landed in Tucson, Arizona.  The home of the University of Arizona and their fine rugby facility.  And a program led by Dave Sitton, Arizona’s head coach for these past 39 years, that knows how to host national level events such as the West Regional of the USA Rugby D1-AA National Tournament.

Ideally the Regional would have been held in the Bay area so that the three auto qualifiers could drive to the venue.  If the explosive growth of college rugby has shown us anything, and hopefully USA Rugby, it is that most of the programs are club sports and that to keep the sport growing at the college level (and it will keep growing) we have to control costs.  And what is the biggest cost, the biggest budget item that these programs have to deal with?  TRAVEL.

I have to say that Horne and Lombard did an amazing job in getting this thing moved.  The amount of time that Lombard, in particular, spent on the phone borders on the incredible, we wouldn’t be surprised if the guy went in for an ear transplant.  But it is done and everything is set to take place in Tucson this weekend, April 27th and 28th.

So Western flies out Thursday afternoon for Tucson and will have a training session Friday morning on the University of Arizona campus at the Rincon Vista Rugby Pitch.  That should get the boys acclimated to the ninety degree heat, right?  We’ll see.  The other two teams, Cal State – Chico and Cal State – Long Beach arrive later in the day and will train Friday afternoon.

The matches are set as follows on Saturday, April 27th.  Western Washington University will take on Cal State – Chico at 11:00 am and Cal State Long Beach will play Arizona in the other semi-final match that will kick-off at 12:30 pm.  The losers of the first day’s matches will meet the following morning, Sunday, April 28 to determine 3rd and 4th, while the winners kick-off at 12:30 pm, to determine the team that will go to the Final Four at Bowling Green University on May 11th and 12th.  USA Rugby has a whole bunch of info regarding the West Regional event, click here to get to the USA Rugby info and once you’re on the USA Rugby page click on the “Tucson Info” link to see the whole thing.

So now that we have all of that stuff out of the way, who is going to win this thing?  Beats me..  When you get to this point in the season, all the teams left are good.  So here is a little capsule on each of the teams in the West Regional…except Western…you already know all about them, right?

Cal State – Chico:  The school is located about ninety miles north of Sacramento and has around 15,000 students.  The school has been around since the late 1880′s and, like Western, started out as a “Teachers College”.  They can trace their rugby roots back to 1918, but have been focused on the “modern game” since the late 60′s or early 70′s.  Chico State’s faces teams like Humboldt State, San Jose State, San Francisco State and University of Nevada, Reno, in the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference, which, like our NCRC, has eight member schools.  Chico walked through their league this year going 7-0 and out scoring their opponents 452-96 in those seven games.  They played Sierra Junior College in their conference semi-final tournament and took care of them 31-12.  The met Cal State – Santa Cruz (2nd in the regular conference standings at 5-2) in their conference final and pounded them 60-7.  In trying to get a sense of how good the Wildcats  are, they did have a match in the fall against Cal Poly and lost 33-18.  Cal Poly plays in the same league as St Marys and give St Mary’s fits so the Wildcats to appear to ‘have game’.  Led by head Coach Beau McSwain, they have 44 players on their roster with nine senior players who provide the experience and leadership.  They have an outstanding no.8 in senior Mike Morello who leads the forwards both offensively and defensively, while senior winger, and team captain, Tyler Poland leads the backs.

Cal State – Long Beach:  The school is located in Long Beach and has an enrollment of about 36,000 students.  It is one of the hardest schools in the Cal State system to get into with an acceptance rate of about 34% and the average GPA for incoming freshmen of about 3.4.  The school started in 1949 and the rugby club has been in existence since 1974.  The club is quite active and have toured every couple of years, the latest being to Australia/New Zealand in 2011 and they have a tour to Italy scheduled this fall.  Led by Head Coach Kyle Quinn, the 49′ers play in the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference with teams like Claremont, Santa Barbara City College, USC, and Cal State – Fullerton.  The 49′ers breezed through their conference with a 6-1 record, outscoring their opponents 387-84 in the process, and losing only to Santa Barbara City College 16-15 on March 2nd.  They didn’t get a chance to avenge that loss as Santa Barbara lost to Claremont 32-12 in the Pacific Mountain semis.  Long Beach beat CSU – Fullerton 30-0 in the other semi and then beat Claremont 28-11 in the final to earn their spot in the West Regional.

University of Arizona:  The school is located in Tucson, Arizona and has an enrollment of about 40,000 students.  The school has been around since 1885 and is a member ot the PAC-12 Conference.  The rugby club is led by legendary Head Coach Dave Sitton who has been at the helm for 39 years.  Arizona has been quite successful in rugby, especially in recent years, and play a schedule with the other PAC-12 programs.  They’ve also played a tough non-conference schedule against the likes of San Diego State (won 34-19), Air Force Academy (won 46-28), and Notre Dame (won 17-5).  The Wildcats have an 8-4 record coming into the West Regional and look to be the team to beat.  Losses to Cal, Utah, Arizona State, and UCLA were to be expected.  They avenged the Arizona State loss with a win against them on 16-10 a few weeks ago.  They also played Oregon State and beat the Beavers 27-23.

So there you have it, the teams Western has to defeat to get to the Final Four of the D1-AA National Rugby Tournament.

One more time:  Saturday, April 27th  CSU – Chico vs Western at 11:00 am and CSU – Long Beach vs Arizona at 12:30 pm.

As most of you may have heard, your WWU Men’s Rugby Club won the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference title, last Saturday at Magnuson Park in Seattle.

Western defeated Eastern, 38 -14, on a cold, blustery, rainy day. The Vikings were tested early, going down 7-0 to Eastern in the first few minutes, but came back and scored 26 unanswered points before Eastern was given a gift try in the last few minutes of the match. The Vikings then scored two more tries in the last few minutes to get to the final score. Some say the match was closer than the score indicated but the Vikings were never really tested after Eastern’s first score.

By winning the NCRC Championship the boys qualified for the USA Rugby D1-AA National Collegiate Championships, the first round of which is the West Regional, to be held in Austin, Texas, April 27/28.

To say that the team has exceeded the coaches expectations, the Alumni Associations expectations, the University’s expectations, even the rugby community’s expectations, this first year would be one of the understatements of the year.

USA Rugby, in their infinite wisdom, sited the West Regional in Austin even though the three automatic qualifiers (All Conference Championship winners) were from Southern California (Cal State – Long Beach…1,400 miles away), Northern California (Cal State – Chico…1,900 miles away), and the NCRC (WWU – Bellingham…2,300 miles away). It is going to be difficult for those California schools to fund the trip to Austin, as well.

The budget for the trip will be somewhere in the $17 – 18,000 range for airfare, van rental, and hotels.

The WWU Campus Rec program has no money left to give the club for travel. There have been several of the WWU Club teams that have done very well this year and qualified for their respective regional or national competitions. Those Clubs, like rugby, struggle for funding as well. In addition, the Rugby Club was given funds by the Campus Rec program to attend the National 7’s Tournament back in late November, in College Station, Texas.

Those WWU Alumni Men’s Rugby Alumni Association members who have contributed, either through the Alumni Association or the Western Foundation have been very generous but, as we near the end of the year, the Alumni account is not able to totally support the travel to Texas.

The WWU Men’s Rugby Club has itself committed to paying as much as they can to go on the trip, but they have also committed to the idea that we have to take our best team or we don’t go.

We must notify USA Rugby today if we’re going to commit to the West Regional. We’re going to ask for a 24 hour delay to see if we can get something done.

We’re not asking you for money, although if you’d like to donate to the cause, those donations would be accepted. What we’re asking for are ideas. Ideas that would allow the WWU Men’s Rugby Club members to raise funds, businesses that would like to get involved, things like that.

For example, does anyone have connections with any of the airlines? Could we donate some of our unused air miles, etc? Does anyone have any Boeing connections, is Boeing delivering any planes to the Dallas/Ft Worth area that would be flying empty? Or any other ideas that might generate funds or complimentary travel or hotels quickly? Unused gift cards, or any other form of swag we can use to cover travel, hotel, or food?

What are your thoughts on all of this? Should we just take the NCRC Championship and run with it and focus efforts on the future years programs?

One of our goals as WWU Men’s Rugby Club Alumni Association is to do everything we can to support the WWU Men’s Rugby Club that we can, realizing that, as a ‘club sport’ at Western there will never be a lot of funds available from the University. The University does a great job with what they have but they don’t have enough to give ‘club sports’ all that they’d like.

We believe the Men’s Rugby Alumni Association will get to the point in the next couple of years where we can support just about everything the Men’s Rugby Club would like to do. We continue to build support, and the successes of the team certainly help, but it is the support of the alumni and friends that will drive most of it. With your continued support of our fund raising programs and your outright donations we know we can get there…but we’re not there yet.

Let us know what you think…. Send me an e-mail: g.henson@comcast.net and I will forward it on to the committee.

Warmest Regards,

Gerry Henson
President, WWU Men’s Rugby Alumni Association

Here is Director of Rugby, and Head 15′s Coach, Paul Horne’s report of the match:

It was a cold, windy, and at times rainy day at Seattle’s Magnuson Park, the venue for the Northwest Collegiate Championship between Western Washington University and Eastern Washington University. After 80 minutes of hard rugby, the WWU Vikings prevailed 38-14 over the EWU Eagles.

It was a hard-fought match that saw EWU score first and take the early lead 7-0. It was the only time they enjoyed the advantage as the Vikings answered on the next possession and evened the score at 7-7. WWU enjoyed a 14-7 lead at the half. The Vikings outscored EWU four trys to one in the second half and the reward was the NCRC Championship Cup. Scoring trys for WWU were team Captain Matt Jensen, Matt Tiscornia, Kevin Kinloch, Nathan Muir, Gio Trujillo, and Hayden Malan. Quinton Willms kicked four conversions on six attempts.

The Vikings were deserving winners. No one in the league worked harder in achieving the success. They were fitter, more clinical in their approach, and had better skill sets than their opponents. The NCRC record of 8-0 saw the Vikings outscore their opposition 447 – 72.

The victory qualifies WWU for the US Collegiate Sweet 16’s. They will be held in Austin Texas April 27/28. The other qualifiers will be determined after today’s matches. How WWU gets there is another story.

Go Vikings

 Paul Horne

 WWU Men’s Rugby

 Director of Rugby

 Head Coach

Western now advances to play Eastern Washington University next Saturday, April 13, 2013 at Magnuson Park in Seattle, with the kick-off scheduled for 2:30 pm.

It was a crazy weekend in the NCRC playoffs starting with the round of Saturday games.  University of Washington had to travel to Cheney to play the University of Idaho, where the winner would get the chance to play host Eastern Washington on Sunday.  And on the West side of the state, Washington State University traveled to Bellingham to take on the University of Oregon, with the winner facing Western on Sunday.

The odds makers favored UW over Idaho and that is how the match played out, with the UW winning 28-19.  In the WSU vs Oregon match, Oregon, after being behind 16-7 at the half, came storming back, in a very physical match, to defeat favorite WSU by a score of 31-16.

Which set-up Sunday’s matches:  Eastern vs UW in Cheney, and Western vs Oregon in Bellingham.

We haven’t heard much about the Eastern game other than the fact that Eastern won, 19-15, in what one would assume was a very physical match.

The Western vs Oregon match went the same way most of Western’s NCRC matches have gone this year.  Western scores early and continues to put defensive pressure on the opponent, forcing opposition mistakes, with Western capitalizing and scoring.  Today’s match was no different.

A few minutes into the match, Western took the ball early down into Oregon territory and Matt Tiscornia picked the ball out of a ruck and touched down a little outside the posts.  Nick Solimano slotted the kick and the Vikings were off to a 7-0 lead and never looked back.

Oregon played a good and very physical game but it appeared that the match with WSU the previous day had taken a lot out of the Ducks.  They made a couple administrative mistakes early, one of which was subbing for their big second row as he got treatment for a leg injury on the sideline.  But it was not a ‘blood’ substitution and when no. 5 tried to come back on the field, the referee didn’t allow it and the Ducks were forced to go on without one of their big guns.

But the Ducks fought on and after Western had scored another unconverted try to make it 12-0, the Ducks came storming back and scored an unconverted try of their own to make it 12-5 and give some life to their chances for victory.

Those chances of victory faded quickly as Western then scored three quick trys, two of them unconverted, to take a 29-5 halftime lead.

In the second half Western continued the pressure and the effects of their attack and probably the previous day’s match with WSU spelled the end for Oregon.  Oregon did run in one more unconverted try, but it wasn’t enough as the Ducks came up on the short end of the 58-10 final score.

We don’t have a final scoring breakdown for Western but there were a couple of Vikings who played outstanding matches.  Nate Muir, playing only his second game at 2nd row, was an absolute beast on the field, bringing a physicality to the game that Western hasn’t seen for a while.  Robert Boenish, Matt Tiscornia, and the rest of the forwards played outstanding games.  Quinton Willms, Matt Jensen, and Gio Trujillo stood out amongst the backs as having outstanding games.

So its onto next week and the NCRC Championship match and the automatic berth into the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ of the USA Rugby Collegiate D1-AA National playoffs that goes to the victor.

Next Saturday’s NCRC Championship match will be played at Magnuson Park in Seattle, with kick-off scheduled for 2:30 pm….be there or be square.