NMYR: HS CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION

     505-24-RUGBY

Thank you for you participation. This will be a memorable year for NMYR!

FINAL SCORES 2011 High School Rugby CHAMPIONSHIPS

Boys Champions St Pius Bulls 45 defeats Rio Rancho Rams

3 Girls: Champions Los Alamos Girls 34 defeats Amy Biehl Hermanitas 0

Third Place: Santa Fe Shockers 36 defeats Sandia Warriors10

Match Scores, Saturday, May 14, 2011: Quarter Finals Boy's St. Pius Bye (advance to Semi- Finals) Santa Fe (14) defeats Eldorado (7) Rio Rancho (44) defeats Los Alamos Sandia (17) defeats Amy Biel (10) Semi- Finals, Boy's St. PIus (32) defeats Santa Fe (12) Rio Rancho (27) defeats Sandia (0) Round Robin Girl's Pumas (35) defeats Hermanitas (12) Los Alamos (15) defeats Pumas (10) Hermanitas (26) defeats Los Alamos (10)

SPORTS DESK: Subject: Local Sports, 2011 HIGH SCHOOL RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIPS,

May14&15 Boys and Girls

Santa Fe Municipal Complex will be the site of this year’s New Mexico Youth Rugby High School Boys and Girls Championships.

Mark Niece, President of New Mexico Youth Rugby, announced, “The playoffs get underway at 10am on Saturday, May 14th with quarter finals and semi- finals, followed on Sunday, May 15th, with the Girls Finals at 1pm and Boys Finals at 2:15pm”. NM Youth Rugby is celebrating the 25th year of the high school competition.

This year high school rugby witnessed exceptional growth with the addition of two new boy’s teams bringing the total to seven boy’s teams and three girl teams. Melissa Martinez, Executive Director (NMYR), believes, “This year’s playoff is expecting strong competition from all teams, however, St. Pius and Rio Rancho are the top seeds in the boy’s division, while the girls division is wide open for the Alb Hermanitas, Alb Pumas, and Los Alamos”. Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Sandia, Eldorado, and Amy Biehl boy’s teams will also be competing in the tournament.

Under the auspices of USA Rugby, past local rugby teams competed as members of the Rio Grande Union geographically representing NM, Durango and El Paso men’s and women’s squads. Youth rugby then evolved into a separate organization represented by NM Youth Athletic Association.(NMYAA) Two years ago, local rugby united into NM Youth Rugby (NMYR), a State Based Organization, yet remained under the national USA Rugby. Local teams are generally recognized as ‘club’ sports within the school system.

Nationwide, rugby is seeing a genuine peak in national interest with the entrance of “7’s” Men’s and Women’s rugby into the 2012 Olympics in England as an exhibition sport. Local rugby spectator and former player, Marty Watts, explains “It [Rugby] was voted in by sports fans across the world as a full competition sport in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Local rugby is very competitive as evidenced by a number of former New Mexico rugby players selected to represent the USA Eagles (the US National Team) and one local 7’s team. The Albuquerque Aardvarks have won a men’s national club championship”.

For more information see website: www.newmexicoyouthrugby.com