Thursday, 17th February 201127th Sacramento KOT 2011 a Huge Success
2011 Sacramento Kick Off Tournament a Huge Success
KOT XXVII, January 28-30, 2011
Granite Regional Park
Sacramento, California
Prelude
The 27th annual Kick Off Tournament began Friday evening, January 28th, under the lights, on Granite Park's field turf. Local collegiate rivals California State University, Sacramento and the University of California, Davis faced off. B Side play began at 5:30, followed by the "A's" at 7:30. Sac State, coached by Mason Gunn, took both.
Between the two matches, three 10-minute Rookie Rugby micro-matches, organized by Nola Boyer and Naki Hopoi, were played between 3 K thru 8th grade schools. The look on the faces of the novice ruggers as they began play brought immediate attention and cheers from the veteran rugby crowd of 500. As they came off the field the collegiate athletes took the time to congratulate them and encourage them to keep on playing. It was heart warming stuff.
Two days of Competition
Saturday dawned foggy but mild with the first kick off at 8 a.m. across all six fields. Play throughout the day was boys high school competition, featuring 4 varsity divisions, plus Jr. Varsity, and Frosh-Soph. Saturday's schedule included 6 levels of competitive play, with 56 sides playing 82 matches (78 30-minute matches, 4 45-minutes long). Only Varsity divisions played to championships. Results were as follows:
KOT XXVII VARSITY PLAY
|
Division |
Format |
Champion |
Runner-up |
|
|
Varsity Gold |
8 team loser-winner bracket |
Jesuit RC |
San Mateo RC |
Jesuit defeated San Mateo 41-0 Consolation: Dixon & Hayward |
|
Varsity Silver Section 1
Section 2 |
4 team round-robin based on record.
2 pools of 3, with playoff |
Woodcreek RC
Granite Bay RC |
Cougar RC
Rio Linda RC |
Tied w/ 2-1 records. Woodcreek defeated Cougar in sectional play 7-0. Granite Bay 17 Rio Linda 0 for Cup |
|
Varsity Bronze Section 1 Section 2 |
8 team loser-winner bracket 4 team round-robin based on record |
De La Salle RC Oakland Warthogs RC |
Sierra Foothills RC Danville Oaks RC |
De La Salle 19 - Sierra Foothills 3 Oakland 3-0; Danville 1-1-1 |
|
Varsity International |
4 team round robin based on record |
Liberty RC (Seattle) |
Christian Bros RC |
Liberty 3-0; Chris Bros 2-1 |
Sunday was a bit clearer with less apparent risk of rain. Rounds kicked off at 9:00 for 42 teams playing 65 matches, all but 5 of which were 30-minutes playing time. Two matches were Varsity International Finals, regulation 70-minute matches. 8 levels of competition were played on Sunday, featuring mostly Youth, including 18 Middle School sides, 18 U12s and 15 U10 sides.
In all, 105 teams with a guesstimated 2,100 players took part in 150 matches over the two plus days at KOT XXVII. Ray Thompson - KOT Competition Manager raythompson3@surewest.net
KOT Referee Development Program Report
The KOT could not possibly have grown to its size, and maintained its high quality of play (dozens of future Eagles and Collegiate All Americans have tested themselves at past KOTs), without an enormous undertaking by the game's most important volunteers: Rugby Referees.
The 4th weekend of January is traditionally amongst the busiest weekends of the year in Northern California for Club and Collegiate rugby. In other words, the pool of available referees would already be stretched too thin. How could a large high school event also be held?
To grow the KOT in the mid-2000s, the KOT's Organizing Committee began to invite off-season referees, snowbound in homes back East and up North, to travel Sacramento on their own dime and help us along. No stone was left unturned locally as well. Efforts have been made to identify/recruit potential referees from our pool of graduated/retiring players across the region.
We've brought along many, but none more successful than Joe Androvich. Now an attorney and about to get married, in 2006, Joe, then a recent graduate of Jesuit and Cal rugby, and starting Law School, reffed his first games ever at the KOT. Though never a threat to make an all-star team as a player, Joe'll be busy handling USA Rugby Super League and College Premiership matches throughout the season ahead, and appears well on his way to reffing his first full International!
Through the drawing power of the KOT, we've developed an innovative Referee Development Program. The RDP includes a free 6-hour Training Session on Friday at Sac St., led by National Level Referee Educators, and lots of high-quality referee coaching throughout the weekend. Costs for referee meals were covered throughout the weekend, out-of-town visitors were hosted, and the CA National Guard came through with sweet new ref shirts! A KOT Referee Banquet, held Saturday night, in gratitude for the efforts shown and still to come, featured over 60 guests sporting their finest Number 1s.
2011 list of KOT Referees, beginning with our (6) National level referee coaches: Don Whidden (Rugby Canada - Alberta), Ed Todd (USA Rugby - Director of Referee Development), Dave Williamson (USA Rugby - Referee Evaluator - Berkeley), Peter Simpson (USA Rugby - Referee Evaluator - Met NY), Josh Tameifuna (USA Rugby - Referee Evaluator - SoCal), and Kat Todd-Schwartz (USA Rugby - Referee Evaluator - Sacramento). Our (2) Territorial level referee coaches: Mike Malone (Territorial Ref Evaluator - NorCal), Peter Benjamin (Territorial Ref Evaluator - New England).
Our list of (35) Tournament referees: Paul Bretz (Pleasanton Cavaliers coach and National Panel Ref), Don Reordan (former National Panel ref), Bret Reordan (his 19 year-old son), Rick Koetje & Rhoan Laymon (WA), Phil Ulibarri (Reno), Jeff Ferguson (Berkeley), Brighton Khumalo & Larry Ramey (Eastern Rockies), Ivan LePendu (Utah), Pat Wickman (Met NY), Joseph Johnson (San Francisco), Art Morales & Josh Silveira (New England), Andy "Stoney" Magdanz (Texas), Eric Rauscher (Bay Conference HS Ref coordinator), Brad Scott, Rod Chance & Mark Godfrey (Motherlode RFC), Jeff Richmond (Dixon), Calvin Doval & Tyler Harrison (both UCD & Sac Valley veteran players), Phil Akroyd, Chris Tucker, & Richard Boyer (Sacramento), Dan Wilson & Bill Long (Fresno), Scott Wood (Stockton), Terry Ryan (Bellarmine Prep), Stephen Kenny & Kyle Peterson (Sierra JC players), Jeff Lusich, Tom Franzoia & Whit Poindexter (3 Sacramento veterans finally taking up the whistle!), Bruce Ricard (Paris, by way of Mountain View). 5 on this list are 21 years of age or below!
A stellar list of (4) 17 year-olds reffing on Sunday: Nick Boyer (Jesuit, will attend Cal), Tyler Nawrocki (McClatchy), Ryan Sinclair (Sierra Foothills), Brandon Smith (Christian Brothers). (2) 12-year olds running touch exhaustively Saturday: Shawn Allison (Land Park Motley) and Liam Bretz (Pleasanton Cavaliers). Several others, including Erik Jacobsen, Alan Driscoll and John Fouts attended the Friday RDP only.
Of this list, 10 reffed their first games ever on the weekend! Most of those have now reffed again the following weekend. Though reports are still arriving, in all it appears over 30 referee coaching reports will be completed. Lots of grassroots, but still high quality referee development went on all weekend long. Plus: Strategies for new referee identification and development were pondered by Ed Todd and the newly formed NorCal Youth Rugby Referee Committee.
The explosive growth of rugby at the youth and high school levels cannot possibly be supported by our game's traditional models. Events such as the KOT have forced us to think "outside the box." With hard work and proper planning, the benefits fall neatly into place. Ray Schwartz - KOT Referee Manager. vanillagorillaray@sbcglobal.net
The Kick Off Tournament Committee
The KOT is, perhaps, the premier high school and youth rugby tournament in the Country! In the words of one very experienced KOT participant, "...the 2011 KOT was the best organized rugby tournament ever, anywhere!" To back that claim up, just 4 days after the event, the KOT Organizing Committee hosted a well-attended Volunteer Dinner at Mather Golf Course Clubhouse, Rancho Cordova.
This event acknowledged the absolutely essential role each and everyone played in making the Tournament what it has become, and promises to be. From parking managers to check-in people, from gatekeepers to concession organizers, from the field marking and set up crew to scorekeepers, from timekeeper/air horn operators to public address announcers, from competition organizers to team recruiters, from referees to referee coaches and managers, from field marshals to clothing sales personnel, from generator and equipment set up specialists to produce and lunch retrieval folks, and from program sponsorship promoters to go-fers in red hats, and all other stripes of folks who put this thing together and make it run, a tournament such as this can come to be only on the backs of a cadre of volunteers! So after months of planning, and one incredibly tiring long weekend where the stars of youth and high school rugby took center stage, the Dinner allowed our Volunteers to bask, at least a little, in the success of a job very well done by all.
Tournament host, the Sacramento Valley Rugby Foundation, is now gearing up with its corporate partner, the San Juan Soccer Club, to begin construction of the California Rugby-Soccer Complex at Mather Regional Park, just east of Sacramento. The 90-acre facility, when completed as planned over the next 5 years, will feature 17 pitches, a minimum of 8 will be capable of hosting both rugby and soccer. The added capacity will be very welcome, and is in fact sorely needed. KOT XXVII essentially sold out several weeks in advance. The event was at full field capacity Saturday, and had only half a dozen open slots on Sunday, though matches started an hour later!
Please visit www.svrf.org to inquire about the 28th annual KOT, to be held January 27-29, 2012. Jerry Ahlin - Sacramento Valley Rugby Foundation Chairman. jahlin@sbcglobal.net
