Come see why three players interviewed and profiled by Rugby Magazine listed the Harrisburg 7's as their favorite rugby tournament!

Twenty Third Annual
Harrisburg's 7's Rugby Tournament

Saturday June 27, 2009
Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company
Campbelltown, PA 17010

Questions or Concerns
Larry Sweger
717-215-0771
larsweger@harrisburgrugby.com

Men's, Women's, U19 Boy's and U19 Girls Brackets!
ALL BRACKETS ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED!
Welcome	Safety Information
2009 Tournament Entry Form	History
2009 Tournament Entry Form with PayPal	2008 Tournament Results
2009 Tournament Directions	All Time Records
2009 Tournament Information	Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau
Final Brackets and Schedule	Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company
2009 Tournament Sponsorship Form	Map and Parking Information
2009 Tournament Program	Accommodations

Safety Information

MARFU Adverse Weather Policy

Lightning Safety

Campbelltown Weather Forecast

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Welcome to the 23rd Annual Harrisburg Rugby Club 7's Tournament!

The Harrisburg Rugby Football Club appreciate the opportunity to continue our tradition of hosting the best grass roots 7's rugby tournament in Pennsylvania and in the Mid-Atlantic Region. We strive for the true spirit of rugby, forging bonds of friendship that last a lifetime.

We would like to offer special appreciation to all of our tournament sponsors and also to our major sponsors for their support. Without them, this tournament would not be possible. We urge you to patronize the advertisers in this program, as they are true advocates of rugby.

Many thanks to the 2009 Tournament Committee and Harrisburg Rugby Club volunteers who are responsible for making this tournament run so seamlessly. Special thanks to all the referees - without them there would be no game. Thanks also go to the Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company staff for the use of their facilities and fields and to Friendship Fire Company and the Bressler Club for the use of Cibort Park.

Good luck to all participants in the 23rd Annual Harrisburg Rugby Club 7's Tournament. Thank you for coming, and we hope to see you next year. Remember, rugby is not just a game, but a way of life.

Sincerely,

Gregory K. Ball
President
Harrisburg Rugby Football Club

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23 Year History of the Harrisburg 7's Tournament

Established in 1987, the Harrisburg Sevens Tournament was established by a committee to encourage sevens rugby at the grass roots level.
The first tournament was an eight team event held at Penn State, Harrisburg on the Middletown Pitch. In order to promote local sevens the fixture was set for the last Saturday in June to coincide with the Washington Sevens. The desire of the committee was to gather local teams not the elite teams competing for the national championship. To attract local teams the committee offered reasonable prices for entry fees, t-shirts, food & other concessions. Numerous trophies and plaques would be presented to the top four teams as well as the winners of each consolation bracket. Tournament winners would get a large trophy and double their entry fee, and runner-up would get their entry fee returned. The pitches were full sized. Referees were by invitation only and would be enticed to the tournament by offering numerous perks for expenses.
In 1988 the tournament moved to Shank Park in Hershey for three years, and expanded to 16 teams.
In 1991 the Harrisburg Sevens Tournament was held at the New Cumberland Army Depot.
Since 1992 Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation has become the site for the Harrisburg Sevens.
A women's bracket was added in 1994. The tournament has hosted 16 women sides and 20 men sides over the past few years.
The first U19 bracket was added for boys in 2005. In 2006 a bracket for U19 girls was added and the number of U19 teams expanded to twelve; six boys and six girl's teams.
There is promise of the Army building a couple more fields in 2009, which should allow for more teams to participate in the tournament. In recent years the club as turned away many late entry teams, as many as 11, as a result of lack of fields and daylight.
For the first time in the history of the tournament, in 2008 the number of teams entering the tournament exceeded 50.
After 16 successful years at Fort Indiantown Gap, the 2009 tournament temporarily relocated to the Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company with the reality of the construction of brand new fields purposely built for rugby and ready for business in 2010.

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2008 Tournament Results

Harrisburg Sevens Crowns 4 Champions

Monday Jun 30, 2008 in Sevens Club Competitions

June 30, 2008 - The 22nd Annual Harrisburg 7s saw over 50 teams trek out to central Pennsylvania, all with an eye on one of four division trophies.

Carlisle, Keystone, West Shore United and Hempfield White had to make extra room in Tent City for their well earned hardware.

In the men’s bracket, Carlisle topped Lancaster Roses A 14-7 in the final after downing Lehigh Valley (21-0), Happy Valley Penn State Old Boys (35-0), West Chester (40-0) and Wilkes Barre (26-5) in the semis. Wilkes Barre engineered the most notable upset on the day, defeating eventual finalist Roses A during pool play and scoring five of the 12 points against Carlisle over the entire day.

“They’re usually a three [game]-and-barbecue team,” tournament director Larry Sweger commented. “I even seeded them last in their bracket. They were definitely the biggest surprise of the day.”

Not so much of a surprise was the women’s division winner – Keystone. Kate Daley and her teammates went unscored upon all day, racking up 174 points en route to the championship. The DI club topped Western New York (27-0), Morris (31-0) and Philadelphia (34-0) during pool play, then finished off Harrisburg (39-0) in the semis. The Village Lions (New York City) posed little problem in the final, going down 43-0.

“Pound for pound, they were just bigger and stronger players,” said Lions captain Becca Asser. “We had a few line breaks, but they are a well-oiled division one machine.”

The Boys’ U-19 crown went to West Shore United, fresh off their sixth place finish at the Boys’ U-19 National Championship. United downed VisionQuest (24-0) and Warwick/Hempfield (Lancaster) twice (24-10, 29-10) before defeating Harrisburg’s Cougars 24-7 for the title. Notable in the boys’ division was VisionQuest, a juvenile detention center out of Gettysburg, Pa.

Harrisburg 7s marked that team’s first-ever tournament and they played respectably, improving with every match.

Lancaster-based Hempfield White walked away with the Girls’ U-19 trophy, having blanked Warwick 12-0 in the final, a repeat of its pool play face-off, which Hempfield won 7-0. The girls also topped West Shore United A 19-0, Doylestown 17-10 and Doylestown 12-0.

Post script

“The ideology has been to make enough money to purchase our own field,” said tournament director Larry Sweger. But in the meantime, the Ft. Indiantown Gap, a National Guard training center, provides amazing grounds for a four-pitch tournament. The tournament barbecue and party – replete with crowd favorite Magic Beans and free beer truck - occurred right on the grounds, and teams were encouraged to camp out in Tent City. There are no serious regulations to abide other than no fires and quiet hour after 11pm. My club made the last-minute decision on the excursion due to its proximity to Hershey Park, but now that we’re hip to the scene, we’ll make a camping weekend out of the event going forward.

“It’s also very important to us to keep the grassroots flavor alive,” Sweger continued as he points to the refs, who are leading a chorus of rugby songs. “We had some great referees come out, including Pete Hessler and Terry Haas.”

Perhaps the only hitch was the management of the women’s bracket. NOVA and Doylestown dropped out and both were in the same pool of a 16-team bracket. Instead of changing brackets around, the organizers left one pool with only two teams – Village Lions and Brandywine played each other twice.

- Jackie Finlan

Men's Open Division

Champion	2nd	3rd	4th	Sportsmanship
Roses I	Old Gaelic	Lehigh Valley	Grizzlies	Old Gaelic

Women's Open Division

Champion	2nd	3rd	4th	Sportsmanship
Keystone	Harrisburg	Village Lions	Dolyestown	Village Lions

U19 Boy's Division

Champion	2nd	3rd	4th	Sportsmanship
West Shore United I	Carlisle	West Shore United II	Hempfield/Warwick

U19 Girls Division

Champion	2nd	3rd	4th	Sportsmanship
Dolyestown I	Hempfield White	Warwick	Doylestown II

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All Time Records

Men's Open Division

	Champion	2nd	3rd	4th
1987	Lancaster	Blackthorn	South Jersey	Princeton AC
1988	South Jersey	Montgomery	Lost Boys	Blackthorn
1989	Lost Boys	South Jersey	Harrisburg	Morris
1990	South Jersey	Lost Boys	Lancaster	Harrisburg
1991	Blackthorn	Harrisburg	South Jersey	Lancaster
1992	Harrisburg	Blackthorn	South Jersey	Lancaster
1993	Lancaster	Blackthorn	South Jersey	Harrisburg
1994	Blackthorn Old Boys	Penn State	Blackthorn	Clearfield
1995	Penn State	Lancaster	Blackthorn	Harrisburg
1996	Lancaster	Penn State	Bethlehem	South Jersey
1997	Lancaster	Manhattan	North Penn	Harrisburg
1998	Penn State	Lancaster	Harrisburg	Reading
1999	Reading	Penn State	Lancaster	Harrisburg
2000	Lancaster	Reading	Manhattan	Harrisburg
2001	Lancaster	Manhattan, NY	Penn State	Brandywine
2002	Reading	Harrisburg	Brandywine	Lehigh Valley
2003	Lehigh Valley	Pittsburgh Harlequins	Harrisburg	Roses A
2004	Old Gaelic	Roses A	Harrisburg	Lehigh Valley
2005	Roses A	Lehigh Valley	Harrisburg	Philadelphia Whitemarsh
2006	Roses A	Lehigh Valley B	Harrisburg	Lehigh Valley A
2007	Norfolk	Roses A	Lehigh Valley	Harrisburg
2008	Old Gaelic A	Roses A	Wilkes Barre	Reading
2009	Roses	Old Gaelic	Lehigh Valley	Grizzles

Women's Open Division

	Champion	2nd	3rd	4th
2002	MD Stingers Old Girls	Brandywine	Keystone	Lehigh Valley
2003	New York	NOVA 1	Keystone 1	Harrisburg
2004	Keystone	Maulie Maguires	Harrisburg	Philadelphia A
2005	Keystone	Brandywine	Maulie Maguires	Harrisburg
2006	Keystone	Maulie Maguires	Monmouth	Lancaster Thorns
2007	NOVA 1	Washington Furies	Maulie Maguires	Harrisburg
2008	Keystone	Village Lions	Harrisburg	York/Lancaster Thorns
2009	Keystone	Harrisburg	Village Lions	Doylestown

U19 Boys Division

	Champion	2nd	3rd	4th
2006	West Shore United	Hempfield	Hibernians
2007	West Shore United	State College	Hempfield
2008	West Shore United I	Harrisburg Cougars	West Shore United II	Hempfield/Warwick
2009	West Shore United I	Carlisle	West Shore United II	Hempfield/Warwick

U19 Girls Division

	Champion	2nd	3rd	4th
2006	Hempfield	West Shore United
2007	Doylestown	Warwick Storm	West Shore United
2008	Hempfield White	Warwick Storm	Doylestown I	Doylestown II
2009	Doylestown I	Hempfield White	Warwick	Doylestown II

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