Impressive.... Most impressive.... But you are not a Jedi yet

The Hawaii State Rugby Union held a team meeting last night, prior to the season starting. I am very impressed with everyone who is involved. There are a lot of dedicated people working hard to take rugby to the next level here. Here's just a few of the things going on:

The Hawaii State Rugby Union consists of the following teams (adult):

Founding members

UH Rugby Club
Kalihi Raiders
Samoan Warriors
Islanders Rugby Club

New members

Hurricanes Rugby Club (North Shore)
Barbarians
Hawaii Harlequins

The schedule for the season is being developed and will be posted to the Hawaii State Rugby Union website soon. Contact info for all the teams and Union officials will be posted too.

The Referee Society, which installed officers last weekend, will fall under the Union administration umbrella. The newly certified referees will have a chance to get some game time in at this weekends pre-season round-robin tournament (at Kapiolani Park starting at 11:00 am, Saturday).

A Disciplinary Committee for the Union was established, to clarify existing rules, enforce them, and modify them as needed, as well as handle all disciplinary matters.

This Friday we're having a meeting for the Hawaii Youth Rugby. We're all working together towards the same goals. Woo hoo! There's a lot of organizations out there who could take some lessons from what's going on here.

So, things are looking pretty organized, we've got good people in all the key positions, we're good to go.

Pacific Rim Tournament

We've got the Six Nations and the Tri-Nations tournaments for the rugby powerhouse nations (with poor Argentina left out in the cold), but what about the rest of us? How about a Pacific Rim Tournament for the U.S., Canada, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji? To be held in Hawaii. In the winter (northern hemisphere winter). Lot's of people would love to come to Hawaii in the middle of winter to watch rugby. All the teams would feel at home, given our diverse population which includes Japanese and Pacific Islanders.

You can thank me later. I'm an idea guy.

Referee clinic and other lessons

Completed the referee clinic and passed the test. So I guess that means I'm an officially certified ref at level 1, the lowest level. I wasn't quite sure of the levels and what they mean exactly. My brain was filled with rules and I couldn't fit much else in there.

The course was excellent. The instructor, Josh Tameifuna, was outstanding. The only problem is that after the class I feel less qualified then ever to actually referee a match. My brain still hurts from trying to remember everything. You think you know the game and have a good understanding of the rules, and suddenly you realize you know a lot less than you thought you did. Everybody in the class really knows their rugby, and now more than ever.

So now Hawaii has 16 certified refs, though some probably won't really do any reffing, for various reasons. But the people who have already been reffing will be better than ever, and now they'll be new refs. Excellent! Not only that, but we now have an official Referee Society or Committee, with elected officers. A President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer were elected by the newly certified referees. I'll report more on that as things develop. My thoughts are that the Hawaii State Rugby Union be the top level administrative body, with the Referee Committee falling under them for administrative purposes. Integration, integration, integration. We all have to act as one cohesive unit; the Union, the Youth Rugby, the Referees. Things look good so far. There are a lot of talented and dedicated people involved and working hard. Tuesday night is a Union meeting for all the adult teams.

One of the key concepts that Josh talked about all through the course was the management of the game as the referee. As the referee, you're the sole judge of the laws of the game. How you apply those laws during the game is how you manage the game. You want play to flow, but you also want to control the game. Sometimes you need to keep a tight grip on things, so instead of giving someone a warning, you immediately penalize them, or you're more forceful in telling the players what you want and what you expect. Sometimes you can give the teams more free reign, because things are going well, so you let play flow more freely and give lighter warnings.

Those same principles can, and should, be applied to your business or organization. Sometimes you need to exert more control, keep a closer eye on things and check up on certain things more often. Other times you want to just let thing flow along on their own to encourage free thinking among your employees and foster innovation.

Isn't it just amazing the business lessons you can learn from the rugby field?

Oh, they're still trying to recruit more women (adults) and ideally grow some more women's teams. So if you know any women who are interested, or just curious, about rugby, contact Mindi at girlgoyle@aol.com.


And, of course, Adopt-A-Rugger and Hug-A-Rugger.

Cut of my Jib

I fantasize that when people talk about me, they say things like "I like the cut of his jib".

Referee Clinic - Day 1

Wow! What a great clinic. Learning all kinds of things I didn't know. It will certainly enhance my rugby watching experience, if nothing else.

I'm the least knowledgeable in the class. I guess that means I'm getting more of my money's worth.

Got a ref's whistle and red and yellow cards. Told my wife she better watch out, because if she's bad, she's going to get a whistle and a yellow card. Exhibited my whistling and card holding prowess to her. I think she was impressed, and she'll be on her toes now.

Since lunch went overlong today, we're having potluck tomorrow. Anyone who's lived in the islands can understand the importance of this. Bringing food, I mean. I volunteered to bake bread. Haole food, but that's all I know how to cook. It's rising now, and I'll pop it in the oven in the morning. One batch of Focaccia and one batch of Olive Bread.

Will report back tomorrow. After I practice my whistle technique.

New links

Added a couple of new links. Put me in Coach, where you can find all sorts of good info and links for rugby coaching. And KR Connect, a blog by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, and a member of the board of directors of USA Rugby. His blog is similar to mine, in that he blogs about business and rugby. Quite different from mine, but similar. Check them out.

New Restaurant

Just tried a new Mexican restaurant. Actually a "New Mexican" Mexican restaurant. I didn't have high hopes, since there was only one Mexican restaurant in Hawaii that I consider OK. After living in New Mexico, you get a little fussy about Mexican food. But we tried Tio's, a new restaurant serving New Mexico style Mexican food. I was pleasantly surprised. I had the enchilada (flat, or stacked, not burrito style) with an egg on top. Quite good. We had sopapillas, which were not bad, but not what we're used to. Worth another trip to try the red chile.