Wisconsin contests its girls’ high school regular season during the fall, but the 15s league and championship did not occur in 2020 due to Covid-19. The state also typically runs a spring 7s series, and that competition still has the potential to be realized this year.
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“A formal survey hasn’t been done, but it seems there is a serious appetite for returning to play this spring,” Wisconsin Girls Rugby (WGR) President Barry Holloway wrote in an e-mail. “The fact that the WIAA [Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association] has run high school sports essentially uninterrupted thus far, the success our league had running limited events in the fall, and the advent of a vaccine have created a sense of security – maybe a false sense of security? – for us to proceed forward.”
“Forward” would look like the revival of the spring 7s series, Wisco7s, which typically involves 3-4 tournaments in April-May, and awards DI and DII championship titles. The circuit was canceled in 2020, but Holloway indicated that there are approximately seven teams from all over the state that are considering hosting a leg this year.
“We are still collecting COVID data from our teams who operated this past fall, and we will couple that with local and federal health authorities to make any final decisions about this spring,” Holloway noted. “We are planning as if it is happening and will make a final call on March 2 at our league meeting.”
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Traditionally, teams like Divine Savior Holy Angels and Catholic Memorial play 15s in the spring, as they prepare for the Midwest 15s championship and the National High School Championship. But if the 15s game continues to be categorized as a high-risk activity during the pandemic, then it will be interesting to see whether this top-tier teams play spring 7s.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin continues to make moves. The league has created a new referee mentoring program – RaMP Up Reffing – which comes at zero cost to participants. The initiative aims to reconnect with alumni, recruit more female officials, support WGR events and develop candidates for the Wisconsin Rugby Referee Society.
“We have seven women joining our new program that hopes to kick off this spring,” Holloway enthused. “Since we only have one active female ref in the state, I am really happy we were able to orchestrate this program. Our players deserve the opportunity to see themselves in their refs, coaches, and league leadership!”
The first cohort will take USA Rugby’s introduction to refereeing course, work WGR events as one crew, touch judge varsity matches, and center or shadow ref JV or developmental matches as appropriate. Click here for more information.For more updates regarding Covid’s impact on winter/spring rugby, follow #Covid2021.