slide 1

NOTE: Only paying subscribers have access to locked content. LEARN MORE.

Cancelled: HS Club Nat’l Invitational

  • 08 Mar 2021
  • 483 Views

2019 HS Club NIT

On behalf of the Girls High School Club Rugby Championship Committee, Pam Laura sent the following message to high school coaches regarding the cancellation of the 2021 event (Salt Lake City, May 20-21), as well as information on the 2022 event in Wayne, Neb.:

I hope you are all safe and well! The Girls High School Club Rugby Championship Committee has decided that we will not be able to have [the National Invitational Tournament, NIT] this year. It would be a struggle to get enough teams to make the event work due to the current COVID situation around the country. Several of the coaches who responded to our survey said they wouldn’t be ready to compete at the national level given current and ongoing practice limitations around contact sports and also advised that, while players are ready and eager to play, parents could be reluctant to have their daughters travel.

Moving the date of the event is not practical nor would it necessarily improve the circumstances enough to make it worthwhile plus we’d have to change the venue. We want to thank Owen Power and Utah Youth Rugby for their offer to host in 2021.

So, we look ahead to 2022. We have already determined the location for the 2022 event. It will be held at Wayne State University in Wayne, Nebraska. Their rugby facility has grass fields, lights, sky box, broadcast tower, etc. Our host contact there, Darrin Barner, is already hard at it working with the town on logistics, as well as talking with the local, county, and state tourism commissions (he’s on the state commission). Turns out their governor is a former college rugby player, so Darrin hopes for support there, too. Wayne State Women’s Rugby has experience hosting high-level rugby events so we are looking forward to a great event there.

The dates are, tentatively, Friday, May 20, 2022 – Saturday, May 21, 2022 for Clubs. While we acknowledge that this does mean 2 days out of school for some teams it also allows some of the western teams who can’t play on Sundays to participate for the entire event.

So, start planning now!! We look forward to seeing you all in 2022 in Nebraska (can you say “Battle On The Prairie for the Girls HS Championship”?).

Thank you and stay safe!Pam Laura – on behalf of the Committee


On Feb. 10, 2021, the National Girls Coaches Committee announced that it would not hold the single-school national tournament in mid-May. So if the last championships were held in the 2018-19 school year, and the tournaments resume in 2021-22, only the graduating seniors will have played in a national tournament:

2018-19: South Bay & DSHA crowned champions

2019-20: CLD, Covid-19

2020-21: CLD, Covid-19

2021-22: Championships resume

Article Categories:
HIGH SCHOOL

Leave a Reply