Renegades before a home match last fall.

PRACTICE....
is at Stead Field at 17th and P Streets, NW every Tuesday and Thursday, weather permitting, from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m.

SPECIAL NOTE:
No practice Tuesday, May 6. Practice resumes Thursday May 8.

NOTE: Check the Renegades Hotline at 703-708-5066 if the weather looks frightful to see if we're having practice or not.

No match, May 10 weekend
We're off this week following a great showing at the Rites of Spring tournament in the Premier Division. Next up is May 17 at home vs. Pax River.

Ten Years After....
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you...Yes, ten years of Renegades Rugby. Good times, bad times, you know we've had our share...I could go on all day with Classic Rock lyrics...It really is the tenth anniversary year of the Renegades. So have a drink on me!

Favorite Places: Stead Field
By WILL MARSHALL
Washington Renegades
DuPont Current Correspondent

It’s not much, just a simple metal bench that sits on the edge of a sparsely grassed field. The bench itself is altogether ordinary: It is long, like those used for baseball teams, hard-edged, cold in the fall and painfully hot in the summer. In fact, there are hundreds of benches just like it throughout the Washington area. What makes this bench remarkable (at least for me) is its ability to transform me from a rather ordinary Washingtonian into a rugby-player-wannabe-extraordinaire, if only for a few hours. As I sit on that long piece of metal I begin my biweekly ritual of gathering my gear, slipping on my rugby socks and climbing into my tattered red-and-blue jersey. I lace up my cleats and drink a Red Bull all the while, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of this small portion of the vast city.

If it is warm out, there will be a pick-up basketball game going on just behind me. From where I sit I can hear sharp scuffs of sneakers, the dull sound of bodies colliding and the jeers and calls for the ball -- the proverbial, “Hit me! I’m open.” I can hear small children playing on the play set that sits next to the basketball court, their giggles and innocent howls of victory reverberating off the surrounding apartment buildings that wrap the field like a sort of concrete urban cocoon. Smells of seared garlic from the nearby Indian restaurant mingle with the car exhaust from P and 17th streets, cigarette smoke from the bored chef in the alleyway and sweat of the basketball players. Bus groans, horn blasts, rap music and random conversations from embassy workers who for some reason often talk too loud on their cell phones drifts into the park.

Now more of the team members arrive. They take their usual places on the bench; begin their own rituals of transformation. Talk is of last week’s injuries, the latest political scandal and how much everyone's job sucks. Coach thinks we have a real chance to win this weekend. Marty is going to give up smoking for real this time. I get up from the bench, stretch my sore old legs and try my darnedest to pretend I am as tough as everyone else on the team. Phil is calling out, saying, “Alright, that's enough chitchat, lets go ladies.” And just as the park lights spark on and the city sights and sounds fade into the gloaming, we are off -- seemingly ordinary men, running in ridiculously tight black shorts, throwing each other an oddly shaped white ball in the fading pure light of a Washington evening -- each of us enjoying what we have become, if only for a few hours.

Rugby 101

Renegades Honor FLIGHT 93

In 2006 and 2007 members of the Washington Renegades RFC traveled to Shanksville, Pa., to participate in a cleanup and improvement effort at the United Airlines Flight 93 Memorial.

Letter of appreciation from National Parks Service to the Washington Renegades for our efforts. (PDF)(22 KB)

RENEGADES STORE OPEN
The Renegades have a new online store that is now open. Check it out:

http://www.cafepress.com/dcrenegadesrfc.

Our Address

Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club, Inc.
P.O. Box 2067
Washington DC 20013-2067