Since we began practice we've been running 4 stations complete with tackling, passing, defensive skills and conditioning and we've been doing pretty good and we're discovering the players that want to play rugby for UT Dallas.
With this new season, let me introduce the club officers. As I mentioned 2 paragraphs above Kayla Killbury is the Women's President. Brandon Hernandez is the Men's President and with the help of those 2 we plan on taking both the men and women into competition.
The coaches for our season is basically the same, John "Bear" Hinson is still my Assistant Head Coach and coaching the forwards. Daniel Stewart is back as Assistant Coach working with the Backs. Jonathan Holmes is also back as my Assistant Head Coach for the Women. I have been in communication with Alyssa Gelman who may take on a role as an Assistant Coach helping the women, but this is still up in the air, as soon as I am able to secure things and people, I'll make that public.
Beginning with the Women's program, our girls UT Dallas Women's Rugby will compete in Tier 2 competition. This competition will have 5 clubs all playing 12's or 10's rugby in a series of 4 league matches. There will be a championship match to determine that champion later in the November.
The men began the summer ready to compete in Tier 1, but with a late addition to this Tier, it was decided and voted by the guys to drop to Tier 2. A competition that should be more in line with our players. This is and should be a conference that suits our club very well and games we should be competitive.
It is going to be a busy year for both the men and women, but I feel that some of the incoming freshmen along with a good number of returning players. This could be and should be a very exciting season, one that could rival the likes of our first 2 seasons in the league.
Our schedule is posted on this web site and there is one small change, the players clinic probably will not happen due to a lack of participation from not only our club, but the other clubs around the league. The other change will be the Dust your Boots off Tournament in Austin. This year St. Edward's University will not be hosting the tournament, so Shayne is working on finding a club willing and able to host it. As soon as I know more info again I'll post it.