Fall 2007 Schedule Announced

I know it has been a while since I have posted here. I may have over extended myself with my blog pile. I am trying to get things up to speed and hopefully Smokin' Bill, T-Rex, and Paco will help me add more content to this as we get into the fall.

Highlights from last night's player's meeting:

1. Practice will be 8/16, 8/21, & 8/23 from 6-8 at Shenataha Creek Park on Eastline Road in Ballston Spa in preparation for the eight team Saratoga Invitational Rugby Tournament on 8/25 at Skidmore.
2. Practice for the fall season will begin on 8/28 in preparation for our first home match in the club's NERFU D-IV history against Mt. Washington on 9/1.
3. Dues for the Fall Season are now set at $70 and are payable to T-Rex by 9/15.
4. Mick O'Dalaigh is returning as head coach this fall.
5. We will have a volunteer event for our bye weekend (9/15).
6. Vote for fall captains will take place on 8/28. Anyone interested in the job needs to e-mail Paco.
7. Team By-Laws have been adopted by the officers. Every player needs to sign them before he can step on the field for the fall.
8. A jacket order is being placed for players who have completed two full seasons with the club.
   
9. Recruiting efforts are on-going. Do your best to spread the word about Saratoga Rugby. What keeps us from being able to play D-III is a legitimate B-Side and we currently don't have enough players on a regular basis to field one.
10. Mike Kotary has replaced Alex Eves as the P.O.C. for Malta and Shenantaha Creek Park as Eves is moving to Chicago.
11. Anyone interested in filling the role of equipment manager, please contact Paco as Nick DeFilippo's college class schedule prevents him from attending training sessions on time for the fall.

The fall season schedule:

September 1	Mt. Washington Valley Bull Moose	Home
September 8 Utica Clubs or Albany Old Boys Home September 15 Bye Weekend
September 22	Harvard Business School	Home
September 29	Boston Ironsides	Boston, MA
October 6	Monadnock	Home
October 13	Berkshire	Pittsfield, MA
October 20	Mad River/Stowe	Stowe, VT

October 27 Bye Weekend for Playoff Teams

November 3 Playoffs and Championships

Spring Schedule Broken Down: A Look at What 2007 Should Bring

With recruiting events over and meetings in the past, it is time to put the actual playing of rugby in the forefront and get back to why we work so hard to bring rugby along off the pitch: to be a successful club on the pitch.

For the casual fan, there are several points of interest this spring. If you have been following the club since its inception in 2006, the club has played two dozen games against 14 different teams. This season brings further variety of competition. The team will open against a college side, scrimmaging Union College in Schenectady on April 7th. They follow that up with a trip to Rutland, the third time that they have played their friendly rivals from Vermont. After a week off, the schedule becomes very formidable against Division III teams (Being new to league play, Saratoga is D-IV).

First, the club travels to New London on April 28th, a good team who gave the Stampede some real trouble in their fourth overall game last year. The club hopes that a year in between meetings will yield more favorable results compared to the 52-12 drubbing of 2006. Perennial powerhouse from the north, Montreal, will roll in with a full contingency of sides (full A and B sides) on May 5th. This match will be a good measuring stick as to how the team deals with experienced, veteran competition. This is also the first meeting between Montreal and Saratoga.

On May 12th, the club travels to take on the Hudson Valley Rebels, whose president is a former team mate with Stampede Vice-President Pike Mody. The Rebels met the Stampede in tournament play during last August, in the 8th Annual Saratoga Invitational, and dealt the Stampede a sound loss, so this rematch should also be a tough match for the growing club.

Finally, the club takes on the first team with less experience than they have. On May 19th, the newly formed Utica Klubs make the pilgrimage to Saratoga for the first time for an inaugural meeting versus the Stampede. The Utica Klubs have been practicing since January and are staffed with young, but experienced players, and should provide an exciting match for the Stampede, who currently are comprised mostly of players in their late teens and early twenties and older players in their early to mid thirties. And who can forget, of course, graybeard Rick Babson, who celebrated his 52nd birthday during the off season.

In my next entry, I will preview some of the more interesting competitions that are sure to arise as the season gets underway. With some veterans retiring or unable to play due to injury and/or work commitments, it should be intriguing to see the moves that Coach Mick O'Dalaigh and the spring captains make in order to put a strong team on the field. Last year saw flankers moving to center and one second row from the first game become one of the team's regular centers, while the other second row became the team's regular 8-man. This spring has the potential of seeing a fly-half become a hook, or a completely rookie break in at prop. As the battles for starting positions unfold, check back to the Stampede Blog for details.

A reminder that the team will still play pick-up touch rugby on Sundays at 1PM. Contact Matt Volke for details. Official practice begins on March 20th.

With Recruiting Events Complete, Pre-Season Meeting is Next on Tap

The two recruiting events went off without a hitch in the last five days. The tables at both the Wilton Mall and Skidmore were well received if not exactly flocked with people. The main point was to spread word about men's and women's rugby in Saratoga and I think we accomplished just that. Many people, as expected, mentioned they had no idea that rugby existed in Saratoga County. We were able to hand out fliers and info pamphlets to prospective players and fans of the club.

Next on tap (literally) are two events. The first is the Spring Pre-Season Meeting which occurs tonight at Peabody's Bar and Grill at 39 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, kicking off at 7:00. The officers have worked hard to keep the meeting to less than an hour (hopefully 45 minutes) with a Q & A session afterwards. After the meeting, several members of the team will taste test the provisions of one of our local sponsors, Saratoga Eagle Distributing, to assess quality control. Anyone who is interested in the sport of rugby, as either a player or just as a casual fan of the sport, is encouraged to attend.

Secondly, as a sort of pseudo-recruiting type event will be an informal pub crawl around Saratoga Springs. It will start at 7:00 PM at Peabody's on Saturday, February 24th and move on from there as the mood strikes the pack. Friends, relatives, and significant others are welcome to attend the crawl. We even have one wayward fan driving in from Utica, NY to attend the event.

Speaking of Utica, it might interest our rugby community to know that we are not the only team growing in Upstate New York. The Utica Klubs RFC was established last month and will be travelling to Saratoga to take on your Saratoga Stampede RFC on May 19th. I for one am psyched to see any rugby development of rugby in this part of the state, especially when it means that we have a club to travel to that is under 90 minutes away. Along with the Capital District Youth Rugby (CDYR) Initiative, it appears that the sport is finally starting to take off in more than some of the more major of New York's six metro areas (NYC, Albany, Binghampton, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo).

That is all for this early morning blog. If you have any questions regarding either SRFC event or about Utica Rugby, please feel free to drop me an e-mail.

Happy 31st Birthday to one of the club's founding fathers, Owen Maranville!

Recruiting Events Planned

One of the toughest parts of being a successful team for last season was having a sufficient number of people to head into battle with. While we always had a good turn out for games, only needing to borrow a player for one travel game when we had two surprise injuries strike the team, which was running with the exact number of players we needed, the problems of being under staffed at practices definitely showed as the season progressed. Drills became difficult, reps decreased, and timing simply waned as rust accumulated. Suffice it to say that recruiting has become my number one goal of the off season.

With the pre-season meeting quickly approaching on February 22nd, the players and fans of the Stampede are ready to head out into their respective communities in force to get the message out: Saratoga Rugby is looking for a few good men. And you don't need any experience. Just a desire to have some fun and be part of a team. Being a social person would also help.

As far as age goes, we have starters on the squad from ages 19 - 52. Sizes range from 5'5 - 6'4, and from 140 lbs. to 350 lbs. Experience is also at polar ends. We have people on the team who have played three or four games in their career and it was during this past fall season that they came out for the team. And we also have a player who has been playing longer than most people on the team have been alive. Some played in high school, one didn't start until he was in his 40's! It really takes all types to play this game. And once you play, you will be hooked.

As the team's recruiting director, I also have a few events in the work. The focus of these events are to drum up some notoriety for the team and get people talking about the fact that a year ago, a men's rugby team formed in Saratoga for the first competitive rugby club in at least the last 15 years. If ever. Support has been so plentiful that a women's team has sprouted up and is looking to have a few games this spring, with an informational meeting for the ladies coming in early February.

The events will be simple. We will begin by having informational tables/kiosks at three locations in the coming weeks. The three initial locations are looking to be Wilton Mall, Adirondack Community College and Skidmore College. Hopefully, by tapping into local colleges of the North Country we can also acquire some younger and fresher legs as a large percentage of the team, at least 40% are over the age of 28, with somewhere around 30% of the team over the age of 30.

To paraphrase a line from "Necessary Roughness", this season the team wants more than your support. We want you.

For more info, e-mail me, or visit www.saratogarugby.com.

Stampede Move to New England Union, Division IV

In their inaugural season, the Saratoga Stampede Rugby Club elected to be an at-large team, playing independently, something like Notre Dame. It left then Match Secretary Owen Maranville the freedom to schedule contests and tournaments at the whim and will of the team's membership and administration. While the team played some tough competition, including twice playing three-time defending Division III Champion Syracuse, it found itself locked out of any chance for a playoff. Unlike college football, independent teams are not eligible for any type of playoff or championship. While the team's record may have precluded them such a run anyhow, they most certainly would not have been playing the caliber of teams such as Syracuse, which was a point of consideration for administrators late this fall and early in the winter.

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Stampede President Chuck Tempest announced that the club would join the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU), at the Division IV level. While there was some discussion, internally, that the team might join the New York State
Rugby Conference (NYSRC) or enter either association at the Division III level. Eventually, the club decided that travel for games and lack of a complete B side really precluded them from either possibility, and that it appeared that the most beneficial route for a club interested in vying for a title with the make-up of the Stampede was NERFU Division IV.

At the AGM, administrative positions were elected for the 2007 year. Chuck Tempest and Pete Mody, and Rick Babson were reelected as president, vice-president, public relations coordinator, respectively. Bill McClain was elected as treasurer and Paul Campbell as Match Secretary. The positions of equipment manager, field coordinator, webmaster, and social chair will be appointed when the new officer board convenes in early February.

The club also announced its pre-season informational meeting date at the AGM. This meeting is for any males 18 and over who have interest in playing rugby this spring. No experience is necessary for a member to join the club. The meeting is schedule for February 22nd, 2007 @ 7 P.M. at Peabody's Sports Bar and Grille on Phila Street in Saratoga Springs. The meeting will cover items such as the spring practice and match schedule, dues, CIPP information, & sponsorship updates. This meeting is also open to all people interested in becoming "social" members of the club, or those interested in following the team, attending functions and games, but do not wish to practice or play. Contact Chuck Tempest for details.