Teamwork... Respect... Dedication... &Having Fun.

An outstanding day for the SYA Youth Rugby Program to wrap up the summer season in the 2015 Rugby Virginia State Championship Tournament. In just our 3rd year, SYA entered a total of 9 teams in the u7, u9, u11 and u13 age groups (the most from any program across the State) and an amazing 7 teams returned with hardware highlighted by our u7 Argentina-side winning the u7 Tag State Championship! Equally impressive for our program is that we did it without a “win at all costs” mentality, keeping our teams united as they played during the season without placing our “best” players on a single team just to win a trophy. Each team had an equal opportunity to win and each stood toe-to-toe with other programs that stacked their teams. Nevermind the trophies, each and every one of our teams, built up of kids that grew together over the course of the season to form a cohesive unit, emerged from that tournament as champions.

Here’s a quick look at the results

Under 7
- Argentina won the whole dang tournament, beating Springfield in the Cup Finals
- South Africa won (“Captain America’s”) Shield
- Italy struggled but won last game to end on a winning note

Under 9

All 3 teams went 1-1 in pool play but did well in playoffs to finish in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place of 12 teams

Under 11

- Somoa went 4-0 in pool play, lost in Finals to Vienna
- Tonga was 0-3-1 in pool play but did win final game on a positive note

Under 13

Lost a close match in Finals against Richmond (the same team won the u13 tackle tournament the day before)

Click to view the story published about the tournament