Severn River Rugby Men’s and Women’s Fall 2012 Schedule Announced

Severna Park, MD, 8/8/2012- With thecoming fall comes the start of yet another grueling physical campaign of theworld's most popular contact sport -- that's right, the Severn River Rugby menand women's squads seasons start soon. Both squads compete at the Division 2level in the Mid Atlantic Rugby Football Union. All home matches are listed below, with the exception of Sept 22nd, willbe played at their home pitch, Hertzberg Memorial Field at the Severna ParkLegion Post 175. Over the off season, the field was dedicated to Lcpl EricHertzberg, a former player and Severna Park resident, who was killed in theIraq campaign in 2006.

For the Men’s team, the fall season looksto be another season of growth and improvement. Since bringing on new coach inWilliam Delsing, the Men’s squad has undergone a transition to a new game whichsaw great results in their MARFU regional run last spring. "We had ourbest season yet, only narrowly losing to eventual national champion andarch-rival Rocky Gorge," said Captain Mike Bertoni. "We're looking tobuild off of that and take it further this year. We've lost some guys, but areconfident that Coach William's system will get us through this fall'seight-game league season and back into the playoffs." The Men’s team willcompete in matches this fall which will count towards their run at regionalsagain next spring. Their fall season begins at home on September 8th againstthe Washington Irish.

The women’s squad looks to come outswinging this year ripe with new talent. They finished last season 2nd in theregion, losing to eventual national champs, Raleigh.  When asked about the upcoming season, CaptainMeredith McAlister states “Our team returns with virtually the same startinglineup from a knockout season last fall and adds to it some incredible rookiesthat have proved throughout the spring off-season and summer 7's season thatthey are ready to make an impact. Ourproduction in the past two seasons have been impressive, with 202 points forand 85 points against in our 6 league matches in 2010 and 191 points for andjust 65 points against in 2011, and we hope to improve upon them further thisseason. We're keeping a fast, aggressive style of play.”

The women’s team also underwent coachingchanges when they brought on Coach Pamela Gouws, who has a decorated pastincluding coaching the University of Maryland Women’s side, playing for the DCFuries and currently playing for the Old Girls touring side. Gouws joinscurrent coach John Webster along with fellow newcomer Bryce Alexander. “I wastold once that a team is a group of individuals who interact with one anotherdynamically, have a shared past, have a foreseeable shared future, and share acommon fate. This team has defined that future, a National Championship, and weintend to do whatever it takes to achieve it,” adds McAllister. DII nationalsare to be held in Ft Meyers, FL this year with the women placing a bid to hostregionals here in Severna Park.  Theircampaign to nationals begins on August 25th at the American Legion againstFrederick.

The full schedule for both teams can befound at www.severnriverrugby.org. Women’s home matches are usually played at10am, while the men play at 1pm and 3pm for both the A-side and B-side matches respectively.The club is always looking for new players, those with and without rugbyexperience.  Anyone who is interested cancontact the team through the website.