Saturday, September 4, 2010

2011 season plans and a documentary

By the looks of things we could have upwards of 25 or 30 kids playing for us this season. The coaching staff remains intact and we have a nice addition--the O.G. Warthog, Mr. Eddie Lopez.

The challenges remain the same: Landing a safe, lighted practice and match field; growing our numbers and diversifying our club; convincing Oakland that nothing could be more right for it than rugby.

Continuing the "new" theme, we have a documentary about us by Paul Washburn. Paul did the highlights video for us and previously released an amazing documentary about University of Michigan rugby. The doc tells our story.

The murder last month of a 13-year-old boy in East Oakland should cause mental alarm sirens to go off. By all accounts he was a good kid, a budding track athlete. The shooting death is relevant because as a team we are trying to occupy Oakland kids and keep them from the streets. So I always scratch my head and wonder why the City and Oakland Unified School District don't create new fields and make more field space available.

We have been running touch on Wednesday evenings at Brookdale Rec Center. We start at about 5 pm. We expect to have practice running two or three times a week starting in November/December.

We are forming an advisory council, sort of like a board, and planning a couple of fundraisers. Look for us on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The Warthog train is leaving the station.