The pictures for the Reno Tournament are finally up on the site.
You can find them all on the pictures page.

As those coming to practice know, we have a light tower to make it possible to see each other and the ball tice after 5:30 at night.

We negotiated with the Diablo Gaels rugby team to purchase their light tower for $1600. The terms are $600 down and the $1000 remainder to be paid in 90 days, around the first of February. We found that the electrical controls had been eaten by mice. In order to repair the controls we had to pay $640 dollars to a technician to have the controls rewired.. The lights are working fine now. We have a $1600 light tower worth now $2240.

On the day we got the tower back from the shop, we made a call to Mare Island to see what the story was on Morton Field. We were told the football club who had the lease had not been making payments or maintaining the grounds as they had promised. Their lease had been revoked.

We were told that if we would like the lease we could have it for $250 per month. But we would have to pay for a professional landscaper to do the maintenance at about $800 per month and pay for the water and lights.

Kevin Miller spokewith the manager of the property and she agreed to allow the club to do the maintenance as long as it was up to their standards. If they felt the grounds were not being maintained to their liking we would have to have a professional landscaper to take care of the field or loose the lease.

We have agreed with the manager to these requirements. We will now have to establish an account with Island Energy for the lights and the City of Vallejo for the water to be put into our names.

In order for us to have the lease we will have to pay a $500 deposit and $250 for the first months rent to the management company and probably the deposit with the power company and the water companies.

In addition we will have to figure how we are going to maintain the field. Riding mowers cost about $1600 to buy and about $150 per day to rent if you can find one. We could have a line of power mowers to cut the grass This will require the whole teams effort.

We also have $250 payment on the credit card due in ten days. The club has advanced the cost for the CIPP, insurance and for the jerseys for most of the players. We also have the costs for the Reno Tournament. We now owe $10,000 on the credit card.

We have asked for a $5 a practice donation from each of the players. So far we have had only a few of the guys come forward with the money.

The cost to play rugby is not as high as football or baseball however it costs money to have the club. The guys are planning a sale of food plates to the communities in Santa Rosa and Vallejo. We want all of the players to partisipate. We hope this will generate some serious funds. However, we need to have the players pay for their part.

If we get enough money to pay off the credit card and get a couple of sponsors we can lower the cost to the players. We know some of the players are in tight financial circumstances. We have and will work with you. The weekly dues of $10 should be at least the minimum. This is a business and everything costs money and if we don’t pay our bills we have to go out of business.

Pre-Season Events:
Oct 18: Reno Tournament Reno, NV
Nov 01: Baracus Tournament San Francisco (Treasure Island)
Nov 08: U C Davis Davis, CA

Northern California Rugby Football Union Division III
Jan10 : BYE
Jan 17: Marin Marin County
Jan 24: Shasta Vallejo, CA
Jan 31: Petaluma Petaluma, CA
Feb 07: Mendocino Vallejo,CA
Feb14: global bye - USA 7s San Diego, CA
Feb 21: San Francisco Fog San Francisco, CA (Treasure Island)
Feb 28: Mission Vallejo, CA
Mar 07: Vacaville Vacaville
Mar 14: Chico Vallejo, CA
Mar 21: Berkeley Berkeley, CA
Mar 28: Make up week
Apr 04: “Round of 8″ Vallejo, CA
Apr 11: global bye - Easter
Apr 18: “Round of 4″ NorCal playoffs
Apr 25: PCRFU playoffs (Arizona)

* USA round of 16 is May 16-17
* USA finals are May 30-31

The top eight teams within the 13 team Division III will go to play off Round of 8 event on April 04, 2009. The Vallejo Rugby Club host this event.

The four winners will go to the Round of 4 on April 18, 2009. The two winning teams go to Pacific Coast Rugby Football tournament in Arizona on April 28, 2009.

The Barbarians went to Reno Zephyr’s Greatest Little Rugby Tournament on the weekend of October 17 and 18 and returned on the 19. The matches happened on the 18 at Mira Loma Park in Sparks Nevada. the Barbarians are a Division III team with Division I hearts. The Barbarians as a team wanted to play in the Competitive section of the tournament against the Division I teams.

We surprised San Mateo by making two tries against them. We played a team called Portland that was made up of a couple of Portland players and the best players they could find standing around. And we played Humboldt of our division.

The Barbarians played the Portland and Humboldt well. The boys played well and enjoyed the experience. The other teams gave the Barbarians a lot of rugby knowledge we can’t get at practice. The Barbarians learned how to deal with teams who know the tricks of the rugby game.

This Reno Tournament got us ready for the Baracus Tournament on Treasure Island on November 1, 2008. The Barbarians signed up for two teams to play in the 10’s tournament. Unfortunately, we were only to field seven players before our first match. Kevin Miller asked four Fog players, whose team didn’t show, to play with us. The Boys from Santa Rosa showed up as the match started. The Barbarians played Baracus B team to a 7-7 tie.

The Barbarians played the McGeorge team to a victory. They then played the Fresno team to another victory. The Barbarians immediately played the Marian Reds to a lose. We came in as over alll second place. The ways a standings of Tournaments are sometimes variable. The experience was invaluable.

The Boys who played were excited to play more rugby. Match with Davis was canceled by Davis. We are not sure of why. We want to have at least one more match before the end of November. We would like to have a match with East Palo Alto in December.

We have tried to fulfill the requirements of the Northern California Rugby Union CIPP and sideline control of fans. These rules are for the protection of the teams and the spectators.

We have purchased a light tower from the Diablo Gaels rugby club. The lights cost $1600.00. We agreed to pay the Gaels $600.00 down and $1000.00 in Ninety days. We must start to raise money for this payment and to pay down our credit card bill that is now maxed out. The jerseys, the CIPPs and the Accident Insurance premium were paid on our credit card. We need to pay this down. We also have expenses from last season that are on the credit card.

If anyone has ideas for sponsorships and fund raising please let us know. even small amounts will help. The Barbarians belong to the members of the club. The Barbarians are you. Thanks for your past help and please help us in the future.

Coach Lani Akaoula’s father died in Tonga on Saturday October 4. A heart attack while picking flowers for leis. He left for Tonga on Tuesday afternoon. He will be back on the 22nd.

I have been in contact with the Tri-City Ravens, a Pop Warner Football group who have the lease on Morton Field. Ray Jackson, new president of the group, has said it looks very good for us to use the field for practices. I haven’t gone beyond asking for that until we see the costs. I’m waiting for a return call from Jackson about Tuesday night’s practice. If this works out we would just have to worry where the money will come from for the costs. We would have those no matter what.

We are still working on lights too. If the field falls through we can still practice with lights if we can get them.

We have reserved two vans to take people to the Reno Tournament. The vans will be leaving from Vallejo. depending on how many ride the van the cost should be around $30 to 40 each. We still have to get the price details.

We are considering co-sponsoring a Tournament on December 6. This would be with the Santa Rosa Lions Christian Rugby Group. We are working on the plans.

We had our first fund raising event last Saturday at least $250 was raised for the team.. We can do small events or card parties or tea parties to get us by.

If you know anyone who might be a sponsor. Get the name & address to me and I will send a request letter to them. The worst we here is “NO”.

The Jerseys will be here by Friday of next week. The payment for the jerseys will be soon. Save you pennies. The jersey will be yours. You will be responsible for its care and feeding and having it for the match.

We are planning to sell last years jerseys for $50 each. If you want one get you money together. It will be first come first served.

We are signed up for the Baracus 10’s Tournament on November 1st on Treasure Island. We are scheduled to play UC Davis on November 8, in Davis. We are still working on the schedule for the perseason.

Summery of The NCRFU Meeting of September 1, 2008.

The Vallejo Rugby Club was accepted as a permanent member of the Northern Rugby Football Union. We received praise for the level of our play and the way we conducted ourselves on and off the field. Rugby is more than a sporting event. Rugby is a social encounter that tests you skill on the field and your ablity to sit down a talk as a friend with the people you just struggled with. The Barbarians did that last year and will continue for years to come.

New rules and referring procedures were reviewed. Coach Akauola will review them with the team at practice.

A ten game Division III schedule was agreed to. The Division III will be made up of Thirteen teams There will be six in the North and seven in the South Section I believe we will keep our present position within the Northern Division. We will play ten matches home and away. Starting on January 10, 2009 and ending on March 21, 2009.

Dates:
Jan 03: no games
Jan 10: Round 1
Jan 17: Round 2
Jan 24: Round 3
Jan 31: Round 4
Feb 07: Round 5
Feb 14: global bye - USA 7s
Feb 21: Round 6
Feb 28: Round 7
Mar 07: Round 8
Mar 14: Round 9
Mar 21: Round 10
Mar 28: Make up week
Apr 04: “Round of 8″ elimination round
Apr 11: global bye - Easter
Apr 18: “Round of 4″ NorCal playoffs
Apr 25: PCRFU playoffs (Arizona)

* USA round of 16 is May 16-17
* USA finals are May 30-31

The top eight teams within the 13 team Division III will go to a play off event on April 04, 2009. We will see if we can host the event at the Cal Maritime Academy pitch. The top four teams will play on April 18, 2009 for the
Pacific Coast Rugby Football tournament in Arizona on April 28, 2009.

This will make the season competitive down to the wire.

The details of the schedule make up and the play offs and the tiebreaker points system are in the Report on the NCRFU Division III Schedule and Play Off Plan that follows.

Report on the Northern California Rugby Football Union Division III Scheduling and Play off Plan. Saturday September 6, 2008

Teams wanted to play more league games this season - we played 6 regular season games in 2008. We agreed 10 games was ideal. Since it is difficult to break 13 teams into multiple pools, it was agreed that, if needed, we would play in one large pool and just play 10 of the other 12 teams in the league. The two teams you would not play in 2009 would be random for the most part, although trying to minimize travel would be a key factor in determining this. So the teams furthest south might play only 2 of the 4 teams located furthest north (one as a home game and one as an away game).

Note: at the end a pool play structure may be a better alternative.

Dates:
Jan 03: no games
Jan 10: Round 1
Jan 17: Round 2
Jan 24: Round 3
Jan 31: Round 4
Feb 07: Round 5
Feb 14: global bye - USA 7s
Feb 21: Round 6
Feb 28: Round 7
Mar 07: Round 8
Mar 14: Round 9
Mar 21: Round 10
Mar 28: Make up week
Apr 04: “Round of 8″ elimination round
Apr 11: global bye - Easter
Apr 18: “Round of 4″ NorCal playoffs
Apr 25: PCRFU playoffs (Arizona)

* USA round of 16 is May 16-17
* USA finals are May 30-31