2016 Rugby NorCal Registration Now Open! National Dev. Summit Coming

2016 Rugby NorCal Registration Now Open! Registration for the 2015/16 season is open and clubs can register themselves and their players at any time. As a reminder only players can be registered through the CMS, all coaches, Referees, and Club Admins must register individually directly with USA Rugby here.

If you need help registering yourself or your club with the CMS, resources can be found here, which will answer most questions. If you still have challenges, feel free to email or call the office; 707-693-8803.

USA Rugby National Development Summit Coming to Northern California!

We are extremely excited to announce the the 2016 USA Rugby National Development Summit is coming to Northern California, January 22nd-24th, 2016, likely in San Francisco, although not confirmed yet!

The NDS is a platform for sharing of information on multiple tracks, including Coaching, Refereeing, Administration, and a specialty track. With 2016 playing host to the Rio Summer Olympics, a big focus will likely be on the preparation of our Men’s and Women’s 7s teams to compete for Gold!

USA Rugby is trying hard to secure a big name Keynote speaker for this event. Names such as Richie McCaw and John DeVilliers have been thrown out there, so we should have a great draw for this event.

Rugby NorCal has cleared our events calendar for that weekend, including regular season games to ensure every coach, referee, administrator and interested party has the opportunity to attend! More information will be forthcoming and will be distributed to all RNC Members.

Registration for the event, and links to book your hotel rooms at preferred pricing can be found here. Prices go up after November 30th, so act soon!

A large college fair will also be a part of the programming, so players from local clubs can come and have access to presentations and booths set up by local and national colleges and universities. The Ruggers Edge will be running this, and may also do a college application/admission process presentation to players at the same time. The pricing for this event will be separate (may be free), but we don’t have that information yet.

Also, 2016 Rugby NorCal Coach and Referee Courses, plus Containing Education Courses!

Every year, Rugby NorCal plans and puts on Referee and Coaching courses in conjunction with USA Rugby, Pelican Refs Society, and the NCRFU. 

This year, we have already had three referee courses held, and three more are planned. We also have three Level 200 Coaching courses planned over the next few months. Information and dates can be found here by scrolling through the calendar.

Rugby NorCal is also pleased to announce our first foray into Continuing Education Courses for both Referees and Coaches. Eugene Mountjoy has taken on the role of Coach Development Manager with Rugby NorCal and will be offering at least one Coach development course each/every other month throughout the course of the year in the Bay area and Sacramento. Each course will be worth 5 Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) approved by USA Rugby, and the courses will focus on strategic areas of game and player improvement for our coaches to benefit from. An announcement of dates, locations, and topics will be made shortly, and will be updated on the Rugby NorCal Calendar.

Rugby NorCal has also partnered with the NCRRS (Pelican Ref Society) to provide continuing education for our referees. In order to benefit from this, our NorCal affiliated referees must be registered with Pelican Refs so that they can have an account created within Google Classrooms. These courses will be given through an online delivery, making it convenient. 

As part of our dues increase for 2016, a focus was on continuing education for referees and coaches. As such, Rugby NorCal will cover the costs for Rugby NorCal members (Coaches and Referees) wanting to take these courses (includes registering with NCRRS). You should be getting an email from us soon to set up your Pelican Refs Email account, which is required in order to log into the Google Groups Classroom. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, please proceed with the registration process and start attending the classes. We will cover your Pelican Ref dues once you register and set up your Pelican Refs email account.The link to the form to sign up can also be found here. Again, we will follow up with an email to all referees shortly. 

NEW: Rugby NorCal Partnership with Rhino’s Rugby Training Academy!

As you may now be aware, Rugby NorCal has partnered with the Rhino’s Rugby Training Academy (RTA) to provide a full service Academy and training model to our members. This academy is regionally based, and for yearlong academy members, will provide far more than just additional training and coaching.

RTA is almost ready to announce their first offerings to the membership, and you can expect to see something starting between the end of October and early November! In the meantime, check out their website at www.rugbytrainingacademy.com