Tuesday, January 03, 2012

LET'S GET STARTED

HAIL, PELICUS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

As the song has it, Saturday is a Rugby Day. It looks like 2012 is going to be a Rugby Year.

There are more teams in the NCRFU than ever before. Youth rugby has exploded. Lots of folks have been taking referee courses in Pelicanland.

Let’s hope these stars align and more course-takers means more referees.

If you have taken a course recently and would like to referee, the person writing these words is the one who needs to know of your interest.

AVAILABILITY REQUESTED

If you are a referee and you’d like to run around and blow your whistle, you need to reply to this e-mail with a list of your availability for the next few Saturdays. Some Sundays, too, for that matter.

We also need to know whether you can travel. That means more than ninety minutes or so each way by car.

If you are new to this, jump right in. There are more teams than the NCRFU has ever had before. Once the league seasons start at the end of January, every Saturday will find a number of games without an assigned referee. We dread to think that there will be refs at home who didn’t have a game and could have done one.

Your scribe is also your scheduler. We don’t have time to write to nearly a hundred folks and say, can you help out this weekend? IF YOU WANT TO REF, LET US KNOW.

January 7: Need half a dozen refs. Tournament in Sac, games elsewhere including Fresno.

January 14: Two games on Friday the 13th, at the Maritime Academy. Can you do a Friday game? On the Saturday, there are a number of games including in Chico and Fresno.

January 21-22: Friday night game at the Maritime Academy.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Stanford Invitational will be played. Need four-six refs for this. Ideal for one or two beginning referees.

January 28-29: Two Friday afternoon games at St. Mary’s.
This weekend is a good example: twenty-four club and college games with six refs available so far. And this does not include the Kick-Off Tournament for youth and high school in Sacramento, which needs about thirty refs.

You can do a club or college game on Saturday and do high school games in Sacramento on Sunday – but not unless you reply and say you are available.

THIS WEEK’S PHOTO

Perfect year-end weather found four Pelicans mountain-biking the sweet single-track trails of Fort Ord.

This photo finds them at the end of their two-hour jaunt: John Coppinger, Bruce Carter, Bryant Byrnes, and Bruce Bernstein.

HAIL, PELICUS!

For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris