May 2019 Club President Name Change Announcement.
Hello Rugby Supporters
Following on from our parent social earlier this month here are the announcements we made at that time about changes within your club. Be assured as we move forward, our structure, vision, values and culture will remain the same.
From the survey we did last November we formed a group of parents who have been meeting regularly since then to form an official club to support our Coaches. This is due to the tremendous growth we have experienced in players and teams. More information about this new committee is in the new parent survey below.
Parent Survey
We encourage all Parents and Coaches to please complete our new survey so we know in what way you can contribute to your children’s rugby.
Please click this link to complete the survey: http://form.jotform.com/210667549631158
Club Name Change
As part of the clubs rebranding project you will notice soon that all the club and team Facebook Groups will be changing to our new club name; “Chinook Rugby”. We are proud to have been known as BGYR (Battle Ground Youth Rugby) since the first combined youth team in 2012. Battle Ground will always be the heart of our club but we now need to encompass all of West & North Clark County that we draw players from (Refer “Club Growth” below).
We chose Chinook Rugby after 3 years of debate amongst the coaches. We couldn’t use anything with “Clark County” as that has been taken by the High School club team in Camas. Other names had towns with the same name in Clark and Cowlitz counties, including Klickitat the tribe that Battle Ground was named after. Following many countries rugby traditions we chose to recognize the local indigenous peoples and the Chinook where the tribe that where settled in our area and along the Columbia river. We have been in contact with the Chinook tribe, and they have given us their blessing to celebrate their heritage in a dignified and honorable way.
Club Growth
Since that first combined Elementary and Middle School team formed in 2012 (8 players) we have steadily grown the 3rd to 8th grade divisions and in this Spring 2019 we entered 9 teams (96 players) into the Rugby Oregon League. High School formed their first Battle Ground/Prairie combined team in 2007 and now we have 4 High School teams competing. More on our Club history and growth is on our new website.
Not only have we increased in teams/numbers we have also expanded our area to encompass all of West & North Clark County. A majority of our players are and will be in the future from Battle Ground, but we now have players from all the school districts of: Battle Ground, Hockinson, Evergreen, Vancouver, Ridgefield, Woodland and La Center. Good examples this season are:
- The 7/8th Girls State Champions only have 2 Battle Ground school district players in the squad.
- In 5/6th Grade 2 out of the 4 teams are made up of players who are all from surrounding districts and a 3rd team has a 50/50 split.
- In 3/4th Grade half the squad are from outside Battle Ground school district.
Website www.chinookrugby.com
We would like to thank Clark College for producing our clubs website through a class project last semester. Also thanks to our rugby parent Chris Murdoch who has spent many hours updating and adding information relevant to our club. If you have any suggestions or comments please let us know at info@chinookrugby.com
Like & Follow Us
Please support us by Liking and Following our social media pages:
(The Facebook names are currently BGYR but will change to Chinook soon)
Like – Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ChinookRugby
Join – Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChinookRugby
Follow – Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChinookRugby
Follow – Instagram: www.instagram.com/chinookrugby
This is a very exciting time for our club, as we continue to develop and gain more visibility within our community. The Club Officers and I are looking forward to the future growth of our club and supporting all of your youth rugby players.
Kind regards
Robert Koenig
Club President – Chinook Rugby
Email: president@chinookrugby.com
Website: www.chinookrugby.com