The 2007 Florida Select Side (U.N.I.T.Y) represented at the Ft. Lauderdale Ruggerfest on February 24th and 25th. Teams from all over the nation travel to play in this highly competitive tournament. The Florida Select Side, again formed from the best players in Florida Collegiate Rugby including school’s FSU, FIU, UNF, UM and FAU.
The first match was against Mystic River, a Division 1 Men’s team from Boston. Although the Select Side was out sized, they proved that they belonged at the tournament. It was a long and hard-fought battled ending in a 0-0 tie. Mystic River obviously extremely surprised at the fight they received from a college side. However, after the tie, Mystic River came out on top in a Drop-Goal shootout. No wonder the Select Side is named U.N.I.T.Y, they showed how well they worked together without any training sessions and barely lost to a D.1 Men’s club.
A few hours after the first match, the guys had to play against Palmer College, a chiropractic university from Iowa, who also receive scholarships to play rugby. Palmer finished up winning the Division 1 Men’s Championship at Ruggerfest. Palmer held nothing back from the very beginning hitting the Select Side with everything they had. Palmer definitely had the numbers the Select Side lacked. Florida showed what they were made of holding back Palmer from scoring no more than 10 points in the first half, with a score of 10-0. Flyhalf Kenny Britt (FSU) manages to make a break and score a try in the second half. Palmer turned up the pressure, making a few substitutions and overloading each side of the field. With around 10 minutes left to play, Palmer made a break for a few more tries, finishing the score with a 31-5 loss for the Select Side, which certainly does not show how well they played. The Select Side learned a lot from Palmer from rucking, to passing, to tackling. Palmer fans and players complimented how well the Select Side worked together.
On Sunday, Select Side was given a 9 am match vs. a Men’s team from Indiana. Unfortunately, both teams lacked a full 15 players and compromised to play 10’s. The men’s team had no idea what they had coming. Playing only 15 minute halves, the Select Side scored 40 points to Indiana’s 0. U.N.I.T.Y not only beat them with speed, but the rucking and ball handling was unbelievable. This showed how dominate the Select Side have become. Great job guys!!
Select Side Tour @ Wake Forest Novemeber 11, 2006
Anyone that has pictures send them to me at Dylankennard@gmail.com and i'll put them up. Keep it up Florida Select Side Rugby!
The FAU players joined selected players from the University of Miami, University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Florida to make up the select side team. The team traveled to Wake Forrest University in Winston Salem, NC to play two games on Saturday, November 11, 2006. The team finished the day with a 1-1 record loosing their first game to the Mid South Select Side Team 26-14 and winning their second game 34-22 against North Carolina Select Side Team.
Congradulations to the guys invited to try out for the South Collegiate Select Side Team to compete in national collegiate competition.
These players are:
Scott Parr (FAU)
James Callahan (USF)
Kenneth Britt (FSU)
Now that USA Rugby has come out with a schedule to run a National Competition all Territorial and Local Area Unions must plan schedules.
In January of 2006 all colleges voted to have a year-long schedule which was changed in mid-year. As a result, there is no intra-state competition and no formal method for team rankings!
In the past several months coaches as well as students have expressed their desires to form a collegiate union – governed by collegiate representatives. This “union” would be a member of the Florida Rugby Union, pay dues and follow the spirit of the game as outlined in the Florida Handbook as well as the USA Rugby By-Laws.
The main purpose is to grow the sport of rugby in Florida and begin to organize a proper selection mechanism to evaluate superior athletes and then move them into the National Selection process.
This has always been the plan of the Florida Administration but with student representatives coming and going in and out of administrative control, we have seen very little progress in our competitive standings with the rest of the United States.
Forming a collegiate union will ensure a steady administration of money, activities, tournaments, schedules and disciplinary actions associated with conduct on and off the field.
These are not new ideas but for the first time in our relatively short history, Florida has at least one coach for every college represented!
This means that we finally have a steady “presence” from representatives who truly know the individual needs of their school and players.
A new year-long schedule will be made up to accomplish the following:
1) Establish a Florida Cup competition where all teams will compete for the state championship and have their school name engraved on a trophy.
2) Re-establishing the “intra-state” game format for allowing a select-side coach the ability to evaluate a large group of players in a short period of time and reducing travel time, gasoline, food and hotel costs.
3) Accommodate those teams who wish to participate in a national competition.
4) Allow a fair and equitable method of distributing “home games”.
5) Create a fair and equitable method to accommodate the selection process to participate in the “all star program.
Finally, please note that the USA Rugby South schedule does not accommodate any of our long term goals and will therefore be changed.
The Florida Collegiate Union will have its own schedule and advance 2 teams as called for in the national competition. The competition calls for 2 teams to play in “quarter finals” to be held on March 24, 2007 at a place and time yet to be determined. This deadline will be met with the new schedule as was done last year.
If a team wishes to compete in the National Competition they should advise us immediately so that we can identify those games which will count towards advancement to the March 24th deadline.
