Point Lomans to get a kick out of rugby with new league

The Southern California Rugby Union has sanctioned the creation of a SoCal League team at Point Loma High School. (Courtesy photo)

Point Loma High School is in the process of putting its roster together for the SoCal High School Rugby League. Point Loma will join Cathedral Catholic, Clairemont, Fallbrook, Saint Augustine, Serra and Steele Canyon.

Recently, the Southern California Rugby Union officially sanctioned the newly created SoCal High School Rugby League. High School rugby will be an official “club sport” but will be subject to all California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) guidelines and rules — with the possibility of becoming an official CIF sport in the near future.

Point Loma senior Bianca Casas and ASB advisor Emilio Torres have been key figures in helping Point Loma become one of the charter members of the SoCal High School Rugby League.

“Bianca is one of my players in the San Diego Young Aztec Rugby Club (SDYARC),” said SDYARC member Nevin Kleege. “Players in my league wanted to create a rugby team at the high school level. It was started by the kids and has been a student-driven effort.”

The SDYARC plays at Dusty Rhodes Park and is broken into age groups from 5 to 19. The divisions are co-ed: 8 years and under (U8), co-ed 10 years and younger (U10), boys and girls 12 years and under (U12), boys and girls 14 years and under (U14), boys 16 and under (U16), boys and girls 19 and under (U19).

USA Rugby is the official governing body for the sport in the United States and is broken into seven regions or unions: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Pacific Coast, SoCal, South and Western. The Rugby Super League is the highest or “premier level” of the sport in the country. It was founded in 1996 and currently consists of 16 teams from coast to coast.

San Diego’s local team is the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) Rugby Football Club, founded in 1966. OMBAC plays its games at the Little Q Rugby Field, the small practice facility located near Qualcomm Stadium and the Mission Valley library.

OMBAC has been a successful club the past two decades with national championships in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996, and the Rugby Super League championship in 2006.

The history of rugby can be traced back to early 19th-century England at the Rugby School in the town or Rugby, Warwickshire, and is subject to debate. According to lore, a youth named William Webb Ellis (1806-1872) is thought to have founded rugby in 1823 when he was playing soccer. Ellis picked up the ball and advanced it. There have been conflicting reports as to whether or not this occurred, but the evolution of rugby can nonetheless be traced to soccer. An old saying goes: “Football is a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”

The game of American football can also be traced to rugby when the first official football game was played in the United States (1869) between Rutgers University and Princeton University. The game they were playing resembled rugby because players were able to pick up the ball and advance it. Football evolved into its own sport in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

“Rugby was an official Olympic sport in the 1920s and will be played again in the 2016 Olympics. The United States won [the Gold Medal] in 1920 and 1924 and is the defending Gold Medal champion,” Kleege said.

For more information, call (619) 814-5570, or visit www.sandiegoyoungaztec.org.

Tags: Cathedral Catholic, CIF, clairemont, Fallbrook, Point Loma High School, Saint Augustine, SDNN, Serra, SoCal High School Rugby League, Steele Canyon

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