NOVA Rugby announces that our club will join business partner Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications in hosting the Eastern USA Rugby Men's Club playoffs May 20-21 in Northern Virginia.

The playoffs will consist of 12 matches between 24 teams from the Men's Division I, II and III Men's clubs, who will vie for a place in the Final Four Championship weekend later in the spring. Currently, the event is scheduled to be held at Signal Hill Park in Manassas, however, NOVA and Brotman-Winter-Fried may explore other options as a venue.

NOVA would like to thank Brotman-Winter-Fried for putting together a terrific bid to make this possible. This is an exciting and grand opportunity for NOVA Rugby to set itself apart from other clubs in the Washington D.C. area, and will need all active players and alumni to join us in putting on a world-class event. Those who wish to sponsor the event, volunteer or bid for a services contract should contact Clarence "Weasel" Williams at cfwilliams10@hotmail.com.

USA Rugby announced the award of the bid for the event in a Dec. 13 letter sent to the Brotman-Winter-Fried group.

"We are confident that you and your Host Committee will represent USA Rugby with immense professionalism and successfully organize one of the United States premier domestic rugby events," Lindsay Tiernan, of USA Rugby, said in the award letter.

Putting on a first class event is the exact goal of the team at Brotman and of NOVA. NOVA Board of Governors Chair Ken Fraine and Men's President Clarence "Weasel" Williams met in late December with Brotman officials to begin laying the ground work of our partnership. NOVA has already held one planning meeting as well, and will hold meetings about every 6 weeks leading up to the May event.

Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications is a Falls Church based company, which approached NOVA, PRU, MARFU and other local rugby groups with their plan to submit bids to land a USA Rugby event in 2011.

The company has more than 40 years of experience in marketing, advertising and special event management, and promotion, amongst other services, and in recent years has turned toward events like youth USA Hockey as a means for profit and boosting our area for large sporting events.

While the company will lead the organizing and planning of the event, for their profit, NOVA has offered an army of volunteers, consultation on first-class rugby events and sponsorship opportunities. We feel this partnership offers the chance to run one of the best rugby events in the nation, and a fantastic sponsorship opportunity for NOVA.

This is a hugely important step for the advancement of NOVA as one of the premier clubs in the U.S. and the perfect springboard to launch us into a successful 2011 campaign.

Again, NOVA's administrators would like to thank Brotman-Winter Fried Communications for having the vision and organization to submit a successful bid for this event.

Congratulations to us all.