Hawaii’s Kahuku is in NorCal. / Photo: Jackie Finlan
The NorCal Kickoff Festival (KOF) occurs this Saturday and brings more than 20 girls’ high school and middle school teams to Elk Grove, Calif., for a day of 15s. It’s a pre-season tournament, with the season set to launch the first weekend in February, and also a 2018 first look at a bustling region that consistently produces elite talent.
The tournament is welcoming a special guest this year: Hawaii’s Kahuku High School. Two Raiders teams and staff are on a four-day NorCal tour, which includes games in the Bay Area and Sacramento area on Thursday and Friday night, followed by the KOF Saturday. Kahuku finished second to Divine Savior Holy Angels in the 2017 single-school National Invitational Championship (NIC) and was The Rugby Breakdown’s Standout Team of the Spring ’17. By tour’s end, the Raiders will have played some of the best club high school teams in the country, including Sacramento Amazons, Pleasanton Cavaliers, Land Park Harlequins and Danville Oaks – all of which have made at least one recent appearance at the club NIC.
But the national-level teams are only a portion of the activity at the KOF, which overflows on four pitches and fields a healthy middle school division. The Rugby Breakdown will be on site at the Hal Bartholomew Park for all of the action and reportage. Stay tuned for photos, interviews and more.