Sunday - "Take Me Home"...

8am Sunday morning - dry and sunny! The Highlanders boarded the bus to head homewards to Chapel Hill.
En route in Western PA, Coach Todd pointed out the house where his father had grown up. We headed southwards into West virginia, (relieved that we were going to be passing Washington PA, rather than DC!)
After a lunch stop in Summersville, and after their successful debut the previous evening as a Male voice Choir, the boys started their team rehearsals for "Rugby Anthem Idol".
We later stopped at the New River Bridge overlook in West Virginia.....


....and the squad launched into their favorite John Denver song....

Moments after we finished watching the 1972 Barbarians vs. All Blacks ("Greatest Ever Rugby Game"), we pulled into Cedar Falls

One last team chant, and farewell.


Thank you Highlanders Coaches and Players for a tremendous end to a remarkable season.

Saturday - A Festival of Rugby!

With the South's first victory in U19 rugby history safely secured, the Highlanders settled down to enjoy the rest of the tournament during the dry afternoon and wet (oh was it ever wet!) Pennsylvanian evening.
Here are some random thoughts and images....


"Work Man"(?!)


Carlos showing Tim how it's done

"Quick, look the other way - here comes that '50-50' guy again!"

The Highlander U19 Male Voice Choir were in full voice supporting their first round victors - Highland - in the U19 Final against United. (Yes it had been raining a while) Incidentally Coach Joseph later received a letter of thanks from Highland for the boys' magnificent support in the Final.

Later, during the Jesuit-Christian Brothers game, they were still in good voice...

"Anyone bring a towel?"

Saturday - Game Three

On Saturday morning at the hotel there was a mood of quiet determination amongst the squad - a mixture of pride at the performance against Highland, and frustration at the 0-21 defeat by the LA Cougars. There was still one game to go and an opportunity to do what no other team from the South had ever done at Nationals before - all that lay between the Highlanders and 7th place in the Nation was Union County of New Jersey.

The watching crowd did not have long to wait - after 4 minutes Kareem Ramadan burst over the line to score a classic back-row try - the Highlanders were back! Union County pulled ahead with a converted try, but Graham Joseph restored the lead just before half-time: 8-7.

The second half was characterized by typical Highlander pressure and posession - dominating in the tight and the loose, retaining and recycling the ball, and a lot of time spent in the opposition's half.

Graham added another penalty, and the final score was 11-7. Victory...

....and another landmark for the Highlanders in a momentous season.


NUMBER 7 IN THE NATION

Remembrances of Rugby National Championship weekend 2009 (Day 2)

They guys woke refreshed after a delicious dinner Friday night scheduled by Melinda and Dave Thomas. We traveled to the pitch to play the 7/8th place match against Union County (from New Jersey). The boys played like highlanders! After a couple of heart stopping moments near the end of the game, the highlanders triumphed (11-7).

The boys showered, changed and then settled down to watch some of the girls matches. Of particular interest were the twin centers from the Maryville, TN team. Between Steven yelling from the clubhouse “Have the twins scored yet?”, to Jim’s comments “Wow, it looks like she passed to herself” and Josh’s “They’re twins!”; the boys enjoyed the game. Later Coach Smith pointed out “Those girls could really play!”. The Maryville team lost to the Wisconsin #1 ranked Devine Savior Holy Angels’ Dashers (a real school team name!).

The team ate out at locale bar which was decked out with Pittsburgh Penguin regalia (Go Hurricanes, beat Pittsburgh!). After a nice dinner of wings, pizza and pasta; we all headed back to the pitch for the U-19 final (Highland vs. United). The Highland team won by a lot. They dominated United. The boys clearly had an enjoyable evening, even though the thunderclouds rolled in a soaked everyone in the 2nd half. There was a group of our boys sitting out (standing actually) in the rain, cheering for both teams. They were clearly having a great time and because of their enthusiasm, may end up on the TV highlights (ESPNU).

After the Highland vs. United game the two teams clustered together away from the crowd watching the Jesuit vs. Christian Brother game in a circle. The rain had ended, but darker (black) storm clouds were gathering in the western sky. Our boys noticed that something was happening and rushed to the circle. With the instincts of an experienced chaperone, I followed. In the midst of the circle, the group of the Highland team (led by the big # 8 Maori), were performing the Haka facing a handful of the United team of Maori descent (including the small winger). I was facing # 8 with his back to the black sky. Although I have seen the videos of the Haka on U-tube, It was chilling to see the intensity up close. With the storm clouds in the background and the big Maori’s eyes wide, the Haka concluded. The # 8 from the Highland team bear hugged the smaller winger from the United team while other boys grasped hands and slapped each others backs.

This performance punctuated the Rugby weekend until the North Carolina highlanders got off the bus after the long trip from Pittsburgh. After all of the bags were claimed, Asher got the boys in a circle as the coaches and parents watched from the parking lot. Not much was said as the boys contemplated an end to this astounding season. Asher then stepped to the center of the circle and led the team in one last rousing highlanders chant. They gathered together in the center as the band of brothers that they had become.

I am very proud of all of the boys. This trip ended a special season. As a parent, I especially appreciate all of the time that the coaches have put into the program. Job well done, Highlanders!

Remembrances of Rugby National Championship weekend 2009 (Day 1 and Thursday night)

Wow! What an exciting weekend in Pittsburgh. The guys got back a couple of hours ago. I have been mulling the weekend around in my head during the long 8 hour drive back from PA. I will attempt to regurgitate my remembrances.

I arrived at the hotel about 10:30 Thursday night. Thy boys were just returning from their extended bus ride (via Washington DC.), check in at Founders Field, and dinner. They looked tired getting off the bus. Linda had all of the room keys ready and the boys quickly disappeared to sleep.

The first game of the day was at 11:30 against the Highland Rugby (Juggernaut) Team (http://highlandrugby.net/index.php/home). There was speculation (amongst the parents) that the boys were apprehensive about playing the best team in high school (U-19) rugby.
It was a beautiful day for Rugby… ~80 deg and sunny. The boys were stunned when the Highland team scored within the first 2 minutes of the game. The 8 man for Highland was clearly from “out of town” (more on this later). He was clearly of Maori descent and was described by Willem as a “man-beast” after the match. The boys shook off the shock, and stood up against the goliath. The game ended with a 31-15 loss. A woman came up to me (I was wearing my 2007 Highlanders T-shirt) to ask how the game went. When I told her that we lost 31-15, her eyes got big and she said “That’s good!”. No team scored a try against Highland the entire tournament. The Highlanders scored two try’s (Jonathan and Sebastian? – See Richards blog for the specifics) and one penalty kick by Graham! In addition, on the Highland web site, the most points scored off Highland this year were by the North Carolina Highlanders.

The guys lounged at the pitch until the afternoon game against the LA Cougars. The afternoon game was disappointing. The boys came out flat and lost a tough game against the Cougars. They didn’t have that highlanders pop. The final score was 21-0. Although the 2 losses were disappointing, they showed the boys that they could play with any team on the pitch.

While waiting for 2nd game against the LA Cougars, I was standing next to the Ohio “Worms” fans bleacher section when one of the Grizzled Ohio ex-Coach noticed my shirt. He said that the boys played very well against the Highland team that morning. Then the conversation took a strange turn:

Grizzled Ohio ex-Coach: What did you think of #8 from the Highland team?
Doug: He looks like he is from out of town.
Grizzled Ohio ex-Coach (laughing): I would bet that you are right. I would also bet that he isn’t here next year. He may be playing Rugby back in New Zealand.

The Grizzled Ohio ex-Coach then proceeded to tell me a story which started with the history that the Highland Coach owns his own travel agency, travels to New Zealand often, ..Maori youth are recruited using new paper advertisements in New Zealand…the Mormons were mentioned…the Highland team has a significant number of New Zealanders playing on the team…..

Although I was not drinking yet, the story was very confusing, but ended when the grizzled ex-coach said that he could dominate the sport of rugby if he recruited his kids from the New Zealand Maori. I wonder if Coach Smith could have been recruited to the Mormon faith to play rugby in a foreign country (from New Zealand)...…oh, wait, Mormons don’t drink or curse. It would have never worked!!

When I told the Grizzled Ohio ex-Coach that we were planning to build a Mormon Tabernacle in Chapel Hill, he smiled.

Related to the Maori, Richard Jordan told me the infamous Welsh saying about playing (and getting beat by) the West Samoans in the 1990’s: “Good thing we were only playing Western Samoa. Imagine how bad we would have lost if we played all of Samoa.”

Friday - additional thoughts

Friday was a day of two parts. In the morning the Highlanders did very well against the Highland team from Salt Lake City. It was great to watch rugby of the highest caliber, and to see our team measure themselves against that high standard.

As Melinda has mentioned, the boys did themselves proud and put a lot into that game. Highland are the New York Yankees or Manchester United of US High School rugby, and the Chapel Hill Highlander performance against them was impressive.

There was a four hour break between the Highland game and the next match against the LA Cougars, so the team had a chance to relax, reflect and refocus.

We all kept reminding ourselves that every team in this tournament is a Regional Champion, and that there are no easy games or weak opponents.

Friday night was a time for the team to regroup before Saturday's game against Union County of New Jersey.

Friday

A very tough friday for the boys. First up was Highland rugby-a couple of very large boys on the team-their number 8 was very big. They had coaches walking both sides of the field communicating with each other via walkie-talkie. Our boys took a bit to settle down. They scored a couple of quick tries before the boys figured out that they didn't have to take this. We scored a our own two tries and a penalty kick. I think they were absolutely shocked that we had scored on them, as they presumed they would dispatch us easily. The final score was 31-15-not bad for our first time playing the "exhalted" Highland team. One parent was told that this was the most points anyone had scored against Highland this season.

Our second game that afternoon was against the LA cougars. Both Asher and Jonathan knew one of the boys on this team-Andrew Jackson, who has played with them on the USA U17 and U18 team. Andy is their fly-half and his is absolutely deadly with the kick, which he showed off to great effectiveness in our game. Unfortunately, our boys just looked flat coming out to this game. Don't know if the effects of playing hard games for the past several weeks plus the really physical match against Highland just finally caught up with them, but they just couldn't put anything together and fell to the cougars by an uncharacteristic score of 21-0. I know the boys were disappointed, but as parents, we were cheering them on and hoping to give them a bit of lift so they can come back strong for their final game on saturday.

Friday night, we all ate together at a local italian restaraunt. I think the boys settled down, had a bit of fun and with some rest will have their game face back on for today's game against Union.

GO HIGHLANDERS!