Sunday, February 23, 2014

Women's Old Blue 7s

Last year at 7s Nationals my Chicago Lions Women's team had the good fortune to stay at the same hotel as the New York Old Blue Men's 7s side. They kindly leant us an inflated rugby ball for a quick training session the Friday before the tournament (we wanted to perfect some lineout lifts with fairly new jumpers and also needed to just move around after a 5am road trip from Chicago to Pittsburgh). Fast forward a few months later and all the sudden @WOldBlueRFC is following me on twitter and more conversations began.

That men's team placed 3rd at Nationals last summer, beating our Lions men in the 3rd/4th place game, and they have a long standing tradition of high performance. Several of their players represented the USA as part of the New York City 7s side at the World Club 7s Championships at Twickenham last summer. Several more have continued to play at a very high level with the Northeast ODA program. It is fairly thrilling that they have committed to introducing a women's side and are already planning and recruiting such that it should equal the men's side in terms of success. 

As it became evident that their commitment to developing the women's 7s game is on par with our Stars mission, I asked Coach Billy Nicholas to share some information on the program and he quickly responded:



Old Blue RFC Men’s team has experienced five decades of success in rugby 15s and 7s and has started a Women’s 7s team which be competing in this upcoming women’s sevens summer season. 

The Old Blue Men’s 7s program has placed many players on the Eagles 7s team, has won nearly every 7s tournament it has entered, won two national championships and is a perennial men’s club 7s finalist.  Old Blue RFC intends to bring the same 7s structure that has been successful for the Old Blue men to our new women’s 7s program. The team will have access to great training facilities and will operate under an elite team structure of practice and a full summer tournament schedule. Old Blue Women’s 7s will be entering 2 teams in each tournament this summer. 

We expect to attract but not limited to, college-aged players and recent college graduates. We believe there is a group of young players with huge potential that has yet to be fully tapped into. We want to enable up and coming players the chance to be surrounded by a competitive environment of teammates, facilities and coaches with experience select side rugby and cultivating players talent for advancement in the USA and Olympic 7s pools.

We want to give interested players a chance to come back each summer and cultivate their skills with players from across the country. They may compete against one another during the year but will get a chance to come together each summer. This team will focus on player development and player advancement at local/national and international sides. We have a great National program and our team is designed to continue to support the success of our National team.


If you have an interest in spending a few months in one of the greatest cities in the world and playing elite level 7’s in an competitive environment, then this should be a club at the top of both of those lists. Stay tuned for more upcoming announcements including player profiles, practice and tournament information. 

Players who are interested should contact Old Blue at WoldBLUErfc@gmail.com
 
Visit or message us on:
Twitter: @woldbluerfc


No comments:

Post a Comment