College Rugby League in Florida

[deluded pom?]

http://www.americanrugbynews.com/artman/publish/rugby_league/Rugby_League_in_college.shtml


Rugby League in college

Posted in: Rugby League
By ARN staff writers
Feb 5, 2009 - 4:06:06 AM
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UNF's Jay DeFau
Rugby League is starting to take hold in college on the east coast, particularly in Florida.
The University of North Florida is due to tangle with the University of South Florida in Jacksonville on Saturday.
American National Rugby League franchise the Jacksonville Axemen have seven of its younger players who will be playing for UNF, and for the first time in the team’s history they will be taking center stage on the main field at Hodges Stadium.
The Axemen expect Jay De Fau, who joined the Leeds Rhinos training squad during their stay in Jacksonville last month, to lead the way for the UNF Deadbirds in an effort to prove that his time spent with the World Champions did not go to waste.
"I expect big things from Jay this weekend. He has been training now for over a month and the week spent with the Rhinos should have him at the top of his game at this level,” said Jacksonville Axemen CEO Spinner Howland.
“I will also be paying close attention to those players that gave us service during the 2008 season to see if they have made any efforts to maintain their fitness levels over the holiday break."
UNF has almost 30 players competing every week to make the starting team for the school and the Axemen are also interested in looking at some of the newer guys at UNF to see what talent may lie within their ranks.
"We will be there for the entire game and we will be taking notes. You never know when the next star is going to wipe the dirt off his face so you can see him shine,” added coaching staff.
The following UNF players are also on the Axemen’s roster - Max Schwartz, Jay DeFau, Rob Canadine, Matt Visalli, Josh Jackson, Nick Shea, Randy Dewey and John Turlington.

 

[roopy]

That's great.
The US could just about host a student WC without too much trouble - if they can field a team.

 

[deluded pom?]

That's great.
The US could just about host a student WC without too much trouble - if they can field a team.

Well they now have two college teams to choose from and anyone else eligible from the AMNRL. When is the next SWC?

 

[DINGb@T]

Hey Steve, Uni of Sth Florida is in your patch of woods. Just marked both the unis on my League expansion map and the South Florida uni is the other side of Tampa, right near you (well, at least on the map).

You got anything to do with setting this team up?

 

[stevet]

no guys i dont know anything about it,but its great non the less,i will dig and find out, we are playing eckard colledge on sat ,and there coach has expressed an interest in league colledge knockout games, these eckard guys are huge, and fit ,and the field is without doubt 1st class and and superleague team would be proud of the grass,you could eat your dinner off it ,as they say in yorkshire, i will find out from jay at jaxaxe , i spent time with them in jax, but again i am trying every angle to get a foothold away from the union ,its just too many egos,we will get a league team in south fl if it kills me! thanks steve

 

[roopy]

You listen to the RU mob in the US and they make the point that the US are strong in student RU, but only a tiny percentage of those guys go on to play after college.

I'd love to see a more 'Australian' set up for league in florida that would allow college teams to play in the same comp as non-college teams and the college teams to have ex-students as well as current students.
It wouldn't be the norm in America, but i don't think the system used in Union and gridiron of guys basically having no team the day they graduate works to foster the game.

 

[deluded pom?]

There are a couple of former student teams in the UK leagues. London Skolars formed when several guys who had played at Uni wanted to continue playing after graduating and gravitating to London for their employment. Leeds Akkies play in the league just below the NL2 and were formed for similar reason to the Skolars.

 

[roopy]

There are a couple of former student teams in the UK leagues. London Skolars formed when several guys who had played at Uni wanted to continue playing after graduating and gravitating to London for their employment. Leeds Akkies play in the league just below the NL2 and were formed for similar reason to the Skolars.

It doesn't seem to happen in the US.
An overwhelming number of 'college athletes' walk away from sport the day they graduate.
I spent a horrible 40 minutes or so listening to the podcast on the American Rugby News website because they said they had league news (just to hear a Rugby tosser have a 30 second cheap shot at league) and the main story was basically a discussion on why they can't get college players to continue after college.

I think League needs a different concept than the traditional American college system, because that just produces promising guys who give up at 21 or 22.

 

[stevet]

roopy my friend,we all know the only way we going to get a foothold is, cold hard cash, its as simple as that, its part of the american way of life,thanks steve

 

[spinnerhowland]

Guys, this IS a Rugby UNION game. 7 of the UNF Rugby Union team plays for the Axemen during our season. We work VERY closely with both the UNF and the local Mens Union teams here and find we are a bigger force locally for ad/pr when we combine ourselves

 

[spinnerhowland]

UNF is a big supporter of our efforts here with RL and the UNF Union team is getting to use the main field for the first time due to the success of the recent years of the Axemen and our events. Given that 7 of their guys play for us and the UNF team needs all the help it can with PR/Exposure we are very willing to help them. I will again run the events as far as PR/Game day Announcing, etc. for them. The Axemen are also going to operate all the merchandise sales for UNF in return for being able to sell our gear at the game too. Both teams benefit from this partnership. Rugby at UNF is a CLUB sport and therefore does not get the support that the official sports get from the school, so the more we can do to make this effort work the closer we are to RL adn RU getting a better go.

 

[deluded pom?]

The ARN need putting straight on this story then Spinner.

 

[spinnerhowland]

Personally I don't have a problem with it. We are trying to close the gap between the codes here in the USA, not force them apart. The ARN states it is a Rugby game, it states that some of the Axemen players are playing for UNF. If people want to assume it's RL then that is an assumption they made all be themselves. To be honest I am thankful for ARN support and the mear fact that they published the story

 

[roopy]

The two codes are both tiny minority sports in the US and can work together to gain a higher profile for 'Rugby' which will benefit both.
At this point in time League probably gets more from Union than Union gets from League, so not pissing them off is pretty important.

 

[Runrun]

The two codes are both tiny minority sports in the US and can work together to gain a higher profile for 'Rugby' which will benefit both.
At this point in time League probably gets more from Union than Union gets from League, so not pissing them off is pretty important.

Posters might be interested that USA defeated Fiji yesterday in the Wellington Sevens, which is a great result. Fiji is, of course, one of the top three teams in Sevens over the last few years (the others being New Zealand and South Africa).

USA also beat Australia in the George, South Africa, Sevens in December.

 

[roopy]

Posters might be interested that USA defeated Fiji yesterday in the Wellington Sevens, which is a great result. Fiji is, of course, one of the top three teams in Sevens over the last few years (the others being New Zealand and South Africa).

USA also beat Australia in the George, South Africa, Sevens in December.

Random fact from a troll.

 

[Runrun]

Random fact from a troll.

What is wrong with facts? Facts are better than dreams, wouldn't you say?

 

[deluded pom?]

Personally I don't have a problem with it. We are trying to close the gap between the codes here in the USA, not force them apart. The ARN states it is a Rugby game, it states that some of the Axemen players are playing for UNF. If people want to assume it's RL then that is an assumption they made all be themselves. To be honest I am thankful for ARN support and the mear fact that they published the story

The ARN site is a great friend to the AMNRL but the headline on their site says it's a game of rugby LEAGUE. That isn't something I've put in. Is there any chance of getting these two unis to play a game of league Spinner?

 

[Sam_the_man]

What is wrong with facts? Facts are better than dreams, wouldn't you say?

What the hell has the Wellington 7's got to do with North American RL?

 

[bobmar28]

Hey Steve, Uni of Sth Florida is in your patch of woods. Just marked both the unis on my League expansion map and the South Florida uni is the other side of Tampa, right near you (well, at least on the map).

You got anything to do with setting this team up?

Thanks for the map. 14 teams in south east U S, that's steady growth.