Dartmouth plays host to the USA Rugby Boys High School Championship this weekend as the country's 16 best rugby teams vie for the national title at the Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse.
The 16 teams invited to compete represent the top squads in seven Territorial Unions and are divided into A and B tiers.
The top seeded team in Tier A this year is Highland High School from Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rams, which finished third in the 1998 World Schools Rugby Championship, will look to capture their 17th national title in 22 years.
Head coach Larry Gelwix, volunteer coach for the Rams of 30 years and founder of the rugby program at Highland, will look to defend his title with only two starters from his winning 2005 squad.
The Rams, primarily made up of football players, suffered a devastating loss to Jesuit High School (Carmichael, Calif.) two years ago, but were able to bounce back and crush Elsie Allen (Santa Rose, Calif.) 48-13 in the finals last year at Stanford University.
The Jesuit High School Marauders, the No. 2 ranked team in Tier A this year, will look to upset their perennial rivals from Highland this year. The Marauders are state champions this season and have won championship titles in 1999 and 2004. This young program, which first qualified for nationals in 1999, will look to become the next high school rugby powerhouse with a big win this year.
On Friday the matches start at 9 a.m. and will end at 5 p.m. Two games will be played every hour. On Saturday, matches will be played every half hour starting at 9 a.m.
The Tier B championship will be held at 11:30 a.m. while the Tier A championship is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. at Brophy Field.
At the end of the tournament, the lowest ranked team in Tier A gets demoted to Tier B, while the top finisher in Tier B moves up to Tier A.
Because of conference restrictions, under-19 players cannot play more than 70 minutes of rugby a day. Therefore, the quarter- and semi-finals will have 17-and-a-half minute halves with no overtime period.
The team with the most tries at the end of the match wins. If both teams have an equal number of tries, a tiebreaker will take place in which each team gets five kicks at goal and the team that makes the most conversions wins.
The USA Rugby High School Championship dates back to 1981 and has provided an arena for competition between the top squads in the nation. Winning teams in the past, aside from Highland and Jesuit, include Xavier High School, currently No. 4 in Tier B, who won titles in 1985 and 1993. Burlingame captured the title in 1987, La Morinda won in 1984 and Redwood won consecutive titles in 1981 and 1982.
High school rugby clubs are on the rise and are gaining players at a healthy 36 percent annual rate. The number of boys that play rugby has grown to 12,599 in 2005, up from only 7,381 in 2000.
"The High School championships support the fastest growing segment of USA Rugby's 65,000 players, coaches, referees and administrator memberships," said Colleen Krueger, director of communications for USA Rugby.
Titled the USA Rugby Boys High School Championship, the tournament is true to its billing. The International Rugby Board (IRB), the governing body of world rugby, does not allow girls to play contact rugby on boys' teams.
"USA Rugby adhere by the IRB's laws in this respect in competition that leads to a national championship," Krueger said.
The matches this weekend will be played on Brophy/Battle fields and, if the weather clears up and the grounds dry, the matches should attract a large Hanover crowd. However, Hanover is still under a flood alert and is expecting as much as an inch and a half of rain over the course of the weekend.
The event is co-hosted by the College and the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club.
"We partnered with Dartmouth as part of USA Rugby's strategy to recognize and reward those who have made a commitment to improving their programs and facilities with our top competitions," Krueger said.
Daily admission to the championship will be available to the public for five dollars per day for adults and three dollars for children.
