Newsletter 04/14 - First Tournament Results and Club Update
Hello BRFC family!
Welcome back to the newsletter. This week, the team drove down to Providence College to compete in a sevens tournament against 10 exceptional teams. Although the weather was less than ideal, everyone played their hardest and executed exactly what we had been practicing.
Our first match, against Colby’s B team, marked the official start of our sevens season. The starting seven came out strong, scoring multiple tries, followed by even more from teammates eager to get on the field. We closed out the game with a dominant 33-0 win for Bates.
In our next match, against Providence, we faced much tougher competition-and responded with even more aggression and drive. However, with many of our players battling injuries and fatigue setting in, we ultimately took our first loss of the season, falling 19–29 to Providence.
Our next two games followed a similar pattern. With mounting injuries and limited subs, we were down a few players, which gave the opposing teams an edge. Regardless, Bates Rugby fought to the end and played extremely well-especially our rookies, who really stepped up. The scores for those games were 32–2 to Tufts and 19–10 to Providence B.
So far, our practices have taken place on Garcelon, Underhill, and Russell Field as we continue to patiently wait for Page Field to clear up. With the weather fluctuating so much lately, there's no telling when we’ll be able to return to our home field. Regardless, we’re definitely grateful for the field space we have in the meantime, which we’ll use to prepare for our next tournament at Curry College on April 20th.
Prior to last weekend’s sevens tournament, the team traveled to Waterville for a joint practice with Colby College. During the session, we ran new drills that emphasized teamwork and making use of space on the field-skills that definitely contributed to our performance on Saturday.
We also reunited with our former coach Tony Solis, who then coached us in Providence for the tournament. We’re very thankful for Tony’s assistance and look forward to seeing him again in the future.
Best,
Alumni Liaison,
Fernando Hokello
fhokello@bates.edu