Thanks to all of those who came out to the AGM tonight, and congratulations to our Club Officers for the 2023-24 Season:
President: Justin Forgash
Head Coach: Nick Lauterbach
Club Captain: Andrew Butt
Chairman: Dan O’Sullivan
Treasurer: Jose Sanchez
VP of Recruiting: Killan Mulkern
VP of Fundraising: Drew Binegar
VP of Marketing: Zach Doll
Secretary: Ethan Robinson
Match Secretary: Alex Unser-Baumann
Social Chairman: Robert Hernandez
Bar Manager: Eric Day
Clubhouse Manager: Brody Critzer
Field Chairman: Steve Renuart
We voted to table the election of Selectors until we’ve had a few practices in order to ensure that we represent the D3 side on the Selection Committee. 15’s practice will begin August 8th for those who are not still involved with Sevens at that time.
Unfortunately, Queen City Rugby Football Club voted down the proposal to merge clubs. In reaction to this, a large number of their players are planning on joining the CRFC in the fall. This includes a lot of talented athletes, as well as many of their key leaders. We apologize for the delay in announcing this result to the broader group, but we have been in continued talks with the remaining QCRFC active leadership since the vote, and the final picture has only come into focus this weekend. We intend to keep the line of communication open with their leadership and reevaluate the situation after the fall, but for now there will not be any official merger.
We believe that enough players are coming over for the CRFC to field a second side this fall. We have discussed this with the Midwest Rugby Union, and they have confirmed that we will be able to add a D3 team to the schedule without any difficulty, and this is the path we intend to take. We are excited to have the opportunity to give our younger players the time on the pitch they need to develop, without having to play against professionals and other D1-level athletes.
Overall, in spite of the failure of the official merger, this discussion has clarified for many in the Cincinnati Rugby community the need to combine resources wherever possible in order to truly compete at the highest level. The CRFC comes out of this process stronger than we went into it, and I could not be more excited for the teams we will be fielding this fall.
Congratulations again to everyone who was elected!