Coaches Corner October 2020

It has been a busy month for Navy Rugby! We have gone through all our resocialization protocols and abided by all our return to play procedures, which has allowed us the privilege of playing against Army o n Saturday, October 31st 2020. While we are disappointed that these games are closed to the public, we are delighted to be able to play at all and provide a livestream to our families, friends, supporters and alumni. The games will be live streamed on our respective facebook pages.

It is always tough to play against varsity programs, with recruited rugby players and dedicated strength and conditioning resources among their advantages. On top of this, Army has recruited heavily for both their men’s and women’s teams for the Class of 2024. However, we always welcome these challenges, especially against our fellow Service Academies. We feel very grateful for the opportunity to play during this global pandemic and are excited to welcome Army to Annapolis.

All going well, our men’s team will travel to West Point for the return game on November 14th, while our women will either host Air Force or also travel to West Point for another game against Army. Details will follow, once those games are confirmed.

Our men’s team has joined the Rugby East Conference. There are multiple reasons for this but amongst them are the bankruptcy of USA Rugby which oversees D1A, the reduction in travel and costs along with the ever evolving collegiate rugby landscape, including the uncertainty around the future of our former conference, the Mid-South. Our men’s team will now play for a Conference Title against Army, Penn St, Kutztown, St. Bonaventure and Notre Dame College. The plan is to play this conference in Spring 2021 but once we get past the Covid pandemic, these games will take place in the Fall, which will still allow us to compete for a National Championship in the Spring.

Rugby East Conference recently moved from D1A to NCR (National Collegiate Rugby) which is completely autonomous of USA Rugby. NCR is continuing to expand and currently provides governance to over 600 collegiate rugby schools.

Our women’s rugby team is experiencing large numbers of player’s looking to join the team. We currently have over 70 players on the roster as our popularity continues to grow around the Yard. Coaches Murph, Neel-Feller, Moore and Chapman have been hard at work introducing the sport to our Mids and getting everyone up to speed. We hope to be able to provide a comprehensive Spring 2021 schedule in the near future.

As part of our daily monitoring of the Covid pandemic, each player and coach provides daily screening, including temperatures check to our athletic train, Emily Teson. Each player and coach will also be Covid tested on Wednesday October 28th, ahead of our games against Army.

While the future of the virus is still unclear, we will expect testing to continue to take place in Spring 2021. As things stand, each player and coach will be tested three times per week. This is an unforeseen cost to our program but we are working closely with NAAA and will continue to share details as we progress.

Our Meet The Mids section this month features MIDN 1/C Grace Stevens and MIDN 1/C Mykol Brooks.