Rugby time in Dixon

Posted by garret beal on Nov 5, 2011 in Telegram Past News

The Rugby season is coming up fast in Dixon. They already had the informational meeting about the sport. The meeting is for the parents and players that are interested in playing on one of the club teams.

Dixon has two mini-camps that officially kick off the season. These mini-camps will start around the middle of November. They usually last a full weekend, and are designed to give you give you a taste of what the sport is like. The Dixon Rugby/Football Club is looking for a big turn out at this upcoming mini-camp, because they want to expand the program and have more players. There will likely be a significant turn out for the season.

Something new for Dixon Rugby is they are trying to expand the range of travel for  playing. If they can get more people interested in the sport then they can fundraise more easily and go on trips out of the country to play rugby. Dixon Rugby is also trying to create a girls rugby team. Head coach Rob Salaber says that if they have enough interest from the girls, they will start a team. Even if they do have enough to make a team, though, it may be hard to find them competition to play against.

Nick Salaber graduated last year. He was a great asset to the team. He went off to Cal to play for their rugby team. His brother Anthony is a senior this year. He is the Captain and the fly-half of the varsity gold team. He feels that he has to surpass his brother in sports and grades.

The Rugby team had a successful year last year. They went to Washington D.C. to visit the monuments, but most importantly to play the best teams in the east coast. Dixon played great and swept the teams to go undefeated on the east coast tour. The east coast was not used to the fast pace of Dixon’s team.

Dixon is ranked 12^th in the nation for high school teams. Head Coach Rob Salaber was asked if that ranking adequately reflected the team’s capabilities. He replied by saying that if his goal for the team was to be ranked highly, 12^th would not impress him that much.

Dixon has four teams as of right now. They have a varsity gold, varsity silver, a junior high team, and an under twelve team. If they were to add a fifth girls team they would require a focused effort from the coach, because almost all of them have no experience playing. On the other teams there are several people that have at least one year experience and there is a select few of the players that will be returning to the program with up to 6 years experience.

With the season approaching fast the players need to start getting in shape and honing their skills.