Letter from Barb Fugate, Women's Club Director
Re: Proposed date change of Women's Club Nationals 2006As you may already know, at the USA Rugby Board meeting earlier this month [December] the Board voted to allow us to create two distinct seasons for senior women's rugby in the US - the club competitive season, and a player development season. The actual Board motion was specifically to change the dates of the round of 16 and the Women's Division I Club National Championships from the spring to the fall, beginning in 2006. The June 2005 National Club Championship dates will stay as scheduled; the next Women's DI Club championship after June 2005 will be November 2006. Your comments were collected by Martha Daines and Colleen Chapin and presented to the Board with the Competitions Committee report, which was distributed prior to the meeting. During the Board discussion, it was clear that your comments were carefully read and considered by your TU representatives. For more background information, here is a summary of some of the Board discussion: * We need to take steps to raise the level of our domestic competitions. Our previous calendar was a quantity-over-quality approach that spanned from Sept through June. Throughout that calendar, only two or three matches typically took place at the level of competition that helped our players gain the experience they need to compete internationally.
* By segregating the club competitive season from the player development season, we can take a more focused approach with both of those facets of our game. The club season will be compressed, and clubs that seek to compete on a national level will have a direct ramp-up from Sept through November. They will have to play hard games that count, week after week. This is a different approach from our current calendar, but it is the way the international game is played. It will force us to change the way we train and the way we prepare for matches.
* Clubs can then use the spring season for true player development; to attend invitational tournaments (Ft Lauderdale, San Diego, D.C and others), to tour overseas, and to schedule "friendly" matches. Until now, these types of activities have been shoehorned in between qualifying matches for clubs, which meant that any rational attempt at periodization, either for skill development or simply for fitness training, was constantly switching gears between "development" matches and "qualifying" matches.
* Many clubs already participate in home-and-away series with other clubs - New York, Berkeley, Valkyries, Atlanta, Amazons, Beantown, Furies, Colorado, Kansas City, Keystone and others have participated in voluntary "friendly" matches simply to gain experience. This scheduling can be expanded in the spring season.
* The spring of 06 will include a series of player development and WNT training events which are designed to prepare the team to compete in the World Cup. In previous World Cups we were severely limited in our ability to build a rational World Cup campaign, partly because of the unavoidable conflicts with the club calendar in April and May. By aligning the player development season with the World Cup buildup, we will give our WNT a much better opportunity to assemble and work with the players.
* The player development season does not just apply to the top 30 players. With the club calendar conflicts resolved, we envision a much broader player identification and development program. This can utilize the current TU select sides, which involves over 200 players, if the TU's are willing to assemble and expand the inter-territorial match schedule. It could also evolve into a regional camp and select side system, with players of all age grades competing for regional teams against other regions. Over the next several months, an ad hoc committee will research some alternatives and propose event scheduling for the spring of 2006. We will continue to circulate that information to this email list for your comments. Some of the scheduling will depend on the World Cup fixtures, which have not been published yet (although we know it will be held in Edmonton, Alberta). The ad hoc committee will include representatives from the Competitions Committee, from all geographical areas, and from the WNT planning staff. Lauren Tracy from the National Office will also participate - Lauren is responsible for the National Championship Series in every division of play, so her insight will be very helpful. Please let us know if there are other people that you would like us to include on the email distribution list for this discussion. And thanks again, everyone - this will be an exciting period of transition, and a great opportunity to make some real improvements in US women's rugby. Regards, Barb Fugate
Women's Club Director
USA Rugby Board of Directors | 
