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January 2012 Newsletter
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In this edition:
Videos on Basic Rugby Values
See the Fort Hunt Rugby online calendar (midway down the splash page) for updates and details of all events.
13-15 January: Boys high school trip/clinic, Penn State University
18 January: High school orientation meeting for new players/parents, 7:00pm, Sherwood Regional Library
Late-January: Boys/Girls high school training starts
2-4 March: Boys high school at Hampton Roads spring tournament
3 March: Fort Hunt Rugby marching in the Alexandria St. Patrick’s Day parade
Mid-March:
Boys/Girls high school scrimmages/matches begin
Summer 2012 registration opens
2-6 April: Spring Break rugby clinic (all ages)
15 May: Summer 2012 practices start
19 May: Boys U-13/U-15 end-of-season tournament
23 June: Summer 2012 matches start
July: Boys/Girls high school tours (dates/destinations TBD)
4-5 August: Rugby Virginia end-of-summer-season tournament
Mid-August: Boys Alexandria/Fort Hunt U-15 tour to France and Scotland (tentative)
REGISTER!
Any player who knows he/she will be playing rugby in 2012 should register with USA Rugby—NOW!
This is a requirement for all of our and Rugby Virginia’s programs, touch or tackle. As our program matures, we are going to have year-round opportunities to participate in clinics and pickup matches, especially for high-school-age players, and increasingly for boys U-15. National registration to participate in these opportunities is always required. Also, registration enrolls you in the USA Rugby insurance system.
To register, go to USA Rugby and click on “Membership,” then “Become a Member.” The cost is $30 each year, and runs 1 September to 31 August of the following year.
ORIENTATION MEETING, WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY, 7:00PM, SHERWOOD LIBRARY
This meeting is especially for new players and their parents. We’ll have a slide show, and lots of time for questions. We’ll also have team gear for sale.
Season Physical Preparation
Now is the time to start training for our Spring 2012 high school season.
Lift weights, and RUN! All players should be able to run non-stop, at a comfortable pace, for an hour. When
you are able to do this, you are ready to play in a match.
If you are a player brand-new to rugby, go to the club website and
Watch the videos in the Rugby Links section to get an idea of how the game is played, and to start to learn about individual basics.
Admin
Administrative requirements will be:
· USA Rugby registration
· Parent-signed USA Rugby waiver
· Parent-signed Rugby Virginia waiver
· Player-signed Fort Hunt Rugby code of conduct
· A current VHSL physical exam
Players who do not turn in required documentation will not play in scrimmages or in matches.
Code of Conduct
All coaches and players will sign a code of conduct. Players will be counseled—and suspended if necessary—for violating the code of conduct. Click here to preview our codes of conduct. If you’re ready, print a copy, sign it, and bring to training.
Recruiting
Players: talk to your friends NOW about playing rugby. Don’t wait until January to start recruiting.
Parents, please talk to other parents and tell them your positive experiences with Fort Hunt Rugby.
Get your high school rugby interest club up and running. This must be requested by students, and you have to have a faculty sponsor. The coaches can help, but players have to start the process. Talk to your school Athletic Director and/or Director of Student Activities to start the process. Make sure you say you want a “rugby interest club,” not a “rugby club.”
Rugby Virginia will once again conduct a spring tackle rugby program for boys. It’s changed slightly, from “middle school” to “U-15.” The U-15 program will be specifically for boys 13-14.
This program will run just like the Spring 2011 program, with us combining again with Alexandria for form an Alexandria-Fort Hunt team—the Spartans. The boys will share practice space and coaching expertise with the high school teams, and sometimes will engage in non-contact drills with them. The current coaching plan is that Coaches Ram Todd and Dan “Skooch” Stirk (both from Alexandria) will be in charge, with assistance from Fort Hunt Rugby coaches as needed.
New for 2012 will be a Rugby Virginia spring boys U-13 tackle rugby program. This is for boys 11-12. This is the first year of this program. We currently have no plans to form an Alexandria-Fort Hunt team, mainly because we lack qualified coaches. If you choose to register your son for this program and we cannot form a local team, the closest available team likely will be in Springfield.
Registration for both programs is open now on the Rugby Virginia website, where there are details and contact information for players/parents with questions.
Health and Safety
Mouthpieces:
For all tackle teams, boys or girls, summer or high school, a personally fitted mouthguard is required for all training and matches. If you don’t have it, you won’t participate.
Get a professional-grade, professionally prepared, personally fitted mouthpiece for $25.00 through the Dental Careers program at West Potomac High School. Contact Ms. Regina Weems at 703-718-2754 to schedule an appointment. This is open to students and parents, to anyone, not just West Potomac kids/parents.
Videos on Basic Rugby Values
Take a look at these online videos, which will give a good introduction what we’re about at Fort Hunt Rugby:
- A short video from USA Rugby called "I Play Rugby."
- A six-minute video produced by the English Rugby Union, about the core values of rugby: teamwork, discipline, enjoyment, respect, and sportsmanship. This may be an English video about English rugby, but our values are exactly the same.
- A 7-minute video from the International Rugby Board on the IRB Playing Charter, the fundamental concepts of rugby.
Fort Hunt Apparel and Gear
We have a lot of past-year jerseys, all for $25 each. This is great for advertising our club, great for gifts for kids, siblings, girlfriend/boyfriend, buddies, and great for parents/supporters. We have some of our custom-embroidered club shorts left, mostly in smaller sizes. We’ve also got magnets, large stickers, small stickers, club pins and patches, Canada 2010 tour patches, and custom Fort Hunt Rugby balls. Contact Coach Dacey. All sales benefit the club. Makes great Christmas gifts!
Our online apparel store has gotten better, now offering Champion sportswear, including short- and long-sleeve compression shirts, undershirts, t-shirts, hoodies, shorts, etc., all with the Fort Hunt Rugby logo on them, some of it embroidered. Great stuff for players, friends, parents, and supporters, especially with cold weather coming on. All sales benefit the club. Makes great Christmas gifts!
We have set up a custom Fort Hunt Rugby embroidery (left) with Wick’s Sports Lettering (8766 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA 22309, 703-360-2224). Bring in your favorite jacket or sweatshirt, and for $20 they will embroider this design on the back (or front), in your choice of thread colors.
Coaching
2012 was our best year ever in terms of the number, depth, quality and dedication of our rugby coaches—thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, moms and dads, for volunteering your time, knowledge and experience to make our program work. That being said, we need more coaches, always more coaches.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! If you want to help, we want you to, and we’ll get you up to speed. With our program growing, we need coaches. If we want our own boys U-13 spring tackle team, we need coaches.
Big thanks again to our high school players who assisted coaching with the summer’s program: Chris T, David F, Mike P and Colin G. Thank you for being role models, and giving of your precious summer vacation time. Taking the time to work with your club as a coach makes you a better player.
All coaches must register with FHYAA, thereby going through a background check. All coaches also must register online with USA Rugby as a coach, which costs $30.
Training:
There are more coaching and referee courses coming up, and we will put out the word on these opportunities.
The club will pay for coaching/refereeing courses. We apologize that we cannot at this time pay for travel, lodging or per diem for courses out of town.
All coaches must complete two easy and free online courses:
- International Rugby Board Rugby Ready, which is an excellent introduction into the basics of rugby, and coaching to keep rugby safe.
- Positive Coaching Alliance Double-Goal Coach course, another excellent course which focuses on positive coaching, the kind of coaching we conduct.
See the coaching section of our website and the USA Rugby page for more info on these courses, and how to get to them. Talk to Coach Dacey or Coach Vonada if you have questions. The next step is the USA Rugby Level 1/Introducing Rugby course (the two courses above are prerequisites), which is a two-day weekend course. We will pay for your course registration. We now have 10 coaches certified at USA Rugby Level 1, and one coach certified at USA Rugby Level 2.
Communications
We recommend the use of Fort Hunt Patch, at http://forthunt.patch.com/, which is a locally-focused website. When you sign up, you can post comments on articles and post events to the community calendar. We are posting our events on here, and using our voice to make ourselves known in the community. There are Patches for Huntington-Belle Haven, Mount Vernon, Hybla Valley, Kingstowne, and more.
Official club communication will be via email, and will be posted to the club website.
The club will communicate unofficially via through the following groups:
The club will maintain the email list we are using now for all future communications. We will send monthly newsletters each month (which also will be posted to the website). We’ll send notes from time to time, but will do our best to keep the emails down.
You can always check the club website for updates, especially on the calendar.
If you would like to be off the email list, please let John Dacey (rugby007@aol.com) know. If you have an extra email address you want added to the club collective group, send it to Coach Dacey.
Feel free to forward any club emails to interested players or parents, or direct them to our website.
The President's Challenge, at http://www.presidentschallenge.org/index.shtml has replaced the old President’s Physical Fitness Awards. You can log all kinds of physical activity—including rugby—and earn points toward individual and group awards. Coach Dacey already has two patches on his kit bag from this program.
We have a Fort Hunt Rugby President’s Challenge group, which is group number 91124.
Any business or individual may buy equipment and donate it to the club, for a tax write-off. Please contact the coaches first if you are considering doing this. Any business or individual may contribute cash to the club (to “FHYAA Rugby,” specifically), which is also fully tax-deductible; we will provide full documentation on request.
Primo Family Restaurant in Belle Haven has sponsored us for this summer. Stop in and thank manager Jimmy Nicopoulos for supporting our program and area youth sports in general, especially West Potomac HS varsity sports. Don’t forget the Hollin Hall Pastry shop; stop in and thank them for supporting Fort Hunt Rugby.
Contact Coach Dacey with questions, comments, or content for the next newsletter: rugby007@aol.com, 703-780-5859.
