If you are not signed in to Google when browsing the schedule to the left, you will see UTC time instead of EST. This will make the times appear 4 hours later than the actual time(until the end of DST, then it will be 5). This is because Google does not know from where you are viewing the calendar. I am working on the issue, but be aware that it persists. The simple remedy is to sign in to GMail or GCal, assuming that you have your time zone set to EST.

You were probably directed to this site during the SAC Fair. Be sure to register here for the website and check out the Contact page to register for the mailing list. The schedule is available here as well as a map to the BIA fields, in case you get lost. I hope to hear nothing but great things about this year’s freshmen members. If you’re new to college, welcome to Hopkins. If you’re new to the team, welome to the HRFC.

Everyone joining this site is given Contributor-level access by default. This allows you to make moderated posts (I’m afraid I’ll have to moderate anything being hosted on my internet connection). Feel free to submit your posts for publishing at any time. I’ll review, edit if necessary, and approve them as soon as possible.

I’d love to see this site become a repository for your favorite rugby stories, discussions of rugby’s role in your college experience, and anything else you might like to write about; so get to it!

The Hopkins Rugby Football Club is pleased to welcome Danny Stephens as a visiting head coach for the Fall of 2009.  Danny comes to HRFC with a wealth of international experience, and the potential to transform the club from an disappointing and coachless 2008 season.  

Danny Stephens began his rugby career starting at full back at the University of West England, while playing inside center for Reading Rugby Club- ranked National League Two in England.  Danny then moved to Germany where he founded and captained Nurnberg Rugby Club, which progressed from bottom tier to National Second Division from inception.  Danny next moved to the University of South Africa where he played in the Western Province Super League A, one level below Currie Cup, but he ruptured a disc in his back and so ended his playing days.  Danny is now a qualified referee and the head coach of the Villager Rugby Club academy team, a super-league club in South Africa, the coach preceding him at Villager is now the head coach of the Dutch National Team.  Danny has collaborated with professional trainers from the South African national team to devise comprehensive training plans, and has already committed himself to reshaping the team.  

HRFC is excited for Danny’s September arrival, and wishes to extend to him a warm welcome to lovely Baltimore.

After many difficult hours (most of my weekend in fact) and a $26.00 domain registration fee, www.hopkinsrugby.org is finally online.

I hope that the new dynamic format will encourage more vigorous updating since anyone can contribute. I’ll be providing contributer-level site access to members in the near future.

On a technical note, I am currently hosting this site on a 533MHz Pentium 3 tucked under the desk in my bedroom. The dynamic php scripts tax every ounce out that processor, so the site will feel slow. Additionally, the upload speed on my Comcast cable connection is not very high, so more than 3 or 4 concurrent connections will probably bring things to a halt. I am already hosting my project blog (www.wheretostart.net) on the same server. There is absolutely no guarantee of uptime, though I will try to maintain nightly site backups. That said, an offsite hosting solution would be best. However, at $60/year I can’t commit to financing this alone (I did register www.hopkinsrugby.org for 2 years at ~$12/year). If anyone knows anyone in the ACM, I hear that they will host sites for student groups.