WWU Men's Rugby Club

All you people hanging around waiting to commit to attend the Navy and White Dinner Auction need to get your poop grouped and get your registration in…our deadline for giving the caterer the meal choices is Sunday evening.

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!!!

As the Vikings get ready for the USA Rugby Collegiate National Finals we thought we would give you an update regarding the other, but no less important things going on regarding the Western Washington University Men’s Rugby Club.

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.

Prior to yesterday’s training/walk-thru session at Arizona’s incredible rugby facility, Rincon Vista Rugby Pitch (the field looks like a grass-covered pool table), the boys were a bit wide-eyed at all of the happenings around them.  They got to meet legendary Arizona rugby coach Dave Sitton (also the voice of Arizona football and basketball), who is a good friend of Western Team Manager Jeff Lombard and Head coach Paul Horne, and they got to tour the Lohse Soccer Stadium where the matches would be played, and they got to see the USA Rugby organization in action (USA Rugby did everything right).  All new to the newbies from Bellingham…

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… Continue reading →

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…

Here is the West Regional Bracket:

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. Continue reading →

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

Yesterday at Magnuson Park in Seattle, WWU Men’s Rugby Club met the Eastern Washington Eagles for the inaugural Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference Championship.

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

Written by Alex Goff Saturday, 13 April 2013 18:23

The Western Washington University Men’s Rugby Club beat the University of Oregon this afternoon 58 – 10 to win the 2013 NCRC West Division Crown.

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. Continue reading →