News and Updates

The Seacoast and Freedom teams celebrated the past fall season on February 11th at Cisco Brewery. The clubs gathered to eat, drink, and recognize the achievements of individuals over the last season.

Most valuable player was awarded to a forward, recognizing an outstanding player in possession, tackling, and strong runs, as well as to a back, for outstanding ball handling, movement, and tackling. We had multiple new players and players in new positions, and the most improved award recognizes gains in skills over the course of the season. The tugboat award is given to the player who will play where required, steps up when needed, and is always happy to help out -the individual who exemplifies what it means to be a tugboat.

MVP Forwards: Nicole Bogucki
MVP Backs: Kaylin Samia
Most Improved: Sophia Keravich
Tugboat Award: Layne Payne

The team also honored Ali Gennaro, our coach, for the hard work and dedication she provided last season. We are truly grateful for the teaching and leadership she provided!

Spring season starts soon, practices will resume in late March or early April.

It was a cold, rainy match – perfect weather for the final game of the fall season! Seacoast put in 100% for the full 80 minutes of this nail-biter and came out with a win over North Shore 19-10.

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Seacoast came out strong with an early try in the first half by Kaylin Samia. The rest of the half remained scoreless until a try in the final seconds from North Shore.

The second half saw many scrums, as expected in any rainy game, but Seacoast was to retain possession of the ball and work it down to the opponent’s half on numerous occasions. Late in the half, they were able to swing the ball out to the wing, with Reilly Sullivan scoring a try (first try playing for Seacoast!). The final try for Seacoast came from Molly Maliska with just twelve minutes left in the game. Abby McDonough successfully converted kicks for the latter two tries. North Shore pushed downfield for a try in the very final seconds of the match, only after meeting several strong minutes of defense put up by Seacoast forwards.

BoP was given to the following amazing players:

Forwards: Hannah Harkins

Backs: Fifi Keravich

MVP: Abby McDonough

With this win, Seacoast ends their season 2-2. The season would not have been successful without the hard work and dedication from all 25+ players who consistently showed up and gave it their all. The team also wanted to give a shout out to Coach Ali Gennaro for stepping up to the plate and putting hours and hours into developing the team as much as possible throughout her first season as a coach.

We hope you look forward to what Seacoast Rugby has to offer! On to Spring 2022!

Even though Seacoast suffered a tough loss against South Shore this past weekend, they are taking the game in stride and plan on bringing all the lessons learned into the final upcoming game of the season.

Congratulations to the following players, who received BoP this game!

Forwards: Mallory Hubbard

Backs: Abby McDonough

MVP: Paige Kirby

Seacoast will be hosting North Shore on October 30th at their home pitch in North Hampton. It’ll be a boo-tiful day for some rugby and Halloween activities. See you there!

Our final game is now Halloweekend!

Bring your spookiest friends and ghoulish costumes to this Halloween themed rugby day! Starting out with the final game of the fall season, followed by a game of costume touch rugby with some of our old girls, you’re guaranteed to have a fang-tastic time!

Seacoast played a strong match at Upper Valley this weekend and came out with a W 38-22!

It was 80 minutes of hard work to maintain ball possession, draw in the defense, and find space to break through and put the ball in the try zone. Tries were scored by a spread of players – forwards and backs – proving that working 15 as 1 is the key to playing some truly great rugby.

Tries came from Abby McDonough, Kaylin Samia, Molly Maliska, Nicole Bogucki (2), and Liv Pisaturo (first try playing with Seacoast!). McDonough converted 4 of the 6 kicks.

It was extremely hard to choose just two people for BoP, but these players had a seriously amazing game:

Forwards: Nicole Bogucki

Backs: Kaylin Samia

MVP: Molly Maliska

Be sure to catch Seacoast at South Shore in two weeks, 10/16/21!

Seacoast hosted Amoskeag at their home pitch this past Saturday, which ended with a final score of 30-17 Amoskeag.

Seacoast came out strong with a quick try by Kaylin Samia in the opening minutes of the game. Despite a tight defensive line, Amoskeag responded with 4 tries throughout the remainder of the first half.

The second half saw two additional tries per team, with Seacoast scores coming from Laney Payne and Molly Maliska. Payne also put one conversion through the uprights.

Overall, Seacoast was able to shut down their back line and string some offense together to keep the game within reach. They have made incredible strides in the four short weeks they’ve been practicing together and are excited to see what the rest of the fall season brings.

Congratulations to these three incredible players for winning the honor of BoP for this game:

Forwards: Jeseca Wendel

Backs: Paige Kirby

MVP: Molly Maliska

Next game is Saturday 10/2/21 at Upper Valley. See you there!

In October, World Rugby issued an updated decision on trans players, effectively banning trans rugby players from international women’s rugby competitions. We at Great Bay Rugby and the Seacoast Team wish to affirm our support for trans players. USA Rugby has stood by trans players, stating that they will remain welcome at all levels of play in the United States. We at Seacoast are happy to see that decision and will also continue to welcome trans players. Women’s rugby has always been an explicitly inclusive space, and we welcome anyone who wishes to play rugby. World Rugby cited player safety as the grounds for their decision. This “safety” rational is a transphobic and sexist fallacy – trans players do not make play unsafe. Trans people are not a danger, and excluding athletes who wish to play rugby on that basis is discriminatory.

If World Rugby is interested in increasing the safety of women’s rugby there are real, concrete steps they could take, such as ensuring adequate training for players, training knowledgeable referees, and improving field conditions. Banning trans athletes from competition does nothing to improve safety for anyone, and we are glad to see that USA Rugby will continue to follow the previous policy. Trans women are women, and trans players are welcome on the rugby pitch.

It is with a heavy heart that Seacoast announces the cancellation of our spring season. NERFU and USA Rugby have made the difficult decision to suspend all league play as a protective measure against the outbreak of COVID-19. While we are disappointed that we will not be playing rugby in the coming months, we stand behind NERFU and USA Rugby’s decision to safeguard our players and society against this global pandemic. In the meantime, we will be practicing social distancing.

All in person team meetings and practices have been suspended. We will, however, be hosting online rugby related social events, stay tuned for updates as we work on virtually bringing the rugby community together!