Thanks to all those that joined us in Pittsburgh- we had the largest fan base of any team at the event according to the event hosts. Your time, support & help is appreciated. Many of you had very nice things to say to the coaching staff over the weekend and that too helps- thanks again. While the team didn't get what we hoped, we still kept our heads high all weekend and bounced back to claim 5th place of over 1000 teams in the US. In the end, it was a great trip to Pittsburgh, one that many will never forget. Our team acted FIRST CLASS as we would expect and were told by several restaurants, the hotel & bus driver that we were the best team to ever visit. We as a program left a good taste wherever we went and that is not only expected & good for Penn Rugby, its good for rugby in general. Our parent crowd too seemed to enjoy the time away from home- many laughs shared while the team was not competing- that is what our program is about---friendship on and off the park. Here is a quick review of all games at nationals:

1) B-Team vs Brownsburg B: Maybe our best effort yet for this team. Started sloppy but improved to play unselfish and pass the ball thru the backs. Goodman was outstanding & Tirotta was as good-both received player honors for the game. Kulczar was the forward of the game with several good phases. These guys now face Zionsville this Saturday on the road for the next state game.

2) Penn vs Christian Brothers- the pacific teams are almost always fast, good w/ the ball and play WIDE open- these guys did just that. We picked a bad game to start slow and didn't catch any breaks but they were pretty good too. A couple calls went against us and held us back early in the game. Nerves and some missed execution also hurt us BAD- in the end, the time was too short to spot a good team points.

3) Penn vs St Thomas- a better start and kept St Thomas under pressure much of the first half. I would have liked to put them away with a few scores that came up short after much of the hard work was done moving the ball near the try line- then making mistakes to keep them in the game by not finishing. But a win is a win and after a very emotional morning game, this win was needed in any shape

4) Dev team vs Gonzaga B: a mismatch from the start but w/ no other teams bringing a dev team, it was the best we could do to get the boys a run. I credit the players and coaches for stepping on the park and not backing down. Its difficult when you know from the first moment its an unfair fight, but the game time is the most important issue.

5) Penn vs Brownsburg (for 5th & 6th place): its difficult to face a team 3 times in a season and that is what this game was about- Brownsburg is a good program with solid kids, coaches and fans (they are frankly much like us). We knew this game would be close - but hoped to try to blow it open late and get several seniors on the field in a Nationals game. Again, we shot ourselves in the foot a bunch after doing lots of hard work to eat up field position, then let them off the hook near the try areas. Knowing we were very sore, banged up and still emotionally soaked didn't help and it cant be an excuse. We played well enough to win by a try but likely should have won by 20 if we had finished our chances off.

Players & Parents-
This past weekend was a good one with the first side doing what we needed to earn a bid to the national finals. We are the Midwest single school champ (out of some 200 other programs). We are now the USA #2 seed over-all in this school pool too out of some 1000 teams Nationally. Well done all. Our first side is 15-1 looking to get healthy and attack 3 good team at nationals. The brackets are posted at USA RUGBY 5 of the 8 teams in our bracket are varsity programs - we have a huge test ahead of us but one I am confident we can pass.

Thanks to all our parents, coaches & players that stepped up to work at MW - gates, T shirts, set up, golf carts, etc....the event was a huge success (the MW HS Chair called me Monday and said MW Event will always remain in our facility - even if we want to move it- he will talk us into hosting cause we do such a great job) THANKS TO ALL THAT HELPED!

There will be a player/parent meeting on Sunday in the main lodge at about 4pm if the team has qualified for nationals. At this meeting the parent board will give all details on the trip to the national finals for both players & parents. This will be the ONLY meeting- players must tell us at this time if they are going or not. We have set up games already for all players (B & Dev) if we make the trip to Pittsburgh- so everyone is expected to try to attend and all will play some rugby.

Dev Team: A solid win over BD Dev. And more importantly, the Dev team
showed improvement, again. A few guys need to sort out some issues that
Coach Dave has address already, but again, a nice improvement on skills and
team work.
B-Team: Better- Better- Better. More of a team effort- but still a ways to
go. Some of the guys are running some very nice lines, hitting angles,
attacking space. Still too many guys losing balls in contact, but much
better in both b games.
A Team: 12-0 to date...a very slow and sloppy start vs BD. The weather may
have hurt but frankly the team did not get ready for the battle the way they
should have, and mentally we were not into it. Too many mistakes too often-
basic mistakes. Game two vs North Central was another story and thankfully
so. We had a very quick & to the point discussion between games and the
guys proved they got the message. NC had no answer for our attack to space,
ball movement, physical efforts & pace we played the game. This is exactly
how we need to play at Midwest if we are to win. A good way to go into this
week.

Welcome to the new web site for Penn Rugby!