MCRC Spring Training is ON

The Middlebury College Rugby Club will be gearing up for the National Quarterfinal competition in Orlando with a few matches around New England in the next month or so. Action starts this coming Saturday, March 17.

Put another way, it's the time of year where you should start planning your weekends around the MCRC competition schedule. Don't do anything else.

MCRC Spring 2007 Training Schedule:

• March 17 - AWAY at Boston College. Training scrimmage and joint training stuff. This is NOT a game - 1:00 pm - This has been CANCELLED DUE TO FACILITY SCHEDULING CONFLICT
• March 31 - AWAY at Yale - 'A' Game at 1:00 pm - NEW TIME! 'B' match to follow.
• April 7 - AWAY at Amherst College - Game at 1:00 pm
• April 14 - AWAY at SUNY-Albany - Game at 1:00pm - CONFIRMED
• April 21 - National Quarterfinals, Sanford, Florida. Click here for further information

Accommodations Secured - It's GO Time

GET to your web browser ASAP and make your reservations for your upcoming trip to Florida because the start of pool play in the 2007 National Championship Men's Division II Collegiate Rugby tournament is right around the corner.

Lodging
Coach Ward Patterson has contracted with the Homewood Suites HILTON at $109 per night for a room that can sleep four, with a lounge. The link to the hotel is here. Ward notes: "The TEAM will be there on Thurs, April 19th and will fly back on the Monday 22nd. Families should come in on the Friday, and plan to stay over Sunday night. The Sunday matches can run late, and I would hate for parents to come down and then have to leave the field before our big moment is there. Last year the last game started at 5pm., so late flights may not be an option, but you should check this." Flights should be arranged to Orlando.

Call Homewood at: 407-805-9111, and mention that you are ATTACHED to the Middlebury College Rugby Team, and you get the deal rate too. "Players GET this info to your parents!"

The Tournament:
The Coast Guard Academy was the 2006 Division II National Championship winner so the Northeast Territory gets to send two teams to this year's national tournament. There are seven territories in the US and you need eight teams for a competition so the winning territory always sends two teams the following year.

Pool play begins for all Div II Collegiate teams on April 21-22, 2007 in Sanford, Florida. All matches will be held at the Seminole County Sports Training Center, Sanford, Fla. The event is hosted by The Central Florida Sports Commission.

The round of eight brackets can be found at the USA Rugby website. Middlebury, seeded #7 in this tournament faces the #2 seed (Opponent is... ???) from the West Territory. As the #1 seed the Coast Guard Academy draws, on paper, an easier match against the #8 seed University of Northern Iowa, the 2006 Midwest Rugby Football Union champions.

Game ON !