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About the Chicago Blaze Rugby Football Club: The club is located at 13011 W. Smith Road in Lemont, Illinois. Founded in 1982 it is one of over a dozen men’s rugby clubs in the Chicago area and is part of CARFU (Chicago Area Rugby Football Union) and competes in the Midwest Territorial Union. The club draws the majority of its men’s active players from the Southwest burbs of Chicago, including Naperville & Joliet, but has members from as far away as St. Charles & Chicago’s North Side. The club also supports a high school side called The Blaze Academy which was founded in 2013, draws players from high schools and geographical regions set by Rugby Illinois, the governing body for youth rugby in Illinois.
New Clubhouse Details: Built over the summer of 2016, and opened on Aug 27th, the clubhouse was a culmination of a multi-year fundraising effort. While funding fell short for the original two-story design, the building is currently designed to allow an upper level party deck to be completed at a future date.
Stats on the clubhouse
•5,054 square feet
•Holds 140 people
•Has 2 locker rooms with showers, that can accommodate 30 players each
•Has a referee/officials room
•Has a utility/laundry room
•An event space featuring a full bar made out of Live Edge Walnut, a kitchen and seating area with floor to ceiling glass doors looking onto the fields
•Located on 15 acres of land that feature 3 regular rugby pitches (fields), with a 4th on the way
Stats on the clubhouse
•5,054 square feet
•Holds 140 people
•Has 2 locker rooms with showers, that can accommodate 30 players each
•Has a referee/officials room
•Has a utility/laundry room
•An event space featuring a full bar made out of Live Edge Walnut, a kitchen and seating area with floor to ceiling glass doors looking onto the fields
•Located on 15 acres of land that feature 3 regular rugby pitches (fields), with a 4th on the way
Events hosted at the Chicago Blaze Rugby Football Club facilities:
-USA Rugby's Annual Midwest Club Championships for 15s
-USA Rugby's Annual Midwest Club Championships for 7s
-Illinois high school state championships
-Firehouse 7s Tournament
-CARFU Ball (Chicago area championship)
About Rugby: Rugby is the fastest growing sport in America. Chicago hosted the largest attended rugby match in the U.S. in 2014 where 60,000 people packed Soldier Field to see the New Zealand All Blacks take on the U.S. National Team, the Eagles. With it’s inclusion back in the Olympics in 2016 and the first season of an American professional league in the books, without a doubt the Chicago Blaze RFC will have a hand in the future of rugby in America.
Rugby Terminology:
Pitch = Field, or the playing surface and surround area where rugby is played.
Match = Game, or contest between two teams with a set time and rules as dictated by the World Rugby, the international governing body of the sport.
Try = A way in which a player scores in rugby. It is worth 5 points and is completed when a player crosses the "in-goal" line and touches the ball down to the ground. The American football term "touchdown" is direct result of the sport being born out of rugby.
