UPCOMING EVENTS

There are two upcoming rugby events happening in Chico. First is a Night Golf tournament. Proceeds will help send our High School Boy’s and Girl’s Rugby Clubs on tour to Ireland for spring break. The seconf event is Oaktoberfest. This is a 10 a-side rugby tournament. Click on the images below to sign up for the respective events.

Yard Sale Fundraiser

It’s official! Chico’s High School rugby clubs, the Black Oaks and the Wild Oaks, will be going on a proper 10 day tour to Ireland next spring break. We will be reaching out over the next year for support to help send the lads and lasses overseas. The yard sale is one of our first major fundraisers. If you have items to donate please reach out to Mary, Nicole or Lisa or if want to check out what’s for sale, please swing by.

On the Pitch – February 26th, 2022

The final week of February saw all the Oaks teams on the pitch! As all teams are getting to the midpoint of their seasons, we are excited to see how all teams and players are all progressing so incredibly well! Also, a little sneak peak of what’s to come, March 12 th we have ALL the Oaks teams playing in Chico on the day! We will be in the stadium and the grass at PV playing all day. We will be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Chico Oaks Youth program and the 20-year reunion of the Chico Mighty Oaks National Championship. More info to come on that VERY soon.
Please see below for the coaches writeups on their matches:

WHITE OAKS – by Coach Buck
Saturday was a beautiful day to play and watch rugby. The U-10’s showed up strong with 17 players. The
White Oaks challenger for the day was Gridley, also showing up strong with 15. Chico and Gridley met
on the well set up field and rugby commenced. We had four well called games Ref’d by Ernesto. Great
job and thank you Ernie, that is not an easy thing to do. Both teams came out strong and put some quick
scores on the board. Chico prevented some scores with relentless defense and great tackling by Wyatt,
Joe, Kanyon, Kellen, Parker, Meadow, Collin and Milo to name a few. Daniel, Benjamin, Benicio, Issac,
Adrian, Brayton, Westin, Lucas and Davis had good play on the pitch as well.  Overall Chico played well
showing improvement in rucking and had successful passing in open play.
While showing improvement in some areas the White Oaks still need to get better in others. After Chico
makes a tackle, they need to NOT pile up behind the tackle, instead they need to fan out on defense
across the field to shut down any efforts made by their opponents to get the ball wide.  Improvement
can also be made by Chico after the tackle has been made to set up and get ready for the next phase
and not bunch up at the breakdown making it hard for the scrum half to get the ball out of the ruck and
distribute as necessary. It’s exciting to see all our kid’s playing rugby. They are amazing. They play hard
and are making good progress in learning the game. We are all very proud and extremely appreciative of
every player and their families on our team.

GRAY OAKS – by Coach Brian
The Gray Oaks showed up to the pitch on Saturday ready to play some rugby against a game squad from
Gridley.  From the start, the boys moved the ball around and found some nice open field to run and
quickly scored a few tries. Gridley kept the pressure on and answered back with a few tries of their own
with some nice running by their bigger and stronger forwards. The match was a back-and-forth affair with both teams giving it their all. Gridley did a nice job of rucking and running their forwards, while Chico did a good job of getting the ball to their quicker backs to set the pace.  Chico had solid backline play from Kiernan, Tyson, and Cruz while the forwards were led by Cairo, Raulie and Liam.  Overall, it was a wonderful day for the boys as they continue to grow and learn how to play as a team.  
Well done Gray Oaks!

RED OAKS – by Coach Mitch
It’s always good to play at home! For the second weekend this season the Oaks were able to host!
Playing in the grass at PV, although the ground was hard, it was nice to be “home”!
Kickoff saw Barbarian rugby take advantage of the Oaks defense. One of the things we really need to
work on is recognizing overloads and spreading the field. This led to 4 or 5 of the visitor’s tries on the
day.
It took Chico about 30 minutes to get it together and start putting out some effort. Once they started to
chase kicks and work together, get together on defense by setting their posts etc. The match turned
around a bit.
Chico scored 4 tries on the day. Gavin got 2, Henry scored 1 and Linc scored as well. All off great effort
and hustle. James was ALL over the field on the day as well.
The boys have 4 weeks left and we are looking forward to more improvement!!
They reconvene on the pitch this Saturday in Gridley taking on Elk Grove. It should be another great
weekend!

WILD OAKS – by Coach Rau
What makes this game so much fun as a coach is to see the progression of your players from week to
week.
Visiting and playing the Amazons club was a fun experience for all the Lady Wild Oaks since the girls got
to interact with a lot of their players who were happy to join us since we only arrived with 7 players.
Mother lode and Lamorinda were the other teams to play with 7 players a piece also, so there was no
shortage of playing time for the girls. 
We played 4 games in the space of 2 hours so didn’t get much rest, but the girls sucked it up. 
Great day had by all.
PS. Guess I should start keeping score ‘cause I have no clue what any of the game scores were.

BLACK OAKS – by Coach Bill
The Black Oaks took the pitch last Saturday, February 26 with our mostly Jr. Varsity side against Elk
Grove who out-weighed our team by many stone. The scrimmage was four twenty-minute periods
captained by Malu Evalu and Joey McKellar.
The larger Elk Grove club outscored our boys, but the Oaks ran a beautiful defensive line, nonetheless.
Additionally, the Oaks plays in the pack and the back line were well-executed and far above the level of
the Elk Grove side. The mostly varsity Elk Grove club were tough to tackle and ultimately out-weighed
and out-scored the Oaks by many tries, but the Oaks were tough throughout the four periods and

played hard to the last whistle! We’ll be working on our defensive launch, which, if we were a bit more
disciplined and eager, would have significant in the outcome of our match.
The Oaks positively improved our play this week and we look forward to our regular season match play.
With continued improvement, we show tremendous promise against upcoming contenders and will
inevitably bring home clear victories this season. We look forward to our next two weeks at home where
we can show off our skill on the pitch.


KNOTTY OAKS – by anonymous
On Feb 27th the Knotty Oaks once again supported the Reno Battle Born Babes on the pitch in an away
game. This match was against the Sam Jose Seahawks, and was the perfect example of rugby culture. A
tight battle of ball handling and sportsmanship raged for 90 minutes as some unlucky injuries caused
stoppages to play. 
A tough effort by the Seahawks managed to block several tries by the combined Knotty Babes, resulting
in the win going to San Jose. The home team struggled against our forwards in rucks and set pieces, but
we couldn’t convert that effort into points. Amazing efforts were put forth by our flankers, locks, and
President Luna who was moved to inside center.
We’re looking forward to our bye week this coming Saturday to recover and plan our attack against the
Sacramento Amazons at home on the 12 th of March.

MIGHTY OAKS – by Coach Cheese
On February 26th the Mighty Oaks were scheduled to take on the San Joaquin Harlots in Modesto,
California. The rugby gods blessed us with calm, cloudy, cool 60° day at kick off.
The Mighty Oaks kicked off at 1pm sharp. Unfortunately, they gave up 3 tries in the 4th, 8th and 32nd
minute to be down 15-0. In the 36th minute the Mighty Oaks offense finally strung multiple phases
together. They broke the Harlots defensive line and with a quick pick to weak side they scored their 1st
try to bring the game to 15-7 right before halftime. The Mighty Oaks came out of halftime revitalized
and eager to earn their 1st victory of the season. Chico and San Joaquin traded a pair of scores by the
48th minute. With the score 20-12 in San Joaquin’s favor, Chico had to dig deep to find a way to win.
Then suddenly Chico found a way to score 3 tries in a row all with successful conversions to take the
lead 31-20. With 17 minutes left in the match, all Chico had to do was play solid defense and maintain
possession. During the final 10 minutes Chico’s defense gave up 2 tries, with the last in the 79th minute.
With Chico up 31-30 in dead time it came down to the conversion kick followed by 1 final phase. As the
Harlots kicker set up, the Mighty Oak players watched with anticipation. As the kick left the foot it
looked like it was a great strike but sailed just to the left of the goal post. With 1 final phase left in the
match and a slim lead, Chico was set to kick off. San Joaquin corralled the kick and was able to run
multiple phases, but Chico’s defense stepped up and forced a penalty. This sealed the Mighty Oaks 1st
victory of the year.
The Mighty Oaks have shown improvement every week in all aspects of the game. At the mid-way point
of the season, they seem to be gelling as a team and are looking to turn around the season. This week
the Mighty Oaks have a much-needed bye to let players heal up and get ready for an important 2nd half.

This coming weekend finds the Knotty and Mighty Oaks on a bye taking advantage of a much-needed
bye. The Black Oaks JV team will be traveling to Sacramento and the White, Gray, Red and Wild Oaks will
be back in Gridley, sort of their home a way of home on the season. When match times come available,
we will be sharing ASAP!
Cheers,
Coach Mitch

What a great weekend of rugby for all the Chico Oaks. We had all teams on the pitch in one way or another. Here are the game recaps from the respected coaches of each team:

WHITE OAKS (U-10’s) Coach Ernie

This past Saturday, the White Oaks traveled south with 9 players to Elk Grove for the Kickoff Tournament. It was a beautiful day for Rugby.  

Our first match was against the very tough Kaji team out of the Sacramento area. We did pretty well in the first half, as were able to ruck and find space. The second half was a little tougher, as Kaji made better adjustments in the 2nd half. A quick side note, since we were short one player, Kaji was gracious to lend us one of their players, Aby and he did an awesome job for us.

The second match of the day was against River City/Elk Grove combo. This was a tough match for the White Oaks, it was difficult to find space, due to the stingy defense. But we fought hard and never gave up. The highlight of the game was that we played a player down the entire match with no subs for the entire day. The lesson of the day was to build character. Sometimes in life/rugby, things don’t go your way or according to plan. I was proud of the team, as we focused on the small task such rucking and tackling.

The final match of the day was against Elk Grove, and it was our best match of the day. We were tenacious on the tackles and the rucks. We also used our kicking to elevate pressure from our end. Overall, this day was a great experience for the boys. They battled through each game, didn’t give up when things didn’t go their way, and finished their day on a positive.  

GRAY OAKS (U-12’s) – Coach Ivan

On Saturday, the Grey oaks played in three games against Sac pal, Elk Grove and River city.  In all three games they played with their hearts on their sleeves.  But in the last game they really showed it. Even though everyone was dead tired they came out and gave it their all and played their best game of the day. 

RED OAKS (middle school boys) AND BLACK OAKS (JV high school boys) – Coach Mitch

Both the Red and Black Oak boys’ teams had a bye this weekend, so we gathered at PV to play touch before we all hung out and watched the Mighty Oaks took on Berkley in the stadium at 1:00pm.

With 3 of us coaches out there we rounded out the numbers to have three 7 a side teams. It was super fun to run with the boys! We were able to help them recognize quite a bit of skills/patterns etc while on the pitch. A few things that they got considerably better at were following the ball after the pass, staying in their lanes, and not drifting, launching up on defense and finally attacking the gain line at pace while running plays. Ironically, there is a lot of room to improve still!

After we finished, the boys all went into the stadium and watched the Mighty Oaks match. I wasn’t able to watch the boys in the stands, but Coach Art was and he mentioned later that day it was a good match and he got the idea it really gave the boys an idea of what needs to happen. They were able to see the lessons they learned playing touch happening on the pitch by the men’s teams playing.

WILD OAKS (middle school girls) – Coach Rau

Wow. What a wild day of rugby for the Middle school girls’ team of Chico.

The Wild Oaks made the trek to Livermore this Saturday to play what we thought was going to be 3 maybe 4 games of 7s rugby but because Land Park showed with only 4 girls, we played our scheduled games and theirs. That gave us 7 total games with 13 girls.

The girls stepped up to the challenge and played some awesome rugby with everyone getting their share of play time. At the end of the day, the 3 wins and 4 loss record could not justify how tough they played, especially against the more experienced teams of Sac Pal (2 teams) and Lamorinda.

Great way to start what I see is going to be a fun productive season.

Injury Report: lots of bumps and bruises. Some turf burns from the playing surface but all is good.

*** SIDE NOTE – It’s been said that the picture you see of Coach Rau sitting, was the ONLY 5 minutes he sat all day! We are super excited to have him leading our Girls program!!! Thanks Coach. 

KNOTTY OAKS (women’s club) – Coach Cheese
On a beautiful, sunny Saturday  in Sparks, Nevada our own Knotty Oaks traveled to join Reno’s Battle Born Babes, to form the Knotty Babes. They took on a combined effort of the EPA Razorbacks and Fresno Golden Dogs.
 For 80 minutes an immense battle between two teams occurred. In the opening minutes EPA broke the defensive line and scored a quick try against Reno. On the insuing possession the suffocating defense of Reno and Chico forced a turnover that the Knotty Babes quickly turned into a try. For the next 10 minutes it was a back and forth effort to gain an upper hand between both teams. At the 20th minute the score was 14-12 with EPA on top. Unfortunately EPA and Fresno were just too much for the Knotty Babes to contain. Some unforced errors and some bad luck doomed the Knotty Babes at the end of the day.
The social was held at Packs and Pints in Sparks, Nevada. The Knotty Babes dominated the infamous “Marrying Kind” song and the many others that were sung. The boat race was also won by the Knotty Babes by a large margin. All in all it was great day for the Knotty Oaks and Battle Born Babes. This week the Knotty Babes travel to San Jose to take on the Seahawks.
Cheers and good luck to the Knotty Babes this weekend.

Addendum: The coaches of the Knotty Oaks are still undefeated in beer pong now in multiple states.

MIGHTY OAKS (men’s club) – by the Touch Judge

Beautiful weather welcomed the Berkley’s men’s club to Chico! The Mighty Oaks decided to play in the stadium on the weekend and a good crowd showed up to take in the match.

The game kicked off a bit late and was very evenly played for the first 20 minutes. The game was tied 7-7 before the visitors got some momentum and put in 3 more tries before half. That put the score 26-7 at the half.

Chico roared back in the second half scoring 3 tries of their own and converting 2 of them to Berkley’s 1 unconverted try. That made the score 31-26.


The Mighty Oaks kept playing hard the whole match. Following a missed penalty kick by Berkley, the Oaks were able gain possession of the ball. Rucking well, they drove the ball inside their opponents 22 but couldn’t find the try zone.

The final was Berkley 31 Chico 26. Great game to watch. The boys played very physical rugby hitting hard and running at pace. This is the first match I’ve got to watch this season, but from what I’ve heard they have improved each week! With this extremely young team, many Black Oak alumni over the past 4-5 years, I’m for one, very excited about the future of the Mighty Oaks!!

All teams are back in action the week of February 26th, which includes the White, Gray and Red Oaks all playing at PV on Saturday. More info to come later in the week.

Cheers,

Mitch Jagoe

Saturday’s a Rugby Day – 2/5/2022

We are excited to announce we will be providing weekly updates through the Chico Rugby season of how the teams fared on the past weekend. These will be written straight from the coaches of each team. These updates will be posted from youngest ruggers to oldest.

For those of you who don’t know, the Chico Oaks Rugby program will be fielding the following sides:

White Oaks (U-10), Gray Oaks (U-12), Red Oaks (middle school boys), Wild Oaks (middle school girls), Knotty Oaks (women’s club) and the Mighty Oaks (men’s club).

First up this week is Coach Ernie of the White Oaks:

I can say is that our team played in two intensive matches on Saturday. The games would go back and forth with neither team backing down. We were trying to establish a pattern of play, which was difficult to do against a tough opponent. Then the players switched to plan B, which was just to play Rugby, and they did. Our best half of the day was against the Sacramento club, Kellen and Kannon were able to find space and score. At the end of the day, we learned a valuable lesson in intensity. Moving forward, we’ll continue to work on the basics, such as tackling low, rucking, running low against the defenders, support ball carrier, and posting up on defense.  

Coach Ivan of the Gray Oaks

This weekend the Gray Oaks along with the some Wild Oak players, played an amazing game against Sac Pal.  No matter how much they were being beaten up on they stuck in there and ended up with their first win of the season.  During the game they never gave up and their heart showed in the way they played.  

Coach Mitch of the Red Oaks

The middle school boys are still searching for enough players to put out a full 15 against an opponent. We’ve been hit with the injury bug, but still adding players each week! Please pass it along.

On the pitch, the boys took on Sac Pal and Granite Bay from the Sacramento area. Both teams are well coached and hard running team. One goal was to try and establish a pattern of play as well and did a decent job in the beginning. As the match progressed, the boys got fairly tired and were not able to maintain ball long enough to work on our pattern. They did do a much better job on defense as they were lining up at last foot and launching at the “balls out” call. However we still need to work on overload recognition and spreading the field. The boys continued to play with heart and never quit! They are pretty inspiring to watch play! The coaching staff is very proud of these young men and look forward to getting them back out to practice this week and on the pitch this weekend!

Black Oaks by Coach Bill

The Chico Black Oaks High School Rugby Club took the pitch for the first time in two years at Gridley High School Saturday. The afternoon sun was warm on the grass, but the surface wasn’t too hard nor too soft. It was indeed a perfect Saturday for rugby! The format for the day was a scrimmage consisting of three twenty-minute periods. Chico supplied 16 players for the day, several of whom have never played and one who had never even been to practice. Nevertheless, the Chico side kicked the game off and went to work, the veterans supporting the team for most of the action.

Gridley made the first strike at Chico’s try zone in the early minutes of the first period, capitalizing on some of the uncertainty in the more inexperienced Chico players. Chico had good structure in the defense and intensity in the game and did improve as the game progressed with an eventual try in the second period off a lineout about ten meters out. The throw was called to the back of the line allowing the loosies to utilize the hammer to maul a few meters closer to the try line culminating in a deuce play to Nate who closed the deal with the strike across the line near the corner! The drop goal, however impressive; was unsuccessful, and so Chico settled for five.

Alas, that would be Chico’s only points on the day, with the Gridley numbers continuing to capitalize on the inexperienced Chico club. Gridley scored several more tries and clearly dominated the board; however, Chico (in this coach’s humble opinion), was clearly playing at a more advanced level with several plays in the back line and especially the forward pack. Coach Alex Triantafillou added play which was an up and over kick from center over the defense which resulted in considerable gain in field position, but Chico weren’t able to refine the play in time to get more points on the board. The final was 35-5 Gridley.

Overall Gridley with clearly more time on the pitch and numbers over Chico, had some very capable and strong runners who knew how to run and challenge inexperienced tacklers were dominant. Chico did show extraordinary promise with their ability to execute plays in the backline and in the pack. Chico won their share of lineouts and were crafty in many of the breakdowns. With a little more practice time under their belts the Chico Club promise to be formidable competition this upcoming season.

Mighty Oaks write up by President Pedro

On a beautiful 65-degree day in February, the Mighty Oaks traveled to San Jose, Ca. to take on the Silicon Valley Old Boys. The match started with the Mighty Oaks receiving the ball, but it was apparent early on that the Mighty Oaks would need all 20 of their players after losing Gabriel Galvan-Magana to what appeared to be a shoulder injury. After an exchange of runs, tackles, and kicks, the pressure of Silicon Valley broke the 0-0 tie in the twentieth minute with a try and a kick conversion to take a  7-0 lead. Silicone Valley would extend their lead in the twenty-seventh minute behind some unforced errors of the Mighty Oaks as well as some strong running by Silicone Valley to take a 14-0 lead. In the thirty-forth minute, the injury bug bit the Mighty Oaks again, losing Elijah Davis to an ankle injury. Silicon Valley would take advantage of the injury and cross the try line again in the thirty-sixth minute, extending their lead to 19-0. They would take this lead into the half. In the second half, both teams came out ready, and it showed, as both teams were able to stop some heavy pressure for their opponent. In the twenty-seventh minute into the second half, the force of Silicone Valley was finally able to break a branch of the Mighty Oaks defense to take a 26-0 advantage. The game’s final try was added in the seventy-fifth minute by Silicone Valley to give the game its final score of 33-0.

Overall the Mighty Oaks can take pride in their performance. They never gave up, even in the face of great adversity. They continued to put pressure on the defense of Silicon Valley and forced Silicon Valley to earn every meter gained. The Mighty Oaks will return to the drawing board this week at practice Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9 pm at Pleasant Valley High School. They will take their new lessons learned to Colusa for their second match on February 12.

Stay tuned later in the week for this Saturday’s schedule of match ups and where the teams are playing!

Cheers,

Coach Mitch

This Week in Chico Rugby

The youth rugby clinic on Saturday was a huge success!!! The final numbers on the day were 21 returning ruggers and 48 new participants to the sport or club! That is SUPER AWESOME! We are very excited!

I want to thank all the families who took the time to give it a shot and get their kids out there. So far I’ve only heard super positive reactions and a ton of the new players that plan on joining the club! Also, I want to thank all the coaches and volunteers from the Mighty Oaks Men’s club as well as the Knotty Oaks Women’s club that assisted and made the clinic a huge success!!

With that said, we start practice this week, and can’t wait to see all the new faces and all the returners that couldn’t make it out this past weekend!

Here is the news and update for this week:

PRACTICE SCHEDULE – Wednesday and Thursday 3:30-5:00pm. (this will be the seasons practice schedule moving forward for the whole season, unless otherwise notified)

LOCATION – E 20th St Park. – we will be located at the north end of the park, just past the tennis courts. (please note, our back up field in case of rain or field conditions is always Bidwell Jr. High School)

WHAT TO BRING – please be sure to have your rugger wear their boots – AKA cleats. It will make practice much better for them. Also, have your rugger start getting in the habit of bringing their mouth pieces. While there will NOT be contact until the kids get registered and, more important, the coaches feel they are ready, it’s a good habit to get in to.

AGE GROUPS/TEAMS BEGINNING PRACTICE THIS WEEK – White Oaks (U-10), Gray Oaks (U-12), Red Oak Boys (middle school boys) and Wild Oaks Middle School Girls.

BLACK OAK BOYS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM – we are not scheduling “official” practices until January. However, if there is enough interest from the players, we would love to get them out to play “touch” and start getting their legs underneath them and ball in hand. FAVOR – please ask your rugger if they would be interested in beginning to play touch? It would be a great opportunity to get all the new people out to start getting an understanding of the laws as well. Please email me back with their response so we can plan. I look forward to hearing back from you all by Wednesday of this week!

REGISTRATION – I should be getting the registration link in the next day or two, so be on the lookout for that.

MATCH SCHEDULE – As I mentioned to those who attended Saturday, the first match for the White, Gray and Red Oaks will be on Saturday January the 15th. I’m unsure of where we will be playing at on that day.

PARK CLEANUP – Also as mentioned Saturday, we are trying to secure a parks clean up on Saturday January 8th. More info to come as we hear back!

RECRUITING – we are always looking for new players! Please reach out to your friends and pass the word!

I think that’s it for now. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out anytime!

Cheers,

Mitch Jagoe

530-521-5488

CHICO RUGBY IS BACK!

It’s been a long road, since we were shut down in March of 2020!
Here is a quick update on where we’ve been, and where we are going!
MIGHTY OAKS
At the time of the shutdown, the Chico Mighty Oaks were on track for another successful playoff run. Going into that season they knew they had a few guys on the verge of making some life altering decisions, whether that was moving away, retiring from play, taking other rugby opportunities such as coaching or whatever! To those, we thank them for their commitment to the Oaks program and remind them they are ALWAYS welcome!
The new regime of the Mighty Oaks are young and hungry. I’m proud to say that many of the current players are Black Oak (high school boys) alumni!
The Mighty Oaks kick off their season THIS SATURDAY in the 25th Annual Holiday Classic Rugby Tournament at Pleasant Valley High School. This is a full day of rugby, both men’s and women’s teams to play! The tournament is scheduled to kick-off the first round at 10:00am!
KNOTTY OAKS
WHO? Exactly! For the first time in a long time Chico Rugby will be fielding a women’s club team! We are so excited for this to happen!!! There are quite a few people to thank for the beginning stages of the organization of the club, but a HUGE thank you goes out to Billy Luden and Tim Bushard (Coach Cheese) for taking on the coaching duties of these amazing ladies! While the Black Oak boys high school team (and ME even more so) are going to miss their coaching and personalities out there, it’s incredibly important to provide the women the coaching and fundamentals they deserve.
The Naughty Oaks will be taking the field for the first time this weekend as well, participating in the Holiday Classic! Good luck ladies! We are all super excited to watch you guys progress in the game!
CSU WILDCAT WOMEN
Over the course of the past 20 months this incredibly successful women’s program took a huge hit, as their founding AND ONLY coaches in their existence, Alex and Mary Triantafyllou, decided to step away as the head coaching team. Alex and Mary have given countless hours to not only the women’s team but to rugby in Chico as a whole. Outside of their women’s coaching activities, Mary has organized a ton of fundraisers for all programs in the Chico Rugby Foundation! Alex has been instrumental in the creation and continued success of the Chico Oaks Rugby Football Club youth and continues to do so today.
In their “retirement”, Alex and Mary are continuing to be involved with multiple duties such as coaching their son Jonah on the boys Black Oaks high school team, to helping mentor the new coaches on the women’s side and admin work with the youth program!
The number of young adult lives that Alex and Mary have helped form over the years is incredible!! We, the Chico Rugby Foundation and rugby community of Chico, couldn’t be more thankful for what they have accomplished and proud of the fact they are still active members! THANK YOU, ALEX AND MARY T!
So enough of that! Out with the old and in with the new! HAHA!
We are so excited to introduce the new coaches for the Women’s Wildcat team! Robin Cranston and Stacy Espinoza are both Chico State Women’s Rugby Alumni and had the pleasure of playing for Alex and Mary. We can’t wait to see the mark they leave on this group of young women!
While the season is brand new, we are being told this group is very young and athletic. We are looking for great things out of these ladies!
OAKS YOUTH PROGRAM
BLACK OAKS HIGH SCHOOL RUGBY

It’s hard to believe that this will be the TENTH season of the Chico Oaks Rugby Football Club Youth!! So many thanks “you’ s” to be put out there! We are going to plan a “homecoming” of sort for the spring, so keep your eyes and ears open for that!
Much like the Mighty Oaks when the world shut down, the Black Oaks were on a roll! The roster included 19 of 31 seniors and the teams was 4-0 with an average match score of 54-8! With the 2019 season ending in a last-minute defeat for the Rugby NorCal Championship, we were on track to win it all! Then, well, it’s over! To those boys, from your coaching staff, thank you for the years you put in. You will ALWAYS be champions to us!
RED OAKS MIDDLE SCHOOL BOYS
The Red Oak boys (middle school) team’s season never got to finish because the end of the year tourney was cancelled. I’ll tell you though, this group progressed more and quicker than any we’ve had. They were playing such good rugby! It was a shame to have lost that last weekend!
Most of these ruggers are in high school now and we are looking forward to seeing them wear the jerseys of the Black Oaks this winter!
RED OAKS MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS
Much like the Naughty Oaks above, the 2019/2020 season saw the first “true” middle school girls’ team! The beauty of this, is most of these young ladies were super young then and are now in 8th grade and ready to hit the pitch running!! We are so excited to see these players on the pitch, we simply can’t get there fast enough!!!!!
WHITE AND GRAY OAKS (U-10 and U-12 co-ed teams)
The White and Gray Oaks were able to finish their season and had a great time! Both groups had a ton of “newbies” and a great time playing under the coaches they had out! We can’t wait to see the physical and mental growth these ruggers have had since we last saw them!
UP NEXT
Here’s a list of upcoming important dates:
Saturday November 20th – Chico Rugby Holiday Classic – Pleasant Valley High School 10-5pm
Saturday December 4th – Chico Rugby Youth Clinic – Pleasant Valley High School 8:30-11:00am
Tuesday December 7th – Chico Oaks Rugby Football Club – start practicing. More info TBA
CONTACT US – For more info on the programs available please go to the website and look up in the “CONTACT UStab for the club info!
With the 2021/2022 season upon us, we are super excited to get back on the pitch! Thank you all for your support over the past 20 months or so!
See you on the pitch!

2019 Chico Rugby Alumni Weekend

Save the date for the annual Chico Rugby Alumni weekend. This years date will be October 11 – 13 2019 and is less than 30 days away! The match will be FREE to all participants and spectators. If you want to take part in the Friday night warm up or the post match social, please take a moment to Signup  

If you are unable to attend in person this year, show your support by donating and by forwarding this newsletter on to friends and family of Chico Rugby.

Questions and feedback are always welcome. Feel free to email us contact@chicorugby.org.

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Notice of Non-Affiliation and Disclaimer

We are not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with the California State Universtiy, Chico, or any of its subsidiaries or its affiliates. The official California State Universtiy, Chico website can be found at https://www.csuchico.edu/

The names Chico State and California State University, Chico as well as related names, marks, emblems and images are registered trademarks of their respective owners.