Good Evening all,

 

Excuse me if I am turning this into a blog, but I just feel compelled to share what I believe everything in Rugby should be about. So please bear with me and let me have my "cathartic moment".

 

First and foremost as coaches and administrators I believe that everything is about the players. This game is for them. Maybe most of us have had our "glory days of playing" (well mine have long since come and gone) and we should now just be focused on helping the players.

 

When we establish schedules, set up practices, get referees etc., we need to keep the players in mind. I know that every single coach not only wants his team to win, but to show the other team how the game should be played; but as coaches and administrators of Women's Collegiate Rugby we should constantly ask ourselves "what are we doing to help our players advance to the next level?"

 

Now I am the first to recognize that players come in all shapes and sizes, some talented and some not so talented, some committed and some not so committed, but we still should be committed to doing everything in our power to help our players, even if we are some times required to sit at the "humble pie table" and eat that which is placed before us.

 

I will never forget something that was said to me by my coach when I was a young, "too big for his boots" u/14 rugby player. I was complaining about one player in the team that was so slow that he made a snail look like speed demon. The coach turned around to me and said "He might be slow, but do not think that he is not less worthy of my (the coaches) commitment". This has stayed with me through my life and has greatly influenced how I see the game and the role of coaches and administrators.

 

We all know that Rugby is a Team Game, that requires of us to give no quarter, nor to expect no quarter in return, BUT (isn't there always a but) if we as coaches, representatives and administrators cannot be a team, how can we expect So Cal Women's Rugby to become a Giant.

 

Many times when I read the messages sent around in the Group I see people asking this one for help, that one to volunteer, someone to compromise, some one to make an exception. So when we (and I strongly include myself in this we) see that I believe the yardstick we should measure our actions, as the relate to these requests, are 1) how does it advance the best interests of the players, and 2) is what I am doing reflective of the team-work ethic we so desperately try to instill in the players?

 

Read it, shred it or do with as you see fit - but just know there is no greater sport than Rugby and for a brief moment we all have the privilege to participate in shaping its present and determining its future.

 

Regards

 

Andreas Pyper

UCSB Women's Rugby Forwards Coach