Season Award Finalists

During the banquet on May 31st, we will be presenting our annual awards for outstanding performances during this past season. Those at the AGM last week created the nomination lists and the winners were chosen by the attending board members (Cook, Swick, and Greg). We will, of course, keep the winner's name secret until the banquet. The nominees are:

MVP: Drew, Gonzo, Josh
Forward of the Year: Drew, Gonzo, Jay, Josh
Back of the Year: Mark, Red, Timmy
Most Improved: Greg B, Sam
Newcomer: Everyone who played their first season with DARC (okay, we can't make out all the names that were written for this one)
Merilee Kirkwood Cup (Sportsmanship award): Bear, Bloo, Josh, Ritchie

In addition, we may present a few "unofficial" awards, depending on how the creativity flows in the next few weeks.

Mudfish 2008

Seven's practice has started and tournaments are coming soon. That means that we need to start thinking about and getting ready for Mudfish. In case you weren't at the AGM this past weekend, and most of you weren't (well most of the team, anyway), Mudfish is our biggest money maker of the year. Unless you would prefer that we double the yearly dues, we need to bring in some cash. What this means to you is that you need to clear the first weekend in August off your schedule and resign yourself that you are going to work.

As a team member, you have certain responsibilities for Mudfish:
#1 Talk it up. When you are out at tournaments or hanging out with your friends, find a way to invite people to either come to play or to watch. We obviously prefer to have as many teams as possible entered (can you say entry fee?), but fans that buys hot dogs or drinks or even a t-shirt also means money for the team. I'll have a flyer put together some time this week and email that out as well.

#2 Tourney prep. I need a couple of volunteers to help get everything set up before hand. The past couple of years, we have used a rented trailer to load everything on Friday night. Ask any of the old guys that remember showing up at 6:30 at KC's warehouse to pick up stuff which is better. I need a couple of people to join me at Swick's place Friday afternoon to load the trailer. Plus, if anyone can land us a free or cheap loaner trailer, we would gladly take it.

#3 Set up/Tear down. This is the day of stuff. Setting up the fields, tents, tables, boards, parking, etc. Kenny has already volunteered to run the boards but I still need a cook, a field supervisor, a collections monitor, and a scale boss. I'm sure there are a few other choice positions I left out as well. If you volunteer early, you can avoid getting the stuck with the grunt work, not that any of it is all that hard. Remember, the point of the tourney is to make money, not for us to enter a team and play.

#4 Sponsorship. We are going to try to bring back the big money maker this year, the program. I'm putting together a price list for the program that will be handed out to everyone but I need you all to go out and find us some buyers. Spots in the program will start as low as $25 so it shouldn't be too hard to land one or two sponsors each. I'll email out the price list as soon as it is ready.

I'm hoping this will be another great Mudfish tourney but I need all your help to make it successful.

AGM Saturday Night - That's Tomorrow

We'd like to start the meeting at 6, so plan your drive to the Tipp accordingly. If you're behind on dues, bring them along.

See everybody there.

Texas Oklahoma Louisiana 7s Rugby Series

There's a new 7s rugby competition: The TOLA, 7s Series (Texas, Oklahoma ,Louisiana). It looks pretty interesting. Clubs will be awarded points for winning and placing well, but they can also earn points by "exemplifying the spirit of rugby."

Examples of behavior that will be considerred for these points include travelling a great distance, entering multiple teams, assisting the tournament hosts in some way, playing up a division to fill a bracket, etc. [emphasis added]

And you get 1 point just for entering a tournament, including social tournaments. Might be just the thing Texas-area rugby needs for the summer. It starts out pretty competitively for 4 weeks straight, then mostly social but for one tourney in July and the Championships on August 9. Heck, our old, slow, fat, broken guys could earn 6 points just by showing up to all the socials, even if we pull the Iron Butterfly Maneuver on the pitch!

• 5/31/08: Los Perros De Mayo, Midland, TX (TOLA Series)
• 6/7/08: Lone Star Classic, Dallas, TX (TOLA Series)
• 6/14/08: Jamie Varrano Memorial, Houston, TX (TOLA Series)
• 6/21/08: Bloodfest, Austin, TX (TOLA Series)
• 6/28/08: West Qualifier, Dallas, TX (social)
• 6/28/08: Redfish, Baton Rouge, LA (social)
• 7/5/08: open
• 7/12/08: Parrotheads, Tulsa, OK (social)
• 7/19/08: Tornado Alley, Norman, OK (TOLA Series)
• 7/19/08: Sevens by the Sea, Corpus Cristi, TX (social)
• 7/26/08: Zeekers Midnight Sevens, Stillwater, OK (social)
• 8/2/08: Mudfish, Dallas, TX (social)
• 8/9/08: Horse Shoe Sevens, Shreveport, LA (TOLA series - Championship)

Congrats to Fort Worth, West DIII Champs

Congratulations are in order for Fort Worth who won the West for DIII by one point, 20-19 over Northern State of Nebraska. The boys from cowtown go on to the next round on May 17, which will be played...somewhere. I couldn't find the answer at USA Rugby's site.

The eligible list for Saturday's AGM

Unfortunately, my computer issues have really screwed up my tracking of dues for this season. This is purely my fault and I apologize to everyone.

Having said that, going off an outdated file I could recover and my memory, here is the list of players that I know have paid dues and are eligible to hold and vote for officers. If I have left someone off it is completely unintentional. Please contact me and we will work it out. Honor system on that one, boys. I do have a good memory of many who haven’t paid.

Here are the good guys:

Richie Almond
Greg Beynon
Jesse Cavazos
Marc de Charmoy
Dan Cook
Bloo Daniels
Josh Erickson
Bear Hudson
Matt Jones
Kenny Mayon
Drew Mccure
Greg Necastro
Jay Rooney
Gonzo Ruiz
Russell Sanders
Jason Swick
Philip Wauters
Timmy Williams
Matt Wood
Azeem Zafar

Here are the remaining names who are actively CIPPed with the club:

August Blackburn
Michael Cardell
Tom Cowan
Phillip Erickson
Kyle Harrell
Rashad Harvor
Ryan Helm
Chris Keller
Nick Lock
Tom Morgan
Sam Saife
Jon Savage
Michael Voss
Jason Wilkins
Mark Wunsch

Again, I may have forgotten a couple of people who paid. If I did, talk to me and we’ll sort it out.

Practice at Schimelpfennig

7s Practice at Schimelpfenig (Shim-El-Fin-Ig).

• Get to Independence and Spring Creek Parkway
• Go North to Maumelle
• Turn Right and follow road
• Parking lot on the backside of the school on the right.
• Field just beyond that.

Best behavior.


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