HOW ‘BOUT THEM REDHAWKS!!

I can’t help but send this Krosneresque lengthy email because I am so proud of the boys right now. I will also cover some season updates so please bear with me and please share the kudos part with your son.

Games this Week.  Varsity versus Raleigh Rattlesnakes on Wednesday evening at the Poole Road fields. Game time to follow. (Raleigh only has about 15 kids so this will be varsity only and we will announce the 23 man roster tomorrow or Wednesday. That said—we are a team and you never know what happens so we want all HS players to be in attendance).  Saturday—game time and location to follow--is our last league game—varsity and JV—in Charlotte versus Charlotte Tigers.  (If we win both varsity games, that may well put the varsity team in the final four and competing for the state title. If we finish outside the final four, we will play on an upcoming weekend against the bottom 4 teams to see who finishes in 5-8th position).  The other main event we are now targeting is the Mother’s Day JV Tournament to declare the state JV champion. That event will be on Mother’s day Sunday in Charlotte and there will be some special items for the moms.  We want to win that tournament to leave no doubt who the best JV team is in the state so please keep that on the calendar.

Gonzaga Tournament.  JV Champions! Freshman Champions! A 6-0 record.  A total of 5 tries scored against our two teams over 6 games compared to more than 50 tries scored by the Redhawks. Great parent support. Professional attitude and behavior by the players all weekend (with one silly hotel transgression that needs to be forever eliminated). Kids playing out of position. 8th graders contributing to our 9th grade team’s success.  Overcoming injuries, weather, delays, uncertainty and a split coaching staff for the championship games. Great teamwork, camaraderie and sportsmanship and on and on and on.  I could not be happier or more proud of the Redhawks!!  Great job to everyone!

I want to point out a couple of themes I have been emphasizing all season because I think this weekend helps demonstrate the accuracy of those themes. I have said that for the Redhawks to be a great club and to be able to win big events, we need 50-60 players capable of playing on any given day without our team’s chances of success changing at all.  And I have said that it is critical for our players, where possible, to be able to play more than one position. At first, I think the kids thought I was crazy. If they were not starting varsity, some kids were upset. If we asked a player to play a different position than his usual, sometimes the player got upset. But can anyone disagree that this weekend, it took all 45 players in attendance for us to be successful.  Without every single one of them, our chances of winning would have dropped significantly.  Then came Sunday—we had to play both championship games simultaneously so we could not use our 9th graders as subs in the JV game and we had to split our coaching staff.  We also had players injured so we had to move two forwards from our JV pack into the backline. If those two players did not have experience playing in the backline, our hands would have been tied and the injuries would have likely killed our chances of winning. Instead, we were able to move them into different positions that they still understood and our other players were able to step into the game and we were still able to win the JV game 37-5!   Can anyone argue that having kids capable of playing in different spots can make the difference between success and failure?

 I think we learned valuable lessons this weekend. I saw the best teamwork and sportsmanship I have seen yet. I think we handled all the adversity like champions. We warmed up well even though we had little space to do so and we supported each other in all the games. That is what I want to see from now on. Every single JV player watching the varsity game and cheering the varsity on and every single varsity player watching the JV team and cheering the JV team on. That is a team and a team will be unstoppable.

 I had many proud moments this weekend. The first was seeing our injured Redhawk Caleb Faneuf in attendance and cheering his teammates on. Fantastic!  But perhaps my proudest moment was when the 9th grade championship game was winding down and the JV squad (sorry—the JV Redhawks Champions!!) arrived to cheer our 9th graders on. The looks on their faces were to die for and the way they cheered for our 9th grade boys to finish our second goal of the weekend was fantastic. But maybe even more fantastic than that—when the 9th graders won and everyone erupted with excitement—as is appropriate and understandable—immediately Jaden Roundtree from our JV side told the boys (in an extremely nice and respectful way) to hold the cheering and to first finish up with our end of game ritual—cheering for the ref, Gonzaga and the Redhawks and then shaking the hands of their competitors.  That is leadership and sportsmanship at its best—and guess what, when he said that—our boys reacted to their teammate’s leadership and quieted down and completed their tasks. I could not have been more proud.

 Two years ago, Andy reached out to Gonzaga to see if they would play us in a single match at their DC fields. Andy knew their proud rugby history and wanted our club to see how a quality rugby organization operates. We got that game and by playing them well, we garnered an invitation to their upcoming tournament. Andy and I then sat down and planned for the future.  We evaluated our club and our ages and we decided we would enter only a 9th grade team in the tournament our first year and our goal would then be to enter 9th and JV the following year (and to win) and then Varsity, JV and 9th the year thereafter. Here we are in year two and we did exactly what we planned to do. We entered and won both 9th and JV!  Next year, all three is the plan and the challenges will be even greater for us. Based on what I saw this weekend and how we are becoming a TEAM, I look forward to watching us meet those challenges!

 We set some goals at the start of the season—and winning the Gonzaga Tournament was at the top of the list. Mission Accomplished!! Well Done Boys!!

 Finally—I would be remiss if I did not do two more thank yous--

First, thanks again to our parents for all their work—especially the Forbis’ and Kurke’s who kept us dry and fed and hydrated all weekend. Thank you!!

Second—thanks to my fellow coaches. I feel truly blessed that, in my humble opinion, we have the best coaching staff in youth rugby! Thank you gentlemen. Well done!

See everyone Tuesday.

Best, Coach Dave 

(Feb 26,2017) 

     North Raleigh sweeps Gonzaga in friendly exhibition 

     First game: Redhawks (freshman) 39-5 

RedHawks freshman team captain: Aadil Mehasanewala. 

     The Redhawks came out swinging in the first half, not letting up any ground and plowing forward to get those crucial yards. Raleigh pounded Gonzaga with their forwards stepping up in the trenches. The back line was solid for Raleigh as the backs sprinted out scoring 3 tries in the first half. Among the try scorers were George O'brien, Aj Kurke, Nathaniel Roeback. The Redhawks sprinted away, scoring multiple tries in the second half to give Raleigh a nice cushion. Gonzaga scores a try with 3 minutes remaining but fails to convert the extra, too little too late as the Redhawks pick up a solid victory.

       The RedHawks freshman return in April to compete in the annual Jesuit invitational tournament in Leesburg, VA.

        Second game: Redhawks (JV) 50-0. RedHawks captain: Kris Thomas

         North Raleigh continued their dominance into the second friendly, pounding Gonzaga with Redhawks forwards. Ball movement was key in this game. The Redhawks had tremendous ball movement out to the back line for the backs to do their job. The Redhawks scored 30 points in the first half, adding 20 in the second half to shutout Gonzaga. The ball was distributed all throughout the team as a spread of 10 players scored a try or multiple each. A true team effort.

RedHawks compete in ruggerfest this weekend in Charlotte.

By Aadil Mehasanewala

All--

1.  Redhawks Games this Weekend. 

Please note I have just been informed that there has been a change to our game time Kick off! Now: 1:15 pm

1:15 pm Kick OFF

Chestnut Square Park, 320 Chestnut Pkwy, Indian Trail NC  28079

2. All-Star Update.  Good luck to the Middle school players trying out for All Stars this weekend.

 Congratulations to the following 5 High School players invited to the All-Stars selection process

 Seth McGann, Jackson Cranor, Deshawn Harris, Kris Thomas and Evan Thomas

3.  Remaining Season.  The 15s season is winding down.  After this weekend in Charlotte, all we have left is a game next Saturday in Southern Pines against North Meck from the Charlotte area.  15s will only remain for players that were selected for All-Stars.

Don’t forget to register for the camp

Registration link is as follows:  http://northraleighyouthrugby.siplay.com/site/

4.Summer 7s.   After the North Meck game, we plan to take a couple or so weeks off.  We will then re-start our program on Saturday morning at Baileywick Road Park for those interested in participating in the sevens season(which will be in the Olympics this summer).  We will have a preliminarily 7s game against Fayetteville either May 14 or 21st.

We will enter a 7s team in the State Games in Raleigh on June 11 and the Queen City 7s tournament in Charlotte on June 25.  Also looking at one other tournament in June/July.  The college 7s national championship is also being held this year at WakeMed soccer complex on May 27 and 28—so anyone interested can go watch the top college teams compete for a national championship.  We will also have volunteer opportunities for ball boys and girls for the event.  Details will be coming on Sunday.

Thanks for your and your son’s support of the Redhawks!

Best, Andy