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| May 9, 1998 SPRING - ISSUE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Message from the Secretary First of all, let me tip my hat to Judy for all of her work to date. Many of you do not realize how hard she worked to make this sport grow. THANKS Judy! PLEASE share this newsletter with your team!!! Team representatives are the only people that receive this via US Mail. If you will also forward updated address changes and e-mail information for you and your teammates to my office it will help at the start of the season and save money on mailings. E-mail will be an efficient means of communicating. My e-mail address is supersports@mindspring.com and I check it often. My phone number is (205) 868-2281 and fax number is (205) 868-2283. I encourage each team to find a representative with e-mail access on their team. many free e-mail accounts are available through hotmail, yahoo, juno, etc. Lastly, We all need to actively assist new rugby teams. Developmental tournaments and clinics by experienced teams can go a long way into getting teams started. There are currently 38 teams in the league, let's get more involved locally! Thanks to Our Sponsors! The USQRA Executive Committee would like to give Special Thanks to the following people and companies for their participation as sponsors in the 1998 post-season tournaments. As a result of their involvement the hosts of Regionals, Sectionals and Nationals all received more financial support than ever before to help cover expenses.
The USQRA will work to continue our relationships with these fine people well into the future. We encourage you to patronize the sponsors and to let them know that YOU appreciate their continued participation in the sport. Thanks also go out to all of the post season tournament directors and their teams. You did a great job! USQRA Post Season Top-20 - as of April 15, 1998
USQRA Awards Presented The USQRA presented its 1998 Athlete of the Year and Spirit of Achievement awards at Nationals in Salt Lake City. These prestigious awards are given annually for outstanding athleticism in rugby, and for making unselfish contributions of time and effort to help advance the sport. Eddie Crouch (0.5) of the Tennessee QuadCrushers, was named USQRA Athlete of the Year much to his surprise. As Eddies bio was read aloud he sat at his table sorting through names of who it could possibly be. When his name was called he was dumbfounded and quickly realized that his family had come out to Utah for more than just rugby. Congratulations Eddie and best wishes at World Championships in June. Out-going Secretary, Judy Pfiester was surprised to find that she was being given the Spirit of Achievement award. Judy has tirelessly served our association for many years in more ways than one can imagine. Her involvement went far beyond the Secretaries desk and has helped to set the standards that others will strive to follow for years to come. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication Judy. You will be missed! We all wish you the best in your life away from rugby. 1998 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MINUTES Call to Order :The meeting was called to order at 9:21 AM by the President Edward Suhr.
11 teams were represented at the start of the meeting four additional teams joined during the meeting, eight proxy votes had been submitted.
Motion to accept Minutes was made by Kevin Orr, Seconded by Lynn Nelson. Motion passed. The 1997-98 rugby season has been busy and exciting. The summer started with tryouts for the ’97 Stoke Mandeville team. The tryouts were held in Denver, Colorado and limited to players who had not played at World Championships. The camp was extremely competitive and a strong team was picked. I would like to thank Brad Mikkelsen for hosting the camp and Judy Pfiester for organizing things. Unfortunately, the tournament in Stoke fell through. It took some quick research and a few telephone calls by Judy to find a new goal for the team, the Australian National Tournament. The team played extremely well and won the tournament by defeating the Australian champion, South Australia, in the final. The team made a stop in New Zealand on the way home to get in some more rugby and a little touring. This stop also included a solid victory over the New Zealand National Team. I was very proud of the way the team represented the US both on and off the court. They were fine ambassadors for our organization. I am very grateful for the job done by the staff of Wendy Gumbert, Teresa Skinner, Steve Wagner and Kim Sarat. The USQRA/PVA clinics continue to spread rugby knowledge to new areas. Phoenix, Arizona hosted the first full advanced clinic that was held in October. During the weekend, the groundwork was laid for an advanced coaching manual. The manual is currently being refined. I would like to thank PVA and Top End for their continued support of the clinics. Any team who would like to host a clinic should let us know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly. We are also working with Wheelchair Sports, USA’s Coach Education Committee to develop a coaching clinic curriculum. These clinics will help develop rugby coaches so that they will be able to organize, plan and implement coaching strategies and techniques more effectively. I think this will be a great plus for many teams around the country. The organization’s fundraising efforts have been more successful this year, thanks to the leadership of John Bishop. He started the USQRA raffle and improved our sponsorship package to solicit sponsors. Due to this success, we have been able to provide more financial support to tournament hosts. We are hoping to improve on this progress next year so that we can make it easier to host tournaments. Two members of the Executive Board are stepping down this year. Teresa Skinner has served as Vice President for two years. I would like to thank her for all her efforts during that time. Judy Pfiester is also ending her time on the Board. Judy has been doing the job of Secretary since 1993. During this time, she has been a major factor in shaping this organization. She has committed a tremendous amount of time and effort and her list of accomplishments is incredible. We all owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. Her energy and enthusiasm will be sorely missed. The USQRA and I would like to thank Judy for all she has done for the last several years. Thank you to Art Berg and Utah Extreme for hosting Nationals this year. Thank you to PVA for their continued support of the Nationals and the Clinics. I would like to introduce Reed Weir who is representing the PVA. Tournament Sponsors are essential to the running of Nationals each year. I would like to thank Quickie, a Gold Medal Sponsor, Sportaid and Colours as Silver Medal Sponsors and Eagle Sportschairs, TopEnd by Action and ALLNight Wheelchairs who are Bronze Sponsors for this event. The amount of sponsorship has increased this year thanks to John Bishop and all his hard work. I would also like to recognize the incredible work John has done with our website. Teresa Skinner is stepping down from the position of vice-president (but she won’t be going far )and we would like to thank her for all her hard work as an executive board member . We would also like to extend a special thanks to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation for sponsoring our conference calls, this has alleviated a large financial burden from the organization. This year we only required one Regional Tournament that was hosted by Boston. Seattle also held a tournament to get teams ready for Sectionals. St Louis, a new team, hosted Sectionals along with Spokane, Alabama and New York. Only two teams dropped out during post season play. They were Wright State and Connecticut. Thank you to all the people who worked on the committees this year: the Executive Committee, the Officials Committee, the Classifiers Committee, the Technical Committee (so much work was done last year that only a few problems needed to be addressed this year), the Transfer Committee (The product of their efforts will be presented during Constitution and Bylaw changes), Fundraising Committee (headed up by John Bishop, great job), and the Hall of Fame Committee(Allen Seals did a good job getting this committee set up). Congratulations to the selection of the USA team going to World Championships. Reggie Richner coaches this team with Ed Suhr and Wendy Gumbert as Assistant Coaches. Congratulations to Terry Vinyard who was elected as Development Commissioner of the IWRF and Tres Smith who was elected as the Technical Commissioner of the IWRF. These positions are important for US involvement with International Rugby. Thank you to PVA and TopEnd for sponsoring clinics again this year. Clinics were held in Hattiesburg Mississippi, Indianapolis and an advanced clinic in Phoenix. Thank you to Ed Suhr, Wendy Gumbert, Reggie Richner and Terry Vinyard for completing much of the work on an advanced coach's manual. We are scheduling another advanced clinic, probably in Las Vegas. Look for some additional information. Work was also started on a coaches training program in cooperation with WSUSA and their Coach Education Committee. Team registration has dropped from 44 to 38 this year. Players decreased from 550 to 431. This may be attributed to cleaning up of rosters with only active players being listed. We still need to work on increasing participation. 81 players are PVA members. There are 117 coaches and support staff that are members along with 58 referees and 22 classifiers. The teams that dropped out were Quadzilla, Eugene, Long Beach, New Orleans, Dallas and Las Vegas. Half way through the season we lost Sarasota, South Florida, Washington DC, Wichita, Wright State and Connecticut. Comment: We did classify 86 new athletes this year so new players are getting involved. Each team should actively recruit more players. Transfers were a big issue this year , both player transfers and team transfers. We have recommended some bylaw changes that would address concerns. Plans for next year: Increase the number of players: Wendy Gumbert motion to accept the budget seconded Eddie Crouch. Motion passed The region sponsored one tournament, Beast of East, which included a classification panel. There is a lack of interest in this region and a lot of frustration due to the transfers. Teams are shrinking in size; no new players are coming on board. EPVA is working on a recruitment program to increase the number of players this will include televised public service announcements. A PVA clinic in the Northeast would help to develop new players. Teams in the region need a boost. South Florida and Sarasota (they did not have money to travel to NY) pulled out of post season play. North Carolina did a small local clinic to increase their rugby knowledge. The Florida Quad Rugby League was formed to increase local play in that region. The Roosevelt institute in Atlanta held a mini camp to help prepare Tennessee, Atlanta and Birmingham for Nationals. The Tournaments this year were Shepherd Showdown, Conveen Invitational and Valdosta Cup. Tres Smith was active this year and held Referee Clinics and Terry Vinyard was involved Internationally doing training. Both Tres and Terry have been elected to positions on the IWRF board. In 1998, Roosevelt Warm Springs Georgia would like to hold a clinic and a training camp. Competitions this year included Pittsburgh, Wright State and many local competitions. Ohio and Michigan want Rugby competition at their state games. St. Louis hosted Sectionals and did a great job. The local teams of St. Louis and Ohio are improving and getting stronger. Michigan is provisional this year and will join as a full member next year. Indianapolis is working to start a team. Goals would include: Identifying a location to host a clinic, Possibly developing a local league using Vito Lucido as a source, promoting game to get new players interested in participating. San Antonio, Houston and Alabama are thriving teams with a large number of players. New Orleans and Dallas are interested in participating again next year but need to do some fundraising. Austin is interested in starting a team. Alabama and Houston will probably be starting developmental teams next year. I recommend that we get more tournaments at a developmental level for new players to get more experience, This approach may help to recruit players. Recommend to Dallas that they request a clinic to help them get new players. This region is doing pretty well and has moved forward. An advanced coach's clinic was hosted in Phoenix which had thirty five participants from all over. Phoenix teams have hosted two other tournaments and a lot of new players have improved their play. Denver hosted a tournament and Utah is hosting Nationals. Arizona University participated through Sectionals even though it was a struggle to stay involved. Every team increased the number of rostered players except Utah. Wichita moved to eastern part of the section but they dropped out because of lack of funds. Teams traveled to Alabama for Sectionals and benefited from this experience. This region needs to develop referees. We should encourage Albuquerque to host a clinic. Players in Las Vegas who want to play are looking for leadership. The number one problem is the level of coaching skill. We need to offer more training opportunities in this region. This region lost Eugene Oregon due to low membership and lack of interest. Quadzilla lost their funding and had several retirements so they combined with San Jose. Reno, Portland and Seattle hosted tournaments this year. The regional tournament was held in Seattle but two teams transferred out so all teams qualified for Sectionals. Spokane hosted Sectional and did a good job. Goals for 1998 are to continue to develop referees and keep classifiers active in this area.. We are planning on doing a clinic in Sacramento to start a new team. We need to encourage the Bay Area to be more active again by hosting tournaments, developing players, and encouraging participation. The number of teams decreased from six to five with the loss of Long Beach. Many teams are all within 150 miles of each other and many players move from team to team each year. New Players were also picked up this year. There was no regional because two teams transferred out. Shadow hosted a one day tournament and Casa hosted two two-day tournaments. Team’s interplay was decreased this year due to the increased participation of Shadow and Casa in the larger tournaments. The Summer Blast will be held again this year. Best of the West tournament will be moved back to later in November. Shadow may host Nationals next year. They are trying to secure a gym. The Riverside area would like to host a clinic to develop players. The Wheelchair Specification Committee includes Wayne Romero, Brad Mikkelsen and Dan McCauley. The primary goal for the past season was to improve communications with wheelchair manufacturers. A meeting was held in Spokane with the wheelchair manufacturers after last year’s AGM. The current wheelchair specifications and the procedure for submitting innovative changes were reviewed. Wheelchair manufacturers gave their input about the procedures but both the Wheelchair Specification Committee and the Wheelchair Manufacturers agreed that it is ultimately the player’s responsibility to ensure that their chair meets the wheelchair specifications. In the 1997-98 season we had very few Wheelchair Specification controversies because of the work that had been done the year before. The goal for this coming season is to document and publish the specific interpretations the Wheelchair Specification Committee has made. This would be done similar to the drawings Wayne published on front ends. The Wheelchair Specification Committee would like to state it is against adopting the international rules carte blanche. We support any changes the general body wants but want to continue to set the standard for wheelchairs. Executive Committee of Officials has been working towards better organization and has met four times this year. They worked on developing a constitution, which will be sent to all referees in the US. A copy of the rules was sent to all referees by the USQRA. This allowed all referees to be current on the clarifications and improve consistency. There were clinics held in Phoenix Arizona, Dayton Ohio, and Montgomery Alabama. 40 officials have refereed 350 games this year. We are improving the consistency among referees. Three more officials were internationally certified for a total of nine officials certified in the US.. This summer there will be three officials representing the US at World Championships. Tres Smith will be there as the Technical Commissioner of the games A Classification page on the website was discussed at the Best of the West Tournament that would give PT’s, OT’s and MD’s some general information about our classification system and a way to contact someone in their area if they are interested in becoming a classifier. Players may also access it to familiarize themselves with the classification process. Hopefully, it will be able to answer some of their questions in regards to their class and the way classification works. Included on the site is a definition of the classification process, player classification, how to become a classifier, the current classification board of directors, regional contacts and upcoming events at which classification boards will be present. Sections for current issues and updated classification are also available. A document was sent to John Bishop in March. He has reformatted it to include pictures and to be more user friendly. This site will be updated with new information including: classification issues as they arise, all events at which there is a classification board and, if it is feasible, new classifications as they occur. We, as a committee, need to determine how the site will be updated. We would also like to include contact information and the level of participating classifiers. Fifty-seven players were given permanent classes, eight protests were handled and five players were made ineligible. Classification panels were only at eight tournaments, there was no classification at Sectionals. The Classification Committee is computerizing the database of all players. The target date for completion is Best of the West 1998. We would like to increase participation of classifiers by reinstating mandatory panels at Sectionals. The members asked if we could have classifiers identify the areas that will need classification panels so they can plan to request funding. It was also suggested that teams request tournament hosts to consider applying for a panel. In recognition of their commitment to classification, there are seven classifiers here at Nationals and only three are funded by the National Host. The other four found their own funding to travel. It was an exciting year in the USQRA. We ended the 1996-97 season adding some changes in our bylaws to establish the Hall of Fame. With the inclusion of a Hall of Fame, we voted to have our first inductees presented at our 10 year anniversary of the USQRA. With the inductees present, we will honor them with a plaque at this year’s National Banquet. As you will recall when we voted, there would be deadlines set up to include when nominations would be received. It sounded good in theory but has proven to be difficult for some of us, as several nominations were received after the December 31st deadline. Therefore I would like to open up the nominations to be received throughout the year. Any nominations received during the year before December 31st will be included on the ballot form the next year. Included in this letter is a copy of the nomination form, please fill it out for your nominees before the end of the year (1998) and return to me. We don’t want your nominee to miss out on a chance to become a member of the Hall. As for the voting process, it went much better than anticipated. After receiving the nominations, a ballot was composed and sent out to each voting member including a biography of each of the nominees. The voters filled out their ballots and returned them in a timely manner. The votes were tabulated and the results were sent back to the committee for approval. Many thanks goes out to the voting members in returning the ballots in a timely manner. And a special thank you to John Bishop who distributed the ballots and nomination forms for the committee. Future plans for the Hall of Fame include having duplicate plaques of the Hall of Fame inductees made, the voting structure will be updated to include the recipients as voting member, and I would like to start a collection of any memorabilia(chairs, jerseys, programs, pictures etc.) This is important to preserve our history. I would like to start this collection before these items are either lost or discarded. The items received will be stored until we have a suitable place to display anything that is received. A motion was made to accept the Motion passed (In doing so we accept the change of due dates). It was decided to examine the bylaw changes regarding transfers one section at a time. An executive decision was made that since the proxy votes were not voted on line item by line item and were voted on as a whole, we could not count these votes. Starting next year, all proxy votes will be prepared with the vote being made line item by line item. It was also recommended that we start having RAC meetings, as we did a few years ago, at the Regionals and Sectionals to discuss these issues with the teams present and clarify information that will be coming up for vote. Article II ROSTERS Section 3. Player Transfers
No motion to accept part A
Bob Ocvirk motioned to accept part B with the amendment change the wording to "USQRA Commissioner’s Office" Lynn Nelson seconded Motion passed
Eddie Crouch motioned to accept part C and Scott Davies seconded Motion passed Bob Ocvirk motioned to accept part C and Scott Davies seconded Motion passed Kevin Orr motioned to accept addition of part E seconded Bob Ocvirk Motion passed Rosters shall not contain players whose residence and/or place of employment are more than 150 miles from the team's home city unless:
Motion to accept Allen Seals second Eddie Crouch Discussion followed: The vote was postponed until after lunch to have open discussion on this topic. Following lunch we discussed either voting to accept section c or tabling the decision until next year so we can gather more information and we could clarify the intent and consequences of extending the 150 mile limit. The member ship voted to table the decision until next year by an 11 to 4 vote Motioned Tabled Lynn Nelson motioned to accept Joe Soares seconded Motion Passed ARTICLE VI Section 1
Eddie Crouch motioned to accept and Joe Soares seconded Motion passed ARTICLE VI Section. 2 CHANGE: the wording from " to less than 6 teams" to "6 teams or less" Lynn Nelson motioned to accept and Allen Seals seconded Motion Passed ARTICLE VI Section . 6 Options to transfer
Allen Seals motioned to accept Kevin Orr seconded Motion passed Rick Mason motioned to accept Allen Seals seconded Motion passed Wendy Gumbert motioned to accept Joe Soares seconded Discussion of how National Rankings are done, these are done by the Commissioner and the Executive Board by collecting information on head to head competition. Motion passed Bob Ockvirk motioned to accept Lynn Nelson second Motion passed Joe Soares motioned to accept Kevin Orr seconded Motion passed Rule Changes
USQRA wheel chair rules put the US team at a disadvantage in international competition. Dimensional differences in chair design (Cow Catcher) put international teams at an advantage, as well as interpretation of scoring planes, etc. The US National teams would be better situated if a common set of rules is used for both National and International competition. This rule change would be easier for players, referees and officials due to adherence to one common set of rules. Competition parity on an international level is essential to the fairness of all competitors, referees and officials. USQRA should adapt to international rules No Motion This is a proposal to adopt the international interpretation of the wheelchair as stated in Article 13 of the International Rules. This would allow for wider bumpers that are currently prohibited by the USQRA’s 1 cm rule. The rule change would insure that the US is not at a competitive disadvantage in international competition. It would also allow low point players to be more effective. This rule would also require players to have full spoke guards which would make the game safer . No Motion This rule will be for all Regionals, Sectionals, and National Championships competition. As part of the bid process for these events, shot clocks will be secured in addition to the requirements already used for tournament bids. Other Invitational Tournaments can use a 45-second clock at the discretion of the tournament director, but will not be mandatory. The Technical Commissioner shall be the clock operator, and be paid $10.00 per game as the clock operator. The clock starts when team control is established. A team is considered to be in
control when holding, dribbling, or passing a live ball. After gaining possession of a
live ball, the team has 45 seconds to score. Situations to reset: Penalties and Technical Fouls. When opponent secures control. Held ball, when the defensive team has the Alternating possession arrow. After made goal. Beginning of each quarter Situations not to reset: Defensive team touches the ball but does not gain control. Time out. Injury or loss of contact lens. Defensive team causes a held ball but does not have the alternating possession arrow. Penalty loss of possession Kevin Orr Motion to accept and seconded by Jerome Kleckley Discussion: Some members who attended the competition in Alabama thought that it made the game quicker and affected the clock management. Some members felt that the closeness of the scores was the same with or without the clock. Many members felt that it would make it very difficult for the lower ranked teams to progress since it took them quite some time to set up plays and the clock would work against them. Again the subject of two tier play came into the discussion. Stronger teams would benefit from the clock It was suggested that top teams request that a 45 second clock be used at competitions they attend if this can be done with minimum cost to hosts. There are companies who will send these clocks to you to use for the cost of shipping,. Perhaps the USQRA would look into purchasing two clocks to be shipped to tournaments to encourage teams to play with the 45-second rule. Motion failed
Change penalty to read; One (1) minute penalty. This penalty must be served for full minute, regardless if opponent scores or a penalty goal is awarded. Rick Mason motioned to accept seconded by Lynn Nelson Motion passed Wendy motioned to accept seconded by Alan Bailey Motion passed 10. Old Business
Wendy Gumbert motioned to accept Kevin Orr seconded Motion failed 11. New Business
Wendy Gumbert motioned to accept Joe Soares seconded Motion passed Seeding Guidelines would be redefined Rough suggestion to start people thinking: Open Division chosen by committee of coaches to qualify to go to designated tournaments and would be seeded. Any other team not in the top eight could challenge a team in the top eight. Two out of three games deciding winner. If the team that is challenged refuses than that is an automatic win. Any team that feels that they were overlooked can challenge for a position a cut off date would determine who participated in that division The remaining teams would compete to be invited to the twelve team Nationals. The eighth ranked team might want to compete in the other Nationals, that issue will also have to be addressed. Recommended that all those who have suggestions should come up to Brad, Kevin, Joe or Lynn during the weekend to share their ideas. Committee formed a proposal that will be sent out before next year, reminders in newsletter of changes that are being proposed. Vote would your team participate? Show of hands, none. Bob Ocvirk motioned to investigate this as a fund-raiser Eddie Crouch seconded. Motion failed Any team that pulls out after January 15th will have their membership revoked and be charged a $500 fine to reinstate their membership and privileges. (This would revoke their membership for WSUSA and insurance coverage until they are reinstated.) Wendy Gumbert motioned to accept Jerome Kleckley seconded Motion passed Interpretation: All players must have a USQRA or IWRF Classification Card to compete in post season play (Clarification of Beginning of Post Season Play): The date that defines post season play will be February 1 Wendy Gumbert motioned to accept and Sheehan Verner seconded Motion passed All players must participate in two games before the start of post season play (defined as February 1) except for extenuating circumstances, which may be brought before the Executive Board for consideration Jerome motioned to accept Scott Davies seconded Motion passed Swiss Wheelchair Rugby proposal to IWRF when a female player is on the floor that the point count should be 8.5. Membership was strongly against this proposal 12. Election of Officers was done by acclamation Motion passed 13. Bids for hosting Post Season Play NATIONALS - San Diego is attempting to secure a facility to host next year. SECTIONALS REGIONALS Everyone who has expressed an interest please start researching a gym and submit a bid as soon as possible. Meeting Adjourned at 4:45PM by Ed Suhr Respectfully Submitted, Judy Pfiester, Secretary USQRA |
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