Middlebury College Rugby Club

The Middlebury College Rugby Club will once again be entering the 2010 Newport 7′s Rugby Tournament being held this summer in Newport, Rhode Island. The tournament will take place at Fort Adams State Park on July 24th and will feature competition from all over the Northeast. We invite all current players, alumni, and future players (last year’s tournament witnessed breathtaking play by Dylan Whitaker before he had even begun his freshman year) to join us in the competition. The $400 cost of entering the whole team will be split between the participating players. If you are interested or have questions please contact Michael Pappa ’11 at mpappa@middlebury.edu. We hope to see you out on the pitch!

For more information on the Newport 7′s tournament visit http://www.newportrugby.com/tournaments.php.

The weekend of June 26 – 27 the Middlebury College Rugby Club hosted two USA Rugby Certification Workshops. Great Vermont weather welcomed over 20 coaches from around the country for a weekend of talking, thinking and coaching rugby. Former Penn State Women’s Defensive Coach (and two-time National Champion) Peter Baggetta was in attendance as the supervising instructor.

Numerous current MCRC players traveled to Middlebury to help out for the weekend and got the chance to work with the coaches in attendance. A huge thank you to Geoff Kalan ’12.5, Brian Sirkia ’12.5, Rowan Kelner ’12, Nat Kelner ’12, Drew Harasimowicz ’11, Mike Pappa ’11, Dylan Whitaker ’13, Tom Campanella ’12. Special thanks to alum Max Levine ’09 for taking time out of his weekend to lend a hand to the proceedings.

Thank you also to USA Rugby and to all the onstructors who spent their weekend working to help all of us improve our coaching. It was a pleasure having you! It was terrific to have so much rugby knowledge and passion in the middle of summer, and we’re all counting the days until the fall season starts!

The Middlebury College Rugby Club is proud to host two USA Rugby Coaching Certification Workshops this summer. The workshops will be held on the campus of Middlebury College in Vermont the weekend of June 26 – 27, 2010.

REGISTER at http://www.usarugby.org - click on coaches in the top left nav of the homepage and then coaches education.

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Tony Reulbach ’90

Feeding 26 hungry rugby players (and some famished coaches) after 8 hours of traveling is not an easy task especially when they arrive after every store has closed. Thankfully Middlebury alum Tony Reulbach ’90 heard that Middlebury rugby was coming to Sanford for their sweet 16 game and he extended his support. Now Domino’s Pizza is The MCRC’s favorite pizza! Big thanks Tony!

Peg Jones ’46

Though most of the team did not get a chance to meet her that day they will be pleased to hear that they had an unexpected fan at their sweet 16 game against Miami of Ohio: midd alum Peg Jones ’46. Peg is a resident of Sanford, FL and when she got the email about the rugby team coming to her town she decided it was time to see her first rugby match. Peg, at the tender age of 86, came to the game on her own and was an enthusiastic supporter. She reports being proud of the boys.

Friday, March 12 the much anticipated raffle draw took place at 51 Main in downtown Middlebury – the 8 lucky winners are listed below and will be contacted this week for information on claiming your prize – number one gets to pick their prize first, number two takes the pick of the remaining prizes and so on:

1. Karen Leanos
2. Angelo Lynn
3. Kathryn DeLorenzo
4. Mike McKenna
5. Sofia Zinger
6. Katie Dunleavy
7. Gary Kalan
8. Chris Todd

And here’s a reminder of the prizes: two Red Sox vs. Yankees tickets, two tickets to the Sugarbush Ski Resort, 2 pairs of Red Sox tickets (non-Yankees games), Dinner for 2 at the Single Pebble (Burlington’s premier Chinese restaurant), hour-long Massages for two, and golf for two at the Burlington country club.

Thanks to everyone who supported The MCRC by buying tickets! Special thanks to Fat Baby for entertainment at the draw and 51 Main for hosting us.

The highlight of The MCRC social calendar: the fall banquet took place on December 5th at the Kirk Alumni Center with over 100 attendees: the 50 plus members of the club in suit & tie and their bevy of beautiful dates, dressed to impress.  The MCRC was also delighted to have alumni Daniel Chow ’09, Max Ryan Levine ’09 and Professor Miguel Fernandez ’85 (rugby adviser) in attendance.  Thanks also to Mike McKenna (rugby adviser) for sending his thoughts to the team via Miguel.

As is tradition the following player awards were announced that evening (note that player awards cover the calendar year 2009):

Rookie of the Year: Brian Sirkia ’12.5
Most Improved Player: Geoff Kalan ’12.5
Most Valuable Player: Eddie “Laser” Cahill ’09.5

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After the alumni game on Saturday, October 17 The MCRC drew the winner of the annual fall raffle – congratulations to Dennis and Nancy Meany, parents of former A side prop Sean “El Real” Meany ’08 and current A side center Colin Meany ’11.  Former forwards captain Luke “Moose” Yoquinto drew the winning ticket before an expectant crowd of ticket buyers.

The Meany’s have won 2 return plane tickets from Boston (Logan) to Dublin, Ireland, 3 nights hotel accommodations in Dublin and 2 tickets to the Ireland vs. South Africa game on November 28, 2009 but still have the option of choosing to take the alternative cash prize of US$1000.

Thanks to everyone who supported The MCRC through buying raffle tickets – major thanks to Deb Anderson in the Middlebury box office for working with us to make the raffle tickets available online.  Look out for our next raffle in the spring – details to come.

This year we are holding our alumni & supporter weekend over homecoming from October 16 – 18.  We would love to see as many alumni, parents, siblings and friends join us for an incredible weekend featuring the all important Alumni Game where us old folks get to teach these young kids how to play real rugby!  (We will have an EMT on standby!!)  Housing is available at Bread Loaf for $50 per bed per night including breakfast – please fill in your housing needs on the sign-up form below.

Click here to sign-up for the weekend

Weekend highlights below (more details including times to come):

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