This is the time of year when the social feeds flood with all kinds of activity. It’s an exciting time. The following includes some recent highlights from club, college and high school realms that got screenshot-ed into the “follow up” list. For a weekly snapshot of games being contested, check out TRB’s Scores posts.
Starting at the top … the Women’s Elite Rugby season is single-digit days away from opening day, and teams are doing well to get out into the public and make themselves known. They’re attending other professional sport games en masse and holding meet-and-greets with fans.
TRB stopped by the Bay Breakers’ practice last Saturday at the Oakland Roots training facility, took some pictures and asked some questions (Hannah Stolba & Celine Liulamaga interviews posting today). Also of note: Shilo Shalosky has swapped coasts from Philly to rejoin Stolba as an assistant coach.
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The Breakers also announced their reserve squad (9): Dakota Bailey-Van Kuren, Kedra Davis, Ceara Lafferty, Ariana Lewis, Angelina Lomu, Lauryn Nazareno, Stephanie Rosales, Laura Thacker and Mahie Wilhelm.
The Boston Banshees also named their reserve squad (8): Emily Becker, Delaney Dill, Malia Isaacs, Kianna Mahony, Alexandra Nelson, Elianne Sacher, Erin Wholey and Emma Wright.
On the senior club scene, a couple of non-league games drew attention. Portland traveled to Cal Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calif., to face the DII Berkeley All Blues in a competitive friendly. The home side won 20-10, and it was an important fixture for two programs with postseason eyes. In DI, Denver Black Ice traveled to Santa Monica for a 38-17 friendly win. The Dolphins had also hosted the Utah Vipers (which spent last Saturday beating the Colorado Gray Wolves by 24 points) last month.
This Saturday, tune into SoCal’s Women’s Day, which brings 13 adult teams together to Ventura for six league matches. For some background on the 3rd annual event, read more. Also keeping an eye on the DII Southwest, which sees Las Vegas vs. Albuquerque, and Phoenix vs. Old Pueblo. The results should determine the top-two teams and league finalists.
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In the college realm, USA 7s and 15s Eagle Cheta Emba (Class of 2015) joins the Harvard staff as assistant coach. Big time! And TRB wrote a couple of updates on the CRAA 15s seasons (Division I and Division II) as well as varsity Drury University, which is debuting at CRC 7s this year.
Related: Check out the updated list of high school recruits and college transfers.
As mentioned, high school is pumping right now and we’re excited by all the activity “off the ball.” Teams are traveling out of state and testing new opponents during their pre-seasons, and it’s fun to see some first-ever match-ups.
For example, Flathead Valley and a combination squad of Gallatin and Yellowstone (a new program) traveled to Utah last weekend for some friendlies against the Majestics and West Valley. And the weekend prior, Scottsdale traveled to St. George, Utah, to win the Desert Roundup Invitational. This is all 15s.
The Utah regular season begins this weekend and there is increased interest around the Majestics and United, both of which competed on the West Region 15s circuit (United also traveled to Hawaii last month along with Lakewood and Sacramento Amazons to play host Hawaii Wahine). Their 15s seasons have had a longer run-up and against diverse competition, so how might that play out at nationals?
Also in the western half of the country, Idaho kicked off its club 15s season and fields DI and DII options for members. Oregon held its preseason jamboree ahead of this Saturday’s kickoff. Fall 7s champion Summit High School has committed to the HS national championship in Wisconsin this May – a first for the Steve Lopez program. In Washington, this Sunday is a Women’s High Performance Pathway talent ID stop in Vancouver. usa.rugby/pathways-tour
NorCal is plugging along. Itching for that Sacramento vs. Wolverines match. In the second tier of 15s, Carondelet High School is posting massive numbers. Texas, too, is deep into its high school 7s series.
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In the eastern half of the country, Guilford College again hosted the EGRL South Showcase. EGRL live-streamed 10 of 13 games and then followed with its first rankings of the 2025 spring season.
North Carolina, Ohio (Perrysburg Instagram embed above) and Tennessee kicked off their respective 15s league seasons as well, and Pennsylvania joins the fray this weekend.
As for TRB interviews in the hopper: 3 DIA coaches – Life’s Ryszard Chadwick, Lindenwood’s Trevor Locke and BYU’s Jared Whippy – have taken time to talk about a busy March already underway; and 3 Midwest Baby Birds talk about their next steps into collegiate ball and the regional all-star program’s impact on those moves. More to come.
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