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News
Montville Wanderers to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Flag Rugby
Tuesday, 03/24/09
In 1999 Montville resident Craig Chapman decided to get back into rugby so he accompanied The Morris Rugby Club on their Rugby World Cup tour to Ireland. It was on that trip that he met Tom Feury who had just started a touch rugby program for kids that summer in Denville and he was looking for some other kids to play the following summer. The rest as they say is history.
Montville Parks and Recreation was approached with the idea of helping launch a new sport and in that summer of 2000 24 boys and girls signed up to come out….pick up the ball and run! 10 years is a long time many of our former players went on to play with the Morris U19 high school side and some are even playing in college as far away as Stamford University!
That summer we did indeed play a season ending tournament against the kids from Denville on our home pitch in what was called the Jr. Jersey Cup. That season ending tournament has now grown to have over 1000 kids competing from the 8 Morris Rugby Youth programs as well as the expanded Union Rugby Club programs and this year will include teams from NY and PA.
The overall program has become so successful due to the age inclusion( 5 to 14), the fact that it is the only co-ed game in town and that virtually any kid with a desire to run around can play and have fun that we have been highlighted in all the local papers, have had feature articles in “Rugby Magazine” written about us and this spring the American Flag Rugby Association was launched to help folks in other parts of the country start programs similar to ours.
Coach Craig is proud of all the boys and girls, some 300 that have played over the years. There is one special lad that remains in his and the programs heart and we hope to see many local Montville residents participate in some way in this summer’s Gibby Run in memory of David Gibson who was a charter member back in 2000. Gibby’s special day is Saturday June 13th
Rugby practice starts this year on Monday June 15th at 6:30 pm.
contact: Craig Chapman, Founder, Montville Youth Rugby
email: cchap973@optonline.net
phone: 201.321.3508
posted: Tuesday, 03/24/09 EST
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