It was exciting to see, 19 women showed up to learn or continue learning about rugby and on the men's side we had 40 players show up. Many of our returning players came back looking fit and ready to help the rookies the game.
We also introduced our newest coaching addition Jacey who'll be helping the women and coaching the backs. With her and Sharpie the girls have a pair of former Texas A&M players to help them along the way, I'll be there as well.
After the meeting, everyone went out and played touch, this was so that we (the coaches) can evaluate the new players raw talents as well as the returning players in what they may have learned over the summer. This proved to be quite good. it seems that a lot of the rookies to UTD Rugby either started picking up this fairly quickly or they had previous rugby experience in high school.
On the 30th, we had our first real session, again 19 women and roughly 40 men showed up for 1 3/4 hours of running, passing, tackling and water breaks on this triple digit evening under the Texas setting sun. Again this was a tremendous evening, both the guys and girls picked up the passing and tackling quite well and next week we'll be able to advance on to the next level in preparation for our first scrimmage on Sept. 14th.
On that evening the ladies will play at 6:00pm - approx. two 20 minute halves. The guys will play UTD Alumni in roughly three 20 periods.
As we continue our trip through this preseason and into the league season, I'll update you on our goings on and if anyone has a question or comment, feel free to email me.