2011 CHAMPIONS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA!

Oakland should be very proud of its own Oakland Warthogs, who beat local rival Bishop O'Dowd 38-22 in the championship to claim the silver division title in high school rugby in Northern California. A rather remarkable accomplishment considering the Warthogs just finished the fourth year of existence.

What I like best about the program is it shows what a very committed leader, team president Ryan Burke (Maxwell Park), and a group of volunteers and coaches can accomplish. Does it take money? Yes, more than a bit. But the difference we make in the lives of Oakland kids is astounding. The Warthogs have always been about promoting rugby as a means to better the lives of our athletes, to get them to college and on the right paths for success in life.

I wanted to share with you a summary from President Burke:

We would like to thank each and every one of you for your support. So many of you have provided monetary, in-kind, and other forms of support to assist us in achieving this amazing accomplishment! Not only are we improving lives, but we are also making champions! Please read the newsletter below if you are interested in the outcome of this season. If you have the time, I think you will find it quite impressive. Please feel free to inform us of any leads of further support.

PACIFIC COAST INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT

NCYRA VARSITY SILVER DIVISION PLAYOFFS

First Game - Against Sacramento's number one, undefeated team, Sierra Foothills - Came from behind to beat a well coached and disciplined team. A hard fought match. Final: 17-14

Second Game – Against traditional powerhouse Lamorinda the Warthogs were able to avenge their only regular season loss. Played under windy conditions both teams played well. Strong Pressure from the boys helped to deliver the win. Final: 20-12

Championship Final – Against a much improved local rival Oakland's Bishop O' Dowd, the Warthogs picked up the pace as pressure mounted. A tough match was played till the final whistle. Final: 38-22

Immediately following our game, Jerry Figone, of Cal Rugby (UC Berkeley/Won 25 of past 31 Collegiate National Rugby Championships) spoke with three of our players about going to Cal. We were unbelievably proud to see these disadvantaged kids be acknowledged this way. It is obvious that his words have an impact on our boys. Thanks Jerry!

(Sleep of Champions: Linsi, Mauni and Su'e knock'n' out on the ride home from Morgan Hill after the big win)

Please help us conttinue to grow by donating to our great program, contact us at Burke4rugby@gmail.com We need the support of the entire City of Oakland and beyond.

Bay Cruise: Benefit for Youth Rugby

One of the great fund-raising events is upon us, a 4-hour Bay cruise that takes in sights of Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge, Tiburon, Sausalito, Angel Island, etc. The trip is $100, tax-deductible of course, and is Saturday, May 7, noon to 4 leaving from the north end of Fisherman's Wharf near Hyde and Jefferson.

Our rugby friends at Dauntless Charters make this unique voyage possible. We need the proceeds from this event to send many of our players to high-level rugby camps this summer and to help others with college costs. If you don't know, our program for inner-city rugby players depends entirely on grants and support from the public. Our coaches and friends all give our time for free, but keeping the program running costs a significant amount as we pay every year for practice space, league dues, subsidizing dues for players, equipment, lights, etc. We expect to be sending some of the kids to Cal rugby camp in July.

The views of the Golden Bridge and Alcatraz are worth $100. Then, you also get a lot of beer and wine, great food, excellent company, and help kids. Win x 5.

Even if you can't make the sailing trip, please donate whatever you can afford. Our program changes lives and we do it on a shoestring budget. Please see our web site for more details about the event and our program. Even $20 or $50 helps.

We strive not just to have a competitive program but to steer these young men into college and into better lives for them and their families. We insist on academic requirements for our players. Anyone around rugby benefits from the discipline, team-work, pride and sportsmanship unique to the sport. And after the players are done with high school or college, rugby has a network to help establish players in professional careers and to make friendships that will last a lifetime.

We are the antidote to the win at all costs mentality. We would rather mold quality young men than win without honoring our game and opponents.

We are almost done with our fourth season and have posted a 7-1 record, quite a turnaround from the first three seasons. We outscored opponents 256 to 65 and head to the Northern California championships in our division in Morgan Hill on April 30 and May 1.

(Cruise from last year)


Please share this post with your friends. The Warthogs appreciate it.

Climbing The Mountain

Then and Now.












In 2009 we had to share half a dark, postage-stamp sized field in the Fruitvale district for practice. (Famed sports writer Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about our environs then.) We now practice two or three nights a week up in the hills on the gorgeous full, athletic turf field at Merritt College. We just lost a tight match to national powerhouse Lamorinda Rugby, Bay Conference silver division, 20-13. Our captain from the 2009 season Jose Pena plays for Cal Rugby. A couple weeks ago we beat Oakland rivals Bishop O'Dowd, a private school with a rich athletic tradition. In our current starting lineup, at least 10 of the kids could play and do well for a college team, men's club or select youth team.

We have so much positive stuff percolating that it escapes words. Due to the vision, organization and hard work of president Ryan Burke, and coach crew, we build better futures for our Oakland kids and the community. The only things missing are more kids for the program and more money. We would love nothing more than to work with more high school boys to help point them in the right directions in life. The biggest influences at that age are peers, family and other adult role models. We are currently talking to the Oakland Police Athletic League about bringing touch rugby to boys and girls in East Oakland. (Rugby will return to the Olympics in 2016 and it's entirely foreseeable that an Oakland Warthog will be on that team.)

Rugby is a big stew of passion, physicality, brains and group dynamics. Young men learn how to channel emotions and work for the good of the group. In essence, it's training for life and for business. These boys are going to hopefully be in college or in a year or two or at least in the work force.( For further proof of the sport's growth and potential, check none other than the venerable Economist magazine.) We take our team on campus tours of Stanford, Cal, Chico State, St. Mary's College, etc., to show them what awaits them outside of Oakland.

Renting the field up at Merritt takes up most of our budget. It costs about $80 an hour and we are lucky enough to have some portable lights donated by OC Jones Construction. The program is virtually free to our kids. If they can't afford the $50 or $60 it costs in dues we make arrangements with them to sell T-shirts. Everyone is included.

Some of our recent supporters include:

The Olympic Club Foundation
The Allstadt Hardin Foundation of Cooperstown, New York
International Association of Firefighters Local 55 (Oakland, Alameda County and Emeryville)

We also participate in raising funds for:

Tackling Cancer

!TacklingCancer.org & Oakland Warthogs Youth Program are teaming up to sell Raffle Tickets in which half of the proceeds go to Cancer Research and half of the proceeds come back to us. First Prize includes a 4 day/5 night trip to the Bahamas! Thank you Dallen Stanford & TacklingCancer.org for teaming up with us and for your support!

And participate in:

January 10th, 2011 The Oakland Warthogs are gifted with the FIRST three packages ever donated to TRY (Tomorrow's Rugby Youth) Donation Program. Thank you Kevin Sullivan and all TRY Donation Program Sponsors

We encourage more support from the community, not just financial but spectators at our matches and training. Again, we welcome all boys ages 13 to 18 enrolled at a school in Oakland. We also need at least a 2.0 grade point average to participate. We invite the entire City to our next home matches, all on Friday nights at 7 pm at Raimondi field: March 25th against De La Salle, April 8 vs. Alameda and April 15 against Danville.

For more information, visit our web site. Thanks for your support.

The Deadly Ride From Piedmont

Great match on Saturday night in Piedmont between the Warthogs and Piedmont International Touring Side (PITS Rugby). Perhaps some stereotypes were broken--they aren't rich snots and we aren't ghetto thugs. About 50 kids played a hard match, tackled each other, had bloody noses, made exciting bursts, released aggression, shook hands and then had burgers together. Coaches from the teams later joined for a couple beers and some food.

But in between the kids' meal and the adult libations a grim reminder called:

OAKLAND -- A 15-year-old boy fatally shot Saturday night in East Oakland and a 29-year-old man gunned down two hours later outside a West Oakland market were identified today as the city's latest homicide victims.

The 15-year-old was identified as Lovell Hadnot, of Oakland. He was fatally shot about 5:10 p.m. Saturday as he walked across a parking lot in the 5800 block of Bancroft Avenue. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they were told Hadnot was a student at Fremont High School.

As is our custom after a practice or match we always drive home any of our players who need a ride. I know about the murder above because the two players and I who were going home, after dropping off three other players, drove right next to the crime scene. The two boys live about mile from the crime scene.

Someone shot the boy while our kids were warming up and stretching. I dropped the two boys off and then went and met the other coaches. What was weird was that we just treated this as another Oakland landscape, call it "Yellow Crime Scene Tape at Night." I think the boys and I made a casual remark like "Oh, someone got shot."

A lot of similarities between our players and the victim, same age, same city, same school, same neighborhood. It's just that our program gives kids something positive to do so they hopefully don't meet the same fate.

Do we need any more reminders about why the City, Schools and community should support our program and ones like it?

No Longer Oakland's Best Kept Secret

We are proud to have the final version of a brief documentary telling our story. It was roughly eight months in the making. The process embodied the cliche "the devil is in the details" as filmmaker Paul Washburn and President Burke kept fine-tuning it to tell our story.

Rugby traditionally has been an upper-crust sport but in the last 10 years the game is taking a foothold throughout Northern California, especially in the high school level for boys and girls.

It's always been our goal to grow rugby in our own back yard and make it accessible to all boys enrolled in a high school in Oakland. Kids from these less affluent communities don't get the same chances as suburban kids to participate in athletics. Sports and rugby are powerful bonding agents for boys. We try to get these kids heading down the right path, hopefully towards a four-year college or a junior college.

If any of you have been paying attention lately to Oakland politics you might have noticed that Police Chief Anthony Batts is talking a lot about his department and the City doing more with less in the face of severe budget problems. One of solutions he has discussed is getting to kids earlier and earlier with healthy activities and outlets, before they head down the dead-end trail of gangs, violence, etc.

Our youth rugby program fits nicely with what Chief Batts is talking about. We need the support of everyone to keep offering and growing our program. Please check us out at http://www.oaklandwarthogsrfc.com/

10 Reasons to Play Oakland Warthog Youth Rugby

I ask myself: If I had a son would I want him to play for our team? I can definitely, resoundingly and unequivocally proclaim "Yes!" In fact, our head coach's son plays for us. But after a few practices this season I am more enthused than ever about endorsing our program and trying to truly make it a city-wide team for all Oakland boys and a source of pride from the Bay Bridge to the San Leandro border and beyond. It's our fourth year.

I have either played for or been involved in coaching seven rugby clubs including the Warthogs. I can honestly say "we've got it going on."

These are the top 10 reasons to wear the black and white of the Warthogs:



10: Behind soccer rugby is the second most popular sport in the world.

9: We are a structured program but not rigid. We try to keep practice a balance between having fun while instructing the team that it's a physical sport that needs to be taken seriously.

8: We preach that rugby is secondary to earning an education. We insist on a 2.5 grade point average to play. We also take our team for tours of local colleges to show them life outside of Oakland.

7: You don't have to be the biggest, strongest or fastest to be a good rugby player. If you are smart, aggressive and work hard you can find a spot on our rugby team.

6: Rugby is played on more than 400 college campuses in the United States. The odds of playing college football or basketball are slim. Our league, plus other high school, collegiate and club rugby in Northern California are about the best in the nation.

5: Playing rugby means having friends for life. The sport, because of it intense focus on teamwork, bonds players like no other team endeavor. There is a powerful network among rugby players on the pitch, in school and in professional careers.

4: Continuity of coaching and team administration. We have the same head coach, assistant coaches and direction for the team. We are all on the same page. We want our kids to be good citizens as much or more so than being good rugby players.

3: Diversity. Sure, it's a buzzword but we embody it. We draw kids of all races from almost all schools in Oakland, from Oakland Military to American Indian Charter to Oakland High School.

2: Self-confidence. Our sport forces kids to go beyond themselves, physically and mentally. These kids discover how hard they can compete and that their teammates depend on them. Rugby is epitome of getting knocked down but getting back up.

1: Fun.

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.