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!