Rugby Season on the Horizon

The Solano-Yolo (Solo) Rugby Club was originally founded in 2007 as the Dixon Rugby Football Club. The name was changed in 2015 to accommodate a larger reach of players throughout Solano and Yolo Counties, as the Club wanted to continue to play in the Rugby NorCal Premiership Conference, the most competitive conference in the country.

The brief history of the Club is one made for a Hollywood script, starting in 2007 with 20 small middle school players getting physically manhandled by their older, larger and stronger opponents, to their first high school season where they went 1 – 11, winning only the last game on the last play, to the 2012 tour of England and Wales, which culminated by dramatically wining the USA Rugby National High School Championship in Salt Lake City.

The program has now produced eight (8) High School All-Americans and boasts dozens of players in the highest ranks of collegiate rugby, including the perennial national champions at UC Berkeley, St. Mary’s College of Moraga, Arizona State, Western Washington, UNR and various other programs across the nation. In addition, the inaugural 2016 Professional Rugby season in the US included a Solo Rugby graduate playing for the local Sacramento Express. Even more important is the impressive college participation rate from the program, which is more than double the rate out of the local and various surrounding high schools.

The transition to the larger program began in 2016 and continues today. The Club now fields Boys and Girls Varsity teams, Boys Junior Varsity, Middle School, Under 12 and possibly Under 10 this season. Boys and girls of all ages, regardless of experience, are actively encouraged to participate.

The 2017 Rugby Season begins with the Annual Information Meeting on Wednesday, October 19, at the old Masonic Hall in Dixon (159 North First Street). It is then followed by two free (no cost) weekend camps on November 5th and 6th, and December 10th and 11th at Hall Park in Dixon. For the high school players it also involves winter training, including regular runs at Pena Adobe Park in Vacaville.

“This program has always been more about developing strong character than wins and losses,” says Junior Varsity Head Coach, Gary Gordon. “The wins eventually come with building that character.”

“We’re not driven to make great rugby players,” says Varsity Head Coach, Rob Salaber. “We’re driven to make great people. And if they become great rugby players in the process, well, all-the-better,” he says with a smile.

The rugby season this year will include the annual Club Winter Tour to San Luis Obispo, as well as a two week Boys Varsity Spring Tour to Australia. In addition, they hope to have a stronger turn out for the Girls Varsity Team this year so that they can continue their annual Winter Tour to Las Vegas. The opportunities for scholarships to college for the girls are actually greater than for the boys, and the Club is pushing to grow the girls program.

For more information on the Club, please visit www.SoloRugby.club or call at 707-693-8847.