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My Experience With Rugby by Danny Mueller

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My Experience with rugby started the same as many kids in America who play rugby, by watching my dad play. After a long hiatus since the end of college, my dad started playing Rugby again in 2008 for Worcester. Soon after he started playing, I started playing flag rugby for Worcester. Rugby was much smaller when I started playing than it is now. The way rugby worked back then is that we would practice for most of the summer, and then in early August there would be a “jamboree” where we would play the only other youth teams at that time- Mystic River from Malden and The Boston Irish Wolfhounds from Canton, who are now considered the most consistently competitive teams in Massachusetts at an under 18 level .   This system lasted from about the time I was 5 until I was 12. Around the time I started playing full on proper tackle Rugby sevens in middle school, the Bay State Games created a tournament for rugby sevens and the Wolfhounds started hosting a younger division in their ‘B...

Worcester Public Schools HS Boys Rugby Team: From Vision to Reality

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Upon fielding their first Boys HS XVs rugby team in Spring 2022, the Worcester Public Schools (WPS) took an initial step to become a full varsity rugby program and began fulfilling the dream of four youth rugby visionaries. In recognition of this milestone, the nascent WPS rugby program earned a U.S. Rugby Foundation grant to support establishing public high school rugby programs across the Commonwealth. The core team of Jeff Turgeon, Chris Monaghan, Tony Poti, and Bruce Mendelsohn - well known names in the youth, Worcester, and MA rugby scenes - overcame COVID-related challenges, and communicated and coordinated with WPS administrators, faculty, and staff to plan and execute thrice-weekly practices and several scrimmages/matches.  Reflecting The Rugby Way, the planning team drew upon their respective skills: They informed and engaged their local connections, involved current and former rugby players from Worcester’s robust rugby scene, and promoted the progra...