Well I don't know the actual words that Pete Ireland and Jason Delauter used (to be honest with you the less I know the better!) but there was a dead pig at Al Goetz's house just in time for Frederick RFC's first Pig Roast. Most of us were blissfully unaware that the pig was not already cooked - working out hard at Airpax as part of FRFC's first official practice session. Coach Redmond was quite adamant that he believed in keeping practice sessions down to 90 minutes. Two hours later, we escaped. A few of us went to the Pub for a quick pint (Mike Stull was definitely not with us Katie - Oops! might owe you one Mike!!) before getting cleaned up and heading over to Al's. Jamie, Jon Hixon and Vince Santore took care of the beer - with the help of our friends at Evergreen Liquors. The scene was set for a great way to start off the Fall season. JT and family were on their blanket (didn't need a large one), Coach Redmond brought his girlfriend Tara-Lynn, trying to curb those rumors once and for all (even though he is a single male Interior Designer in his thirties?!?), Jay Bird was there, relaxed as ever, got to meet one of the new guys Jay Myles. Our constant companion through the Summer, Ref Kevin Frazer and his wife attended - thankfully Kevin is also a professional BBQ man so helped out with the Pig - thanks for coming and your help - Yappie!! We did very well - cleared $700:00 which goes into our account towards Union dues and operating costs. Thanks to all who attended or contributed money.

A special thanks to Al for supplying the venue.

Notes on Schedule:

Saturday September 6th

The MD Exiles match is now a HOME fixture, at Ft. Detrick, kick-off is 1:00pm. Two full matches. Then down to Olde Towne. The following afternoon (Sunday 7th) the PRU select sides will host Ontario at the MD Exiles home pitch. Try to go down to support our local Union All-stars (hopefully including some of Frederick's finest!!).

We will have a controlled scrimmage/ practice with the University of Maryland squad on Saturday August 30th. The kick-off will be at 11:00am, at the UMD pitch. This is Labor Day weekend so if you are in town please make sure that you make it. The format will be 4-6 20 min sessions, followed by some positional plays. This scrimmage will give us a good opportunity to run through moves, tighten up our scrum and possibly do a little recruiting for the future.

Thanks Jim and Laurel Ford

For those of you that had "better things to do" on Saturday 16th August, you missed a great training session run by Jim. The seven guys (that's pretty lame!) worked for about an hour and a half on 2 on 1's and 3 on 2's. The session culminated in 4 on 4 Rugby League scrimmages with Laurel playing to even up the numbers. Admittedly Laurel did score twice - I still can't believe she bought Tiny's dummy as he ran (possibly overstating things there) right past her!! Thanks Jim and Laurel for your enthusiasm and support!

Mike played an important part in our summer Sevens season. He also came up to the Atlantic Cup and played Full-Back in all our matches. I think we are all going to miss having him around this Fall - but Salisbury State should benefit from Scully's exposure to Div I and Div II Men's Rugby over the summer. Good luck to Salisbury as they attempt the threepeat as Div II Collegiate National Champions, and make sure you come back to Frederick RFC Mike!

Another of Salisbury's finest, Brad Marsh who played Sevens with Frederick last year and Fifteens since then has been given an offer too good to pass by. Brad will unfortunately be leaving the Club to return to Salisbury State as a Graduate Student. As Brad will be an assistant Rugby Coach, he will have his tuition fees waived and receive a stipend!! Good luck Brad, please stay in touch and send your players to Frederick!!

At long last, Frederick RFC and Coach John Redmond have actually produced and signed a contract for the Fall 1997 Season. Here is the contract for your information. If you have any feedback please get back with me. This is a contract between all of the Club and John Redmond.

The Fall 1997 Season begins as of Saturday August 9th 1997 and terminates on Saturday November 15th 1997. The Fall 1997 Season comprises two matches each Saturday which kick-off at 1:00pm and 2:30pm (unless otherwise stated) and two evening training sessions each Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00pm to 9:30pm (unless otherwise stated).

The Head Coach will attend all matches and practice sessions, unless listed in this contract under "Specified Absences". When absent a suitable replacement Coach will be provided to fulfill the Coaching role. Should the Head Coach be unavailable for practice, through illness or unforeseen circumstances, the Manager, Julian Reading, should be informed as early as possible and all reasonable efforts made to provide a substitute Coach.

1) Saturday August 16th - Attending National Sevens Tournament

2) Saturday August 23rd - Attending Coach Level II Accreditation Course.

The Head Coach shall run organized practice sessions and Coach both "A' and "B" matches from the side-line. The Head Coach will be involved in the "A" and "B"-side selection process. This will consist of a Selection Committee comprised of the Head Coach, the elected Captain (Tory Ireland) and one additional elected selector (to be elected - 1 season term).

The Head Coach may not be selected to play in an A-side Divisional or Matrix match, but will remain eligible for inclusion in an A-Tournament side, A-Social side, B-side or Old Boys side.

As a representative of Frederick Rugby Football Club, the Head Coach will act as a positive role model and do their best to promote Frederick Rugby and the sport of Rugby in general to the community.

In return for accepting the position of Head Coach of Frederick Rugby Football Club for the Fall 1997 Season the Head Coach will receive a stipend totaling $3000. This will be paid in $1000 amounts, one month in advance, on Saturday August 9th, Saturday September 13th and Saturday October 11th. These payments will be made in cash by the Manager.

I John Redmond accept the position of Head Coach with Frederick Rugby Football Club for The Fall 1997 Season and will abide by the conditions laid out in this contract.

Due to the lack of daylight, we will move practices to Ballinger Creek Park next Tuesday (9/2/97). We will work on Softball field #1, the lights are very good. We have sole rights to this field from 7:00pm to 9:30pm. At 9:30pm the lights have to be turned off to comply with neighborhood guidelines. We practiced out here last season. Here is how to get to the park:- Take I-270 to Rt-85 (Buckeystown Pike) South. At the first light turn right onto Crestwood Blvd. Take this road until it ends (2.5 miles) at a traffic light. Turn left onto Ballinger Pike. The park is on the right (about 1 mile). Turn into the park, take your first right to the Softball fields.

The second annual home and away Tournament between New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, The Tri-Nations, has just finished. Once again, the Kiwi's take the trophy. July 19th's match between NZ and SA was pivotal. SA coming off the series loss to the Lions (Sorry Kev F - had to get that in) came out firing and went up by 15. NZ worked their way back and finished on top 35:32. Here are the scores:-

July 19th New Zealand: 35

South Africa: 32

July 26th New Zealand: 33

Australia: 18

Aug 2nd Australia: 32

South Africa: 20

Aug 9th New Zealand: 33

South Africa: 26

Aug 16th New Zealand: 36

Australia: 24

Aug 23rd South Africa: 61

Australia: 22

You can watch (and record) the last NZ v SA Tri-Nations rugby match this Friday.

1: Coach $2,000:00

2: Union Dues $500:00

3: Parties (5@ $100) $500:00

1: Checking A/C Bal. $1,000:00

2: Pig Roast $700:00

3: Transfer fr. Sav A/C $500:00

This money must be generated from Player Dues and Sponsorship. It would only take 18 players paying their dues to settle all of our season's costs. Please pay your dues as early as you can.

In addition to the running costs, Frederick has Cable 10 film all home matches. This season we have 4 home matches (MD Exiles will not be covered). Each match costs $450:00, so we also need to generate 4x$450:00 ($1,800:00) for this coverage. Ed Shafer works very hard to get commercial sponsors to cover this for the Club. If you can help out contact Ed.

Tommy Angel and Dave Gentzel were selected to play in the Potomac Rugby Union (PRU) All-Star side. The Frederick boys were part of two lop-sided victories for the PRU. In the first match, the PRU beat the Eastern Penn. Rugby Union (EPRU) 77:0. In the second, the PRU beat the Virginia Rugby Union (VRU) 55:5. Dave got on the scoreboard with a try, Tommy just missed out, but did a lot of clearing off rucks.

Frederick placed third in the Atlantic Cup Tournament hosted by the Delaware Rugby Club this weekend. The levels of fitness, commitment and teamwork were something to behold. For this stage in our preseason, Coach Redmond was very pleasantly surprised. The fields were sand, sparsely covered with black dirt and a scraggly kind of grass that disappeared over the weekend, but the weather was perfect, around 85 F with a cool sea breeze. Frederick started off strong, a 12:00 noon match against PAC "B" was a bruising contest full of heart and thumping tackles in defense. Early on, a maul in the PAC 22m set up by a rampaging English John, led to points as the other Englishman stole the ball for a try. Eric K chased a ball down just before the half and appeared to ground it in the PAC try zone, but the score was disallowed, 5:0 at the half. The match was sealed late in the second half by Kenny converting his own try, set up with some great passing between Jason, Dave and Kenny. Final 12:0 Frederick: Forwards. Montana (borrowed Prop), Tool, Hixon, Tom, Jeff, Eng John (MD Exiles Jeff on at half), Larry, Julian. Backs. Eric K., Kenny, Dave, JB, Boos (Jason), Vince B (Rabbi) Mike Stull.

The next game matched FRFC against a small but mobile Bethlehem squad. The game got off to a cracking start, Kenny's kick off was fielded by Bethlehem, their clearance kick was charged down by Jeff Lutton, Jamie scooped up the ball and was over for the try (ask Kelly to walk you through her man's big moment!!). The Frederick pack dominated the scrums, leading to a beautiful push-over try (#8's love taking credit for those ones!!). A key to our win in this match was the sheer aggression of our backs in defense, they came up hard all match. Dave had 3 interception chances, Kenny also had one and Jason took his and ran it in for the third FRFC try. Kenny rounded out the scoring with a final try and conversion. Kenny was not to be shut out all weekend, scoring at least a try a match and accounting for 30 of the Frederick 60 points scored over the weekend, not too shabby!! Final FRFC 22:0. Forwards. Jeff (borrowed Prop), Mike StC, Web, Tom, Jeff, Jamie(Eng John on at half), Rabbi, Julian. Backs. JB, Kenny, Dave, JB, Eric K, Jason, Boos, Mike Stull. Saturday night was spent either fishing then drinking, eating then drinking or just drinking. Young Mike Stull hit the sack around 9:30pm, luckily Kenny, Dave and Vinnie Baker lived our lives for us staying out until 3:00am!! Larry and Al amused the Dewey Police, but all got to bed safely. Sunday morning arrived too early and we found out that Delaware Rugby are completely mad. We were scheduled to play 3 matches! The first at 10:00am was against Western Suburbs. Once again defense and commitment were outstanding. Tool nearly got a try inside 5 minutes then on a second run got over the line. A beautiful Viking move on our 22m released Dave for a sprint down the side-lines and another try converted by Kenny. Maintaining his record Kenny got the last try and conversion, 19:0 at the half. The second half was 22 minutes of goal-line stance. Suburbs tried their best but could not break the green line. 19:0 to FRFC at full time. Forwards. Web (Jeff-borrowed Prop), Tool (Boos), Hixon (Doug), Tom, Jeff, Jason (MD Exiles), Larry, Julian. Backs. Eric K, Kenny, Dave, JB, Jason, Rabbi, Mike Stull. Next came Brandywine in the semi-final. Brandywine looked strong and that they were. Toughness and heart kept the score 0:0 at the half. Then a couple of mistakes, due to the fact that the team was physically drained let Brandywine in, 15:0, with 30 seconds to go. We were awarded a penalty, 2m from our try line. Kenny prepared to kick to touch, the ref looked at him, shook his head (no time). Kenny taps and goes, I receive the pass, get a nice neck tackle, FRFC gets another penalty. From nowhere Frederick pulled the energy to sustain the pressure and retain possession, culminating in a try for Kenny, which he converted. Final score 7:15, a painful but gutsy loss. Forwards. Web (Jeff-borrowed Prop), Tool, Hixon (Doug), Tom, Jeff, Jason (MD Exiles), Jamie, Julian. Backs. Eric K, Kenny, Dave, Boos (Eric A), Jason, Rabbi, Mike Stull. With no energy left and a broken finger for Vinnie Baker, a broken thumb for Tiny, and strained stomach muscles (from putting on his shoes!!) for JB, the thought of a 3rd/4th place play-off did not appeal. Coach Redmond had seen enough and it was decided that we would forfeit the match. However, the other semi-final loser New York "B" had the same reaction and beat John to the organizers!! Hence FRFC picked up a win without playing the 5th match and a huge 3rd place trophy to boot!! Well done everyone great start to our Fall!! I just wanted to add thanks to the players that came down just for the Saturday, the guest players we picked up and for our supporters, Al, Pete Ireland and Linda, Jim and Laurel, Sharon, Sally, Stacey & Bri, Julie, Kelly, Kara, Kathy and of course Chet. Vince D and Ritchie appeared to have a great time sitting in their beach chairs, puffing on their cigars and drinking some brews!!

Tommy, one of the Club's oldest friends has a new radio show on WFMD AM930. The show runs from 9:00am to 11:00am (now Mike will get on my case for giving you the wrong time!). It's a talk show format that will be featuring Frederick Rugby Club members over the season. Tommy keeps his Country Show on WFRE FM99.1 (from early until around 9:00am). Sports results are on the half hour - FRFC results are usually announced on Mondays.

We are about to start a tough season. Not only are the matches going to be physical, but it will (hard to believe) start to get cold. Injuries will happen. To prevent major injuries we all have to maintain a work-out schedule even during the season. This should include aerobic, flexibility, weight work. Moo owns Gold's Gym here in Frederick, Jeff Lutton is a personal trainer at the same gym. Talk to these Club mates and take their advise to heart. If you are not already a member of Gold's, the Rugby Club gets a special rate of $30:00 per month with no initiation fee. Talk to Jeff at practice or call into the gym, on Rt-85 (Buckeystown Pike) just past the FSK mall.