Photos: Jackie Finlan
The second annual NorCal Invitational returns to Livermore, Calif., on April 14-15, and it’s drawn a stellar lineup that extends beyond local teams. The tournament, which features Division I, Division II and middle school competitions, has the bones to be a legitimate western championship.
Five of the eight teams in the Division I competition have recent, some storied, experience at the high school club National Invitational Tournament (NIT). NorCal’s Sacramento, Land Park, Pleasanton and Danville have all played at the NIT, and in 2017 the Amazons finished third, the Harlequins fourth and Cavaliers sixth.
Southern California is sending 2017 club NIT runner-up Fallbrook; South Bay, which has had a knockout 7s and 15s season already; and Belmont Shore, a newcomer. Reigning club NIT champion United is not attending – the Utah team is heading to the 2018 NIT in Tennessee – but Utah will be represented in Provo. The Steelers just tied United 10-10 during last weekend’s league game.
Bishop O’Dowd and Mother Lode are currently registered in Division II, so at least two more teams are needed to make this competition worthwhile. The middle school division is full with eight teams and pulls from SoCal, NorCal and Kahuku in Hawaii. Kahuku’s high school team finished second to Divine Savior Holy Angels in last year’s single-school NIT championship.
Additionally, Pleasanton coach Paul Bretz, also president of the NorCal Rugby Referee Society, has once again assembled an all-female referee and touch judge staff, and is integrating a Level 1 referee course into the event. More to come.
“I’m on the [NIT] committee and I’ve talked to them, to [high school club NIT director] Pam Laura, to let them know that if this tournament is successful, then it will become a west coast championship, and this is what we would attend going forward – not ‘nationals,’” Danville coach Bob Stephen said.
Stephen, who is co-hosting the NorCal Invitational with Pleasanton coach Steve Lopez, explained that Laura understood the rationale behind west coast teams wanting a west coast location.
“Steve and I started this two years ago because we were worn out from raising $30,000 to go to the east coast,” Stephen recalled the 2014 and 2015 NITs. “At least four if not six [high school club] DI teams come from the west coast – four in NorCal, at least two in SoCal, and when Kent [Washington] shows up, that’s seven from the west coast. It doesn’t make sense that we’re fundraising all this money, when we could just stay here.”
Land Park, for example, faced fellow NorCal teams Pleasanton and Sacramento in Indiana last year. South Bay, too, only got two games after a rain delay saw its 7th-place opponent leave early to catch its flight home. Those circumstances aren’t quite as painful when they happen closer to home.
In addition to building out the team list, Stephen also wants the event to become a college recruitment opportunity. There’s more than a month between the NorCal Invitational and NIT, but Stephen expects that recruiters might have to choose between the two events this year.
For more information, visit the event website.