When you love your rugby club, you always want to see it grow so it is with great pleasure that Western Suburbs welcomes the following ruggers.

This new rugger is Pat McKenna. Pat joins us from Christendom College RFC where he played for three years. He has experience at flanker and prop.

This is Liam McGhee. Liam is one of the smallest ruggers I've ever seen, but don't let that fool you as he has a taste for blood. Liam played rugby league with the Northern Virginia Eagles as a wing for a couple of seasons and he talked the coach into making the Last Man Standing drill a regular part of practice resulting in broken ribs, ankle sprains, concussions, etc. for several of the Eagles.

Don Ritchie recently moved to Reston and he found us online. He's never played rugby before, but he comes with linebacker experience

This is Pastor Jack Ramos. He is new to rugby, but is quickly falling in love with the game. At practice, he's been joining the forwards so it's always nice to have a new member of the pack.

Western Suburbs would like to thank our current field officers for their dedication to the club, they are Head Coach Jeff "Stax" Carrington, Assistant Coach John "OD" O'Donnell, Captain Rob Ware, and Selector Patrick "Turtle" Robinson.

Western Suburbs will hold elections for Field Officers on Thursday, August 27 at 7:30 PM at Poplar Tree Park, Field 1. The address to the park is 4718 Stringfellow Road, Chantilly, Virginia. The Field Officer positions that are up for election are:

1. Head Coach
2. Assistant Coach
3. Captain
4. Selector
5. Vice Captain (optional)
   

All club members should arrive early so that we can get this important aspect of club management completed in a timely manner.

Currently, the candidates are as follows:

• Head Coach: Jeff "Stax" Carrington and Steve "Big Money" Lough
  
• Assistant Coach: John "OD" O'Donnell and Bryan "Snooki" Dyer
• Captain: TBD
• Selector: Matt "Lobo" Parr

The beginning of the season always heralds so much promise when new ruggers show up to practice. Western Suburbs is proud to introduce the following ruggers who have joined the Western Suburbs family.

Lee Kirkland's previous playing experience was playing for Lynchburg College RFC. Like many ruggers before him, an unfortunate phrase or series of events quickly led to a nickname and now he's known as Fruitnuts.

This rugger is Ben Allen. After nearly twenty years of not playing, Ben decided he missed the game and reached out to us. Ben previously played for Yale RFC, one of the oldest rugby clubs in America. Ben's brother Matt also plays and expects to join soon so keep an eye out for him in an upcoming Fresh Fish Friday.

Fairfax County closed Poplar Tree Park, Field 1 tonight so we won't be having practice.

Get a run in and plan for hitting on Saturday. Also, field officer elections will be held this Saturday too.

This rugby rookie is joining Western Suburbs this fall. His name is Brendan Murphy. He is Mac Steffen's first recruit to the club; Mac brought him out between the end of 7s and the beginning of 15s.

Looking forward to seeing you at practices and games this fall. Welcome to Suburbs!