Oshkosh High School Rugby Sponsors
Oshkosh Mens Rugby Club Website
Parents Info
Dear Parent,
So, your son has decided to play Rugby? DON'T PANIC!! Rugby is a wonderful game, with a rich tradition both here in Wisconsin and around the world. It is THE contact game of choice for countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Scotland and Wales. Throughout the world, people play Rugby from grade school through adulthood. In fact, Rugby is truly a "life sport" in that, unlike American Football, players continue to participate in Rugby long after they leave high school. Players can keep playing competitive Rugby for years and years by joining local men's clubs. Many players - including the 3 coaches of this team - play the game well into their 30's.
Rugby was "invented" at Rugby College in England - hence the name - during the 1800's. Rugby has been around Northeastern Wisconsin for the past 30 years. The Green Bay Rugby Football Club was founded in 1972, the Appleton/Fox Valley Men's team was formed in 1976, and Oshkosh Rugby was formed in 1988. NEW Youth Rugby - the league we are a part of - was created in 1995 with 3 teams in Green Bay - now there are 12 high school teams in Northeast Wisconsin, with similar leagues playing in Madison and Milwaukee. Some famous Rugby players you may have heard of - President Clinton played at Oxford, Pope John Paul played in Poland, Governor McCallum played in Washington DC, Ted Kennedy played at Harvard and Boris Karloff founded the Southern California Rugby Club. Al Gore claims to have invented the sport, but this cannot be verified....
Rugby is definitely a "contact" sport, but it is not a brutal sport. In fact, it is much less violent than American Football. There are several very good and logical reasons for this including the fact that contact, while vigorous, is much less dangerous than in football since neither blocking or rigid protective equipment is allowed in Rugby. This means that players are not getting blind-sided by the unexpected blocker nor striking each other with "armored" shoulder pads or helmets. I often describe it as a mixture of soccer and football. Dirty or dangerous play is not tolerated and the offending player may be ordered off the field or even suspended by his club or the league. The referee is even called "sir" and he or she is given total and complete respect and control of the game. Rugby places as much importance on sportsmanship as on winning.
Here at Oshkosh, we truly value and demand this in our players - everybody will play in every game and we expect our players to behave as gentlemen on and off of the field. We know that Rugby is truly a "foreign experience" for most of these guys, so we stress learning and fun for our players. Rugby is a tough game, but we try to make it as fun as we can and make it something our players will long remember. It is a fantastic sport for athletes looking to improve themselves for other sports - namely football but also soccer and wrestling and just general all around fitness
The fees for playing rugby this year will be $40. Pretty much the only equipment needed for rugby is a good pair of football or soccer cleats - with no front or "toe" cleat - a mouth guard and a good/sturdy pair of shorts. For an extra $10, we will get your son a pair of high quality rugby shorts which will last him for years - these are valued at $20. We will also supply game socks and a jersey at each game. We will begin practicing in early March, with our first game being in early April and the season wrapping up on May 18th. Practices will be held at Winnebago County Park, and they will generally be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from around 4:30-6:00. We will give more detailed information out at the meeting to be held at the Oshkosh Public Library from 6:30-8:00 PM on March 4th. At this meeting, you will be able to meet the coaches and get any and all of your questions answered.
Please take some time to read thru some of the other articles attached to this website - info on the sport itself and how it caan help develop athletes for football. If you have any questions or need any other information - or would just like to discuss you concerns - please feel free to contact any of the coaches. Thanks so much, and we are really hoping to see your son in the spring.
Very Sincerely,
Scott Koehnke,and Wayne Binversie