Dominican College Athletic Department Announces The Addition Of Men's Rugby

Blauvelt, NY (8/14/06)  Dominican College Athletic Director, Joe Clinton has announced the addition of men's rugby as a club sport for the 2006-2007 school year.

The team will participate in the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union Collegiate League.  There will by meetings held on August 29, 30 and 31 at 5pm in the Hennessy Center.  All those interested in playing should attend.

Below is information regarding joining the club:

Dear New and Returning Dominican Students,

We would like to welcome you to this new school year and Introduce you to the newest sport at Dominican, Rugby, the fastest growing amateur team sport in America and the second most widely played sport in the world, next only to soccer.  Though not as well known in the U.S., the U.S. is the defending Olympic Champions, winning in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, the last time contested.

It is a rugged, hard hitting game that requires the combined skills of football, soccer, basketball, and wrestling with wide open and fast moving play of lacrosse and hockey but no previous rugby or any other athletic experience are needed, just a desire to learn a new and fast growing sport and have a lot of fun doing it.  We will train you.  We both have many years of experience both as players and coaches and are extremely enthusiastic about introducing this sport we both love at Dominican and to all of you adventurous enough to join us.

Though new to Dominican College, we will be participating in the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union Collegiate League at Division III.  This includes seven teams from the New York area and include Bard College, Drew University, Manhattan College (also new), Molloy College, Montclair State University and SUNY-Maritime.  Several of these programs are also relatively new and several do not have the strong support for their program that Dominican has committed to a successful program here nor the experienced coaching we provide.  THe only thing we now need for us to be successful even in our first year is YOU! 

You can also sign up during orientation and at the Hennessy Center.  We will be having inital organizational meetings Tues, Wed, and Thurs, August 29, 30 and 31 at 5pm at the Hennessy Center where we will explain what Rugby is all about to include a video of the top international teams so you can get an idea of what the game is all about.  We will be starting practice on Tuesday, September 5 at 5pm.  Both coaches can be contacted through the Athletics Office at (845) 398-3008/9 or Coach Stedge at home (845) 429-6245.  His email address is butchstedge@msn.com.  Coach Pareschi can be reached at (845) 598-3734 or bartuni64@yahoo.com.

We look forward to seeing all of you with adventurous spirits to join us in what we who have played the game believe is the greatest sport on Earth.

Yours in Rugby,

Coach Stedge

Coach Pareschi