Minnesota YoungBloodz Season Recap 2008

The Minnesota YoungBloodz is an invitational rugby team made up of players from numerous rugby clubs around the Twin Cities area that come together in the summer to specialize in seven-a-side (7’s) rugby.  Rugby 7s is a more wide-open, fast-paced version of standard 15-a-side game. 

YoungBloodz players range in age from 16 to 36, and include numerous local standouts, including former U19 USA Eagle Internationals Andrew Hanske of Minnetonka, and Nick Johnson of Hopkins.  They also have an overseas influence with 24 year old Pieter Jourbert of Natal, South Africa and in 2008 obtained the coaching services of former Samoan International Sam Fesuluia-Robinson.  Every player on the YoungBloodz has played representative (All Star) rugby for Minnesota or Wisconsin, and several played for the Midwest All Stars.  They are a group of young men who love to play rugby, and just happen to play it at a very high level.

The YoungBloodz are new club that just began playing in 2007.  That first summer they won two tournaments, including the Minnesota Super 7’s (Open Division) and the Cedar Rapids Invitational.   

In 2008 the Club also competed in more challenging tournaments, including  “Midwest Qualifiers” in Milwaukee and Minnesota, where they finished second losing only to Pearl City of Iowa.  They had enough success to earn a bid to the Midwest Championship Tournament, where they finished sixth.  They later took second in the First Annual Metropolis Cash Sevens Tournament in Minneapolis, just missing out on the $1,000 prize money.

The first tournament of 2008 was in Milwaukee for the Lakefront Sevens, played on the shores of Lake Michigan.  It proved to be a learning experience for the young men from Minnesota.  They first played the Chicago Lions, 2007 USA 7s National Champions.  The YoungBloodz scored first, but the rest of the day belonged to Chicago.  Next, they took on Coralville of Iowa.  Coralville is also an invitational team, but has been playing together for a very long time and also played in the 2007 National Championship Tournament.  Again, the Minnesota boys scored first but could not keep the momentum as Coralville rallied for the win, ending the day and the tournament for the YoungBloodz.

At the Minnesota Super 7s tournament the YoungBloodz again started fast, this time against cross-town rival (and D1 rugby club) Metropolis.  The teams exchanged the lead several times before the YoungBloodz won with a spectacular try by Mike Schatz with no time left.  The next two games were big wins for the YoungBloodz, first over the St. Paul Pigs and then the Eastside Banshees.  This pitted the YoungBloodz against Coralville once again, this time for the championship.  The local seven jumped out to a quick lead but was hurt by a yellow card (a player sent off for a serious infraction) late in the first half.  The experienced Coralville team took advantage and won the tournament title.  The YoungBloodz finished second but had earned enough points to qualify the team for the Midwest Championship Tournament.

Again, the YoungBloodz were matched up the top teams in the Midwest.  The team played Coralville, Scioto Valley from Ohio, and the Chicago Lions.  All three games were solid contests but the YoungBloodz came up short in each game.  The team scored 12 points in each game and never allowed more than 28.  Despite the lack of victories on the day, the team came away from it with many positive experiences.  A team of high school and college players had taken 6th place in the Midwest and competed well against some of the best men’s clubs in the country.

The last tourney of the summer for the YoungBloodz was the Metropolis cash 7s.  By this time in the season, the YoungBloodz were missing three of their top players due to injury.  With a cash prize of $1000, the YoungBloodz were excited to take the field for the cash 7s.  The first two games of the day were blowouts of South Metro (a high school team) and University of WI-Eau Claire.  The third game of the day saw the YoungBloodz take on the Metropolis Legends team.  This squad was made up of senior (40+) players who have made several National Tournament appearances in the 90s.  Despite some crafty play from the veteran team, the YoungBloodz took it to the experienced squad in a 25-0 shutout. 

In the semi-finals, YoungBloodz began to show their wear from the day.  The team played Metropolis and managed to eke out a close victory. 

This left a match-up with the U of Minnesota for the Championship.  In the championship game, the tired YoungBloodz squad made several major errors early on which put them down big.  The U of M team had been resting players from their roster of 18 all day and had fresh players compared to the 10 exhausted YoungBloodz.  The team managed a spirited comeback but came up short against the fresher Gopher team.

The YoungBloodz team is looking toward the future with the goal of qualifying for the National Tournament next summer.  In order to reach Nationals the team needs to make the leap to financial self-sufficiency.  Team leaders are filing the paperwork to officially make the YoungBloodz a non-profit organization.  A series of youth rugby camps are planned featuring Coach Robinson and the YoungBloodz team to raise funds as well.  In addition, the team is actively looking for sponsors who would like to participate in an exciting development in Twin Cities sports.  Check out the team website at www.youngbloodzrugby.com and our fan page on Facebook. If you are interested in helping the YoungBloodz reach the next level please contact team managers Joe Lippert at lipperja@uwec.edu or Stefan Berg at Stefan.berg@uwrf.edu.