The Maryland Exiles participated in the Maryland Youth Rugby Festival this past weekend. Our club President, Dan Soso, is also the founder and tournament director for the youth festival. Just a few years ago there were less than 30 teams in the tournament. Now there are over 50 teams including various levels of boys & girls high school and a middle school boys bracket. For the second year in a row, Mount Saint Mary’s University hosted the event at their PNC Sports Complex. It also attracted several college coaches who addressed teams about their recruiting efforts. Schools such as Mount Saint Mary’s, Mary Washington College and Towson among others were scouting out the talent. This was a great opportunity to play some competitive friendlies and also for some players to be help out other clubs that were shorthanded, that is the rugby way. Kudos to Dan Soso for setting up such a nice rugby event.

The Maryland Exiles entered two teams in the boy’s brackets this year; a high school side and a middle school side. The middle school was in a pool with two Virginian teams – West End and Prince Williams along with the Frederick Falcons from Maryland. The varsity had powerhouse Fort Hunt (ranked #9 Club team in nation), Virginia Beach and Mount Saint Joseph’s from the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (M.I.A.A.), which is a varsity program.

Both of our sides went 2-1; with the middle school losing to Prince Williams 5-43; making a dramatic comeback over Frederick from 24 points down to win 26-24; and a 20-0 match over West End.
The High school boys met and defeated Virginia Beach 25-12; lost a hard match to Fort Hunt 17-26 and finished with a 34-12 victory over Mount Saint Joes.

We also had high school players help put Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Loyola-Blakefield, and Frederick who needed some reserves in subsequent games. The favor was returned by Gonzaga and Arden Youth Rugby who supplemented our middle school team when illnesses, prior travel plans and a couple injuries left them shorthanded. A great way to meet and make new friends. It was also great to see some old friends as two Exiles alumni from last year’s team joined us - Archie Cullen & Jacques La Fonta. We also had exile alumni mother Elaine Custead and her alumni son. Adding to the fun, current Exile parents, Mark Lucas & Bill McDonald were kept bust refereeing.

The rugby was fun but competitive and we did have a few injuries, hopefully none were too serious. This Wednesday, the U15 side has a match with Gonzaga’s freshmen B team. Then a tentative match versus Vienna on Sunday at Berman.

The next few high school practices are very important as we are preparing for our playoff run. We only have SIX practices left until the state final on May 15th. Players should please try to attend as many of these practices as possible. If we want to get to the final at UMBC on the 15th; we will need maximum attendance at practice to be ready.

NOTE: specific notes for the players are in the match reports.