Sharkapalooza Over 40 Rugby Tournament: Friends, Heat...and Stiff Muscles

Being a Navajo Oreo with my good friends Timaris and Chee Montano

This past weekend, I had a chance to get a run in and play some rugby at the Sharkapalooza over 40 Rugby Tournament. I first played at this tournament in Newport Beach, California 3 years ago with Pasasena's old boys. It was a great time. (Even though we lost both of our games)

This time, Pasasdena could not get a team fielded to play at Sharkapalooza, but my friend Peter Nguyen, who is an old boy with the Huntington Beach RFC said they could use a spare prop, so I decided to play.

With temperatures well over 90 degrees(32 celsius), it was a good thing that Huntington Beach had a deep roster. We had 3 full sets of props where we were able to do ice hockey style substitutions on the fly to keep everybody fresh. We lost a tough first game on a late Penalty to Las Vegas, 3-0, but we ended up beating Old Southwest(I was able to catch up with my good friend Chee Montano and his charming bride Timaris) 7-0, and then we beat the Las Vegas Irish by a couple of tries to take the plate.

One of the great things with the Sharkapalooza Tournament(Run by the Back Bay RFC) is that not only is the pitch ringed by palm trees and is just a gorgious venue, but it is about 200 yards from the Pacific Ocean, which felt really good and refreshing to take a dip in after the rugby was done to cool off.

After the rugby was done, my wife and I were able to go grab some fantastic Korean food with Chee and Timaris. Living in Gallup, New Mexico, it is hard to get authentic Asian food of any kind, so they really enjoyed the Korean fare in Costa Mesa.

I still am pretty sore from the weekend as I write this...but I do so with a smile on my face. The game of rugby is fantastic, but I am always amazed at what nice people are involved with this sport.