Saturday: Season Opens in Oakland

Pretty, athletic and a tad violent. Saturday's a rugby day as the Oakland Warthogs high school rugby club hosts Delta Rugby this Saturday at Raimondi Field in West Oakland at 10 a.m. Wear your black and white Warthog colors to support this city-wide, scrappy little, best kept sports secret in the East Bay.

I cringed tonight after I put the team through a little warm-up and grappling practice. Why? Because the head coach Soni then marched them over to "Mount Soni" at Brookdale Park and unleashed on them 20 minutes of running a 30-degree hill. (I have seen my share of rugged sports training but this was like Jerry Rice meets Mike Singletary meets Ultimate Fighting torture.)

We practice three times a week and are coming off two consecutive tune-up games, one against top national high school club Hayward Rugby in which we held tough the first half. We are becoming a team and family in all the best ways. We are truly an Oakland side: Mexican, Tongan, African-American, female, Caucasian, etc.

What makes our side different is our emphasis on taking our kids to the next level, preferably college.

Big Valentine's Kiss For City --We Have a Field!

Wow, what a difference from the last ranting post. Warthogs administrator Ryan Burke informed us today that the City has granted us a permit to host 3 matches this season at Raimondi Field in West Oakland.

Not sure exactly how it happened but I know that Rebecca Kaplan's office worked with Parks and Rec to make this possible. Great thanks to both.

You have no idea what this means to some kids who don't get the standard varsity high school sports experience. Our city-wide players come from Oakland Charter, Skyline, Oakland Tech, Oakland Military, Oakland High School and other schools. It also came about because we had worked on navigating the fields process for close to three years.

The City also gave us a good price, $150 for the total three fixtures. This cost is in-line for what our shoestring budget can afford. Speaking of budget matters, we just received $150 donation from the Oakland law office of Lyle Cavin Jr. and $100 from Oakland lawyer (and rugby ref) Bryant Byrnes Yes, of course, we still need donations to fund our roster of about 25 kids.

These home matches will be:

Saturday, February 27 against Delta Rugby
Saturday, March 13 against Berkeley Rhinos
Saturday, April 24, against Lamorinda Rodents

It appears that the first high school rugby program in Oakland, Oakland Military, has folded. It's a sad day for rugby when a team disappears but we hope to absorb their kids who want to come play.