Blues U-19 Girls

2012 Season:
5/12 47-10 over Lake view

A side
TC girls-47
Lakeview -10

B side
TC -60
Lakeview -0

 

5/5 Girls still undefeated 46-0 over Grandville

The girls extended their unbeaten streak with a 46-0 victory over second ranked Grandville.  Grandville entered the match having suffered only one loss on the year, a hard fought 5-0 loss to last year’s State Runner Up, Toledo. Today’s match was a contrast in styles as Grandville plays a wide open and fast paced game compared to Traverse City’s fast, yet power focused and organized brand of rugby.  Both sides started out sluggish and rainy conditions contributed to several knock on’s in the first 10 minutes.   The Blues then began to get their legs under them and assert their will.   Grandville is a very well drilled team and technically sound.  They also tackled very well.  However, the superior size and strength of the Blues forwards and inside backs, as well as a sound game plan, proved too much for scrappy Grandville.

“Grandville does a number of things very well, they offload after contact great, and do a stack or train ruck that is tough to defend if you let them get it set up.” Said Blues Head Coach, Stephanie Kehrer. “We game planned for that and our girls executed it brilliantly.”

Jim Kehrer, Forwards Coach added; “I was so impressed with our girls. They did exactly what they were supposed to do.  In practice we worked on how to beat the type of rucking Grandville does.  We were confident in our ability to win any one on one power battle, so the technique we used was to counter ruck in pairs with force if the ball was contestable, or to just completely concede the ruck if it wasn’t.  If we got there late and they were able to get set up we’d just set up our defense and attack their possession behind the gain line.  We would eventually isolate someone and steal the ball at the breakdown.  Our girls did it perfectly.”

As the first half wore on, it became evident that Grandville was ill-prepared for the level of intensity and ferocity that has come to define this year’s Blues squad.  The power running style of the flyhalf, centers, and loose forwards required two or three tacklers thus creating space for the outside backs to take the ball wide and make good ground.  The constant pressure of the Blues defense denied Grandville any extended possession and the Blues ended the first half with a 17-0 lead.

Both teams came fast out of the gate to start the second half and pushed the action to a furious pace.  Grandville was unable to keep the tempo and the Blues, again, took control.  “We really started to wear them down early in the second half. Our breaks started getting longer and longer, and we really started to dominate in the set pieces.”  Said Stephanie Kehrer.

The physical beating Grandville was taking at the hands of the Blues began to take its toll and the Blues were able to push over 29 points in the second half.  “We didn’t have any break away trys, or any really long breaks.  All of our scores were manufactured with multiple phases and great team play.  Defensively, we really attacked their possession.  I don’t think they were ever able to get the ball inside our 22.”   Said Jim Kehrer

The Blues Girls have their final home match next Saturday at noon against Lakeview.  This match is part of the Grand Traverse Rugby Festival that will have both the boy’s and men’s squads playing as well on the day.

4/28 – Girls Win vs WRFC – 60-0 at home!

Although on the scoreboard, the Traverse Bay Blues girls team pulled out another quality victory Saturday at the Civic Center.  The real winners on the day were the brave girls from Ann Arbor.  Ann Arbor is a fledgling start up without a full squad and is in its infancy.  “I look at Dave (Purpich, Head Coach), and his girls, and I see our team six or seven years ago”, said Blues Head Coach, Stephanie Kehrer.  “For those first two years we would drive four hours with eight girls and get beat by 80 points.  And love every minute of it.  You have to start somewhere, and the only way to get better is to play and take your lumps.”

Ann Arbor traveled with their full squad of six girls.  The Blues were able to fill the rest of their squad with quality players so they could get a good match in.  Last year, Ann Arbor was scheduled to play in Traverse City, but canceled because they couldn’t field a full side.  Coach Stephanie reached out to Dave and reminded him in a stern tone that part of the ethos of our sport is that you travel with what you have.  Regardless of the health or size of your team, you answer the bell, you owe it to your opponent and to the girls on your team that show up each day to practice.

The match itself was not as one sided as the score would indicate.  Coach Stephanie and her staff strategically placed their players on each team to create interesting match ups between players that compete in practice for playing time at the same position.  It created some exciting and heated exchanges and a very fast paced match.   The six Ann Arbor girls were also quality rugby players that show a great deal of promise.

Both teams attended the social at the cabin after the match.  Dave took the opportunity to immerse his team in all the rugby culture the club house has to offer.  He showed his team, team pictures of the Blues Girls from the early years that showed a squad of eight, and held their current success up as what is possible for them.

We all love the Club House, and the joy it brings us as a rugby community.  But I don’t think we can over look the impact it has on other teams.  For most of them, it represents their only opportunity to get a real taste of rugby culture and feel the history that most clubs posses, but don’t celebrate.

4/21 – Girls Win vs Livingston Co. – 27-nill

The Traverse Bay Blues Girls team came away with twovictories over LivingstonCounty on Saturday. Thefirst match, 27-0, was a lesson in effective rucking, ball control, andstifling defensive pressure. The second, 50-0, was a more wide open affair andsaw the Blues take advantage of space and run in 10 trys.

Part of our team ethos is to continuously apply stifling pressure on the opponent. We’ve found that most teams lack the mental discipline, positive culture, and adhesiveness to effectively deal with it and they eventually crack and fall apart.  To make this work the pressure needs to be heartless, and severe, and violent, and most importantly unyielding.   In both games, the girls brought it in spades.  The Marines call it the “thought loop”.  The ides is to constantly be the aggressor, thus forcing your opponent to continuously adapt to what you’re doing.  First they identify what you are doing, adapt to what you are doing, then implement their defense.   If your pressure is severe and constant, they get caught in the loop of having to continuously identify, adapt, and implement and they never get the chance to do anything they want to do.  We all know what affect this can have on a rugby team.

Saturdays matches were a study in this game philosophy.  In the first match, we had the ball for over 50 minutes of a 60 minute match.  The girls were calm and organized, but constantly on the front foot and attacking everything.  We had several scoring drives that were over 10 phases and covered the length of the field.  The score would have been much more lopsided had the pitch not been 54 yards wide.  The one chink in the armor was our wings got forced into touch many many times because of they lacked the knowledge to switch back inside with the Center.  They were used to having the space to get around the corner or take on the tackler and have support from the loose forwards.  We have two practices to fix this before the next match.


4/14 – Girls Win 2 @ Ruck City tourney (Detroit) 
SVSU 32-19  The Blues came away with a fairly convincing 36-19 victory over SVSU today.  It was an amazing team effort and I am extremely proud of how well they overcame adversity near the half.  They manufactured several team trys and even mauled one over.  Great movement out wide, and some very agressive defense.

66-0 Livingston Co.
The Girls took on Lakeview High school and came away with a 66-0 victory.  It wasn’t a complete B side, 6 of the 15 played A side earlier.  Also, for many, if not most, the margin between the A and B side players at any given position is micro thin and can change from week to week.

This victory coupled with the 33- 19 victory over a decent college team (they currently sit in the middle of their league rankings) made today a pretty good day for the squad.   I’m very excited to show the girls off to you at our next home match weekend after next.  I think you would be very proud of them.  They play the game like it is supposed to be played, with joy, and humility, and intensity, and reverence, and skill, and selflessness, and above all, they like to hit.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 pm at Behind Mejier
Practice begins Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

Coach Stephanie Kehrer
steppytc@yahoo.com
989- 297-0386 cell

The Traverse Bay Blues Girls U-19 RFC was founded in 2005 by Coach Stephanie Kehrer.  The first two years were fairly lean as the team struggled to field a full squad.  Still Coach Kehrer and her Assistant Coach George Preston worked tirelessly to develop a team culture and fine tune their coaching philosophy.

2007 saw the team earn their first taste of success as the team finished third in the Michigan Union, first division.  Unfortunately for the squad’s future, graduation left only three returning players.  A massive recruiting effort in the off season brought in over thirty new players to salvage the 2008 season.  At the same time, Jim Kehrer and Matt Szatkiewicz joinedPrestonon Kehrer’s coaching staff staff.

Despite the brand new squad in 2008 and a huge number of underclassmen in the starting lineup, the team ended the regular season with a 6-1-1 record and finished second in the union with a championship match loss to Lakeview.  Expectations were very high going into the 2009 season, but the squad took a step back and finished third in the union, losing to Lakeview in the semi-finals.

With a very strong core of juniors entering their third year of rugby, the team completely dominated the 2010 season all the way through to the State Championship.  The team went undefeated and the closes match for the year was a 35-3 victory over Lakeview in the finals.

Expectations were again high coming into 2011, because the squad lost only three seniors from 2010’s championship team.  Through recruiting, a number of excellent players were also added.  The side did not disappoint as they notched their second straight State Championship with a 30-0 victory over Toledo.  For the season, they out scored their opponents by a cumulative score of 466 – 27.

 

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