2008 Champions Varsity Gold Jesuit beat San Mateo Varsity Silver Jesuit II over Santa Rosa Varsity Bronze Marin Highlanders Varsity International Cup Christian Brothers defeated Kearns (Utah) Plate Edmonton Celtics beat Rio Rugby Bowl Beaverton (Oregon) beat PITS (Piedmont)

25th Annual Kick Off Tournament Presented By: The Sacramento Valley High School Rugby Conference Benefiting: The Sacramento Valley Rugby Foundation & Complex Where: Granite Regional Park, Sacramento When: Sat. & Sun., February 8 & 9, 2009 2007 Varsity Gold Final:Jesuit 10 SFGG 0 Contacts Tournament Director - Ray Schwartz Referees - Sam Reagle SVHSRC Chairman/Competition - Ray Thompson Rugby Supply Vendor - Josh Fitgerald offthewallextreme.com Communications - Debi Rietzke Sponsors/Donations - Jerry Ahlin Program Chair - Cindy Fuzie Program Graphics - Rod Chance Raffle - Sherry Hammer Volunteers - Steve Zimrick Fields Manager - Bob Luttrell Concessions - Steve Heberle Parking - Bill Bisharat Website - Steve Dormann Subscribe to get KOT News Upadates via RSS

Just Announced:
2009 KOT Dates - February 8 and 9, 2009

Report from 24th Annual Kick Off Tournament - Jan. 26 & 27, 2008
by Ray Schwartz, Kick Off Tournament (KOT) Director

OVER 100 MATCHED PLAYED - Thanks to Everyone Involved !!!

Waves of rain wreaked havoc on plans for an enormous High School Rugby tournament help over the weekend at Granite Park. 72 teams were expected to attend and play over 100 matches. KOT Event organizers met with City Parks people noon on Friday to receive a blessing, however, one of 5 fields was removed from availability. Two teams from San Francisco choose to not chance the weather and pulled out of Saturday’s competition. Competitions Director Ray Thompson stayed up half the night and carefully reworked the schedule. Rain stopped failing at about midnight Friday.

Saturday turned out to be a lovely day, chilly at times, and certainly a bit muddy. Jesuit beat San Mateo in a thrilling Varsity Gold 8-team competition. Jesuit fields a second varsity side locally, and it was Jesuit II who beat a well-organized Santa Rosa side in the 8-team Varsity Silver. Marin Highlanders took the 6-team Varsity Bronze. A 6-team Varsity International competition played off into finals for Sunday. Saturday also featured some B Side (JV) games, one collegiate exhibition, an Old Boys game, and free clinics for Junior High and U12s.

More rains fell Saturday night, forcing Parks and Event organizers to make some hard decisions early Sunday. Another field was removed from play, while the Championship Field was shortened and configured. Which of course meant the schedule needed to be modified again. Early Sunday morning was a scramble.

Many clubs in the scheduled B Side, Girls, Frosh/Soph and Junior High competitions had to give up one of their three scheduled matches, and so were unable to play to an expected championship. Priority was give to clubs traveling into the event from across Northern California. Spirits remained high as fun was had by all in attendance.

Varsity International Finals saw Beaverton (Ore.) beat PITS (Piedmont) for our Bowl, Edmonton Celtics beat locals Rio Rugby in a hard fought Plate Championship, while Christian Brothers defeated a challenging side from Kearns, Utah in a thrilling VI Cup Championship match. Kearns appeared to be capable of physically dominating play, but a well-coached Christian Brothers side broke through to score several tries, and held strong with a long goal line stand near the end of the match. Former rugger and San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl winner Dan Bunz, no stranger to goal line stands, was on hard to award CB's Eric Lichtenberger the VI MVP medal, earned from his role in the games best defensive plays.

KOT Organizers, all local clubs, and indeed the entire Northern California rugby community are eternally grateful to City Parks for helping us get this event off. The positive messages sent to parents and young athletes throughout the weekend were more than a fair trade for the patches of grass that need to be reworked.

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