Last Saturday market the 27th year of the annual Lone Star Classic seven’s rugby tournament in Dallas. Despite some scheduling conflicts by the TRU and WRFU that caused us to lose a handful of Women’s and High School Teams, We were very proud to have 15 Men’s Clubs, 6 High School Teams, 3 Women’s Teams and 3 Touch Teams entered in the tournament.
Our goal to focus on growing the event in the years to come has given us a target of 20 Men’s clubs, 12 High School Teams and 8 women’s teams for next year’s edition. We have already begun receiving emails from numerous clubs that attended expressing their intent to return next year so we are certain that with the support of the TRU and WRFU schedulers, these goals will easily be met.
A more detailed write up with scores and game summaries will follow but a few of the highlights are below:
The High School Division was won by Bixby HS out of Tulsa, OK. This was Bixby’s first ever seven’s tournament but their skill, focus and fitness would certainly have made you think differently. Congratulations to Bixby and HS division MVP “Shaggy.”
Houston traveled down to play two separate Dallas teams in an exhibition division of Touch Rugby. we sincerely thank the touch athletes for their flexibility and willingness to display their sport at the Classic. Congratulations to Houston for winning the first ever touch division.
The women’s division featured some strong competition with select side caliber players on each of the 3 teams (PARFU, Austin Beavers and Texas Women’s Rugby). Pennsylvania’s PARFU was tied with Austin at a 3-1 record on the day and managed to eek out the championship with a point differential bonus point. Congratulations to Rachel from the Beavers on Tournament MVP.
As always, the Lone Star Classic gave us an early look at what we can expect to see from the West in this year’s Seven’s Nationals tournament in Seattle. The Elite team was deeper than ever, entering 2 sides. Shreveport, the Quinn’s, Thug Nasty, UD, Dallas and Milwaukee also had very strong showings on the day. At the end of the day, the money bracket saw Elite Black defeat Shreveport in the final and Thug Nasty defeating the Quinn’s for Third place while Dallas white defeated DARC/ Ft. Hood for the plate championship. To no one’s surprise, “Z” won tournament MVP honors of the Men’s division.
The post tournament pub crawl was a tremendous success. Roughly 150 players stayed in town to overtake several bars in the Lower Greenville section of Dallas’ social district while taking part in $1.50 pints and free patron shots.
Thanks again for everyone who helped make this year’s tournament one to be remembered and especially Mark Fischer and the Dallas Old Boys who were critical in managing the event’s logistics.
