We have only just begun. No Images? Click here No matter how your pain starts – from playing rugby or daily activities around the house – let us take the first look and recommend treatment options to get you back to doing the things you love. Free assessments are available in-clinic or virtually from the comfort of your home. Don’t delay the recovery process. Schedule your free assessment today. Facebook Twitter Instagram Saturday, September 21st, 2019 Saturday, September 21st, 2019, was a historical day for the Chicago Lions as we revealed the second completed phase of the Lions for Hope Sports Complex, the J. Tyke Nollman Field. It was a day that Lions from all generations have been waiting for; finally, we have a home. The emotional reaction from alumni, fans, and rugby players was overwhelming. Leading up to Saturday’s event, the Lions received numerous congratulatory emails from rugby players and clubs around the world who either came to Chicago on tour or played against the Lions on their home fields. Several mentioned Tyke and some mentioned that they still have the Lion statue in their clubhouse. The Lions’ reach is truly global and continues to grow each year! Starting with the Rookie Rugby program and ending with the Men’s D2 side, rugby was played on the new field from 9am to 6pm. Over 500 people showed up throughout the day, with the biggest crowd in attendance between 12:30-4:00 pm. This project would not have been possible without the support of the Lions’ generous donors. The Lions would like to recognize and thank the core volunteer group: Pat Bolger

Kevin Drewyer

Paul O’Connor

John Duggan

Tony Rio

The First Fifteen, President’s XV, Captain’s XV that made the purchase of the land possible

All of the individuals who donated and volunteered their time over the past five years to make this dream a reality. We would also like to thank the current CLCA board and the past board members for serving the Lions. We also thank our partner, Chicago Hope Academy. A special thanks to the following for their generous support: The Jay and Jane Nollman Charitable Foundation

The Mark and Mary Ann Kaufman Foundation

The Bruce and Marjorie Calvert Family Fund

Pat and Tracy Bolger The Lions hope to see you this Saturday as the high school (10:30 am); Men’s D1 (1 pm) and Women (3 pm) play at home. Let’s make this a weekly event because Saturdays are for rugby! Until next time,

Jeff We Have Only Just Begun! While completing the J. Tyke Nollman is a huge accomplishment for the Chicago Lions, the work has just begun. The overall vision for the Lions for Hope Complex is to build a clubhouse and complete a second field that will have a seasonal dome enclosure. As the Lions close out Phase 2 and embark on Phase 3 of our campaign to complete the complex, your support is needed. Please join the Lions on this journey! Donate to the campaign Read about the Campaign Press Coverage Watch ABC News 7 Read Sun-Times article New Website! We just re-launched the Lions for Hope website as we move forward. Check it out With more than 500,000 policies written, CPH & Associates continues to build a wider net of insurance coverage without forgetting its guiding principles. Coaches' Reports Men D1 - Coach Clancy The Lions D1 hosted the Griffins on a momentous day for the club which saw the unveiling of the new field. The game was set to be an exciting one with the Griffins bolstering their ranks with Eagles prop Paddy Ryan and an Rugby League import from the UK to add to an already strong side. The Lions got on the scoreboard when returning Captain Andy Rose drove over from a maul in his first game of the season, the Griffins responded with a penalty before the Lions extended their lead to 12-3 after a turnover from John Sullivan lead to a score by rookie Christian Artuso who joins us from Old Blue. TK, Will and Spencer Cameron added first half tries after sustained Lions pressure to leave the score 27-8 at the half. TK, who is being inducted into the Western Michigan Hall of Fame this weekend was back over the line again early in the second half before the Lions came under some pressure from the Griffins after a short stoppage for an injury to a Griffins player which saw him needing an ambulance. Thankfully he was released with no major damage on Sunday. The Lions also saw their second yellow card of the game to Jake Christmann after Andy had seen yellow first half for a handoff that was deemed dangerous. The Lions conceded a second try with 8 minutes to go but responded with one of their own to leave the final score 39-13 over the crosstown rivals and a crucial 5 points in the Midwest standings to stay hot on Detroit’s heels. Man of the match on the day was scrum half Joe Van Zyl on his return to a starting spot and special mentions went to flyhalf Brady Gent who kicked well from hand and controlled things all day, also Aaron Cummings who was a menace on defense. The Lions D1 next face Columbus in another home game this coming weekend, we hope many of the huge crowd who came out to support this weekend can come and again fill the stands for another great day at the J. Tyke Nollman field. ~ Coach Dave Clancy Women D1 - Coach Snyder This past weekend the Women’s D1 side earned a 12-12 draw against Metro’s Women’s D1 side (Minneapolis). Much of the first half was a back-and-forth affair. Against a staunch defense, the Lions were able to put together phases, but weren’t able to capitalize on some line breaks. Metro counter-rucked well and used their wind advantage to clear the ball from inside their 40 on several occasions. After 39 minutes, Metro put together a few phases of their own and scored between the posts. The conversion was successful and the Lions entered half time 0-7. The beginning of the second half saw the Lions take the initiative. We threatened several times, only to have Metro recover. The opposition did score a second try but missed the conversion. During the last 20 minutes of the match, the Lions found rhythm. We scored in the left hand corner but missed the conversion. Shortly thereafter, we scored between the posts to bring the score to 10-12. This time the conversion was true, tying the score at 12.



Metro wasn’t quite yet defeated, though, and pinned the Lions deep in our territory with no time remaining on the clock. The ball was subsequently kicked into touch, rather than risk any attempt to break out.



We will face Metro in Minneapolis on October 5th. The winner is expected to have the top seed going into the Midwest playoffs.



The following players earned awards for their efforts on the field: Aurora Macek 3 stars

Gaby Chapin 2 stars

Ben Hershik ½ star

Devon Gold ½ star In addition, the Lightning Lion team award for outstanding player was awarded to Aurora Macek.



The Lions Women’s D1 side will play against Detroit this Saturday at 3 pm at the J. Tyke Nollman Field. We hope to see you all there! ~ Coach Bruce Snyder Men D2 - Coach Plackmann Saturday marked the beginning of a new era for the Chicago Lions with the opening of the Lions for Hope Sports Complex and the Lions D2 squad took on Division leading Wisconsin in the finale of an exciting full day of rugby. The Lions were looking for their first win of the season after a heartbreaking loss to Milwaukee the previous week that saw the Lions lead for nearly 79 minutes, only to see victory slip out their grasp in the final minute. The D2 Lions knew they had their work cut out for them as Wisconsin would bring their hard hitting forward oriented game down to Chicago and the guests definitely didn’t disappoint. Wisconsin would take advantage of an early Lions miscue of bringing the ball back behind their own 22 and kicking for touch to set up a lineout on the Lions 12 m line. Multiple phases eventually saw Wisconsin feed their hooker for a relatively easy score in the corner in 4th minute for the game’s opening try. The difficult conversion was true and Wisconsin led 7-0. The Lions quickly answered behind the powerful running of prop, Phil Spagnolo and several phases of forward ball saw second row, Tim Hazen go over for the Lions first score at the 10 minute mark. Flyhalf, Ted Sheedy’s conversion was just wide right to bring the Lions within 2 at 5-7. In the 34th minute, a Lions penalty (one of many of the day) with an additional 10m for backchat gave Wisconsin a kick from about 15m out that sailed through the uprights to increase the visitor’s lead to 5 points, which is how the half would end. The Lions started the 2nd half strong as they struck a mere one minute into half on a nice pass from flanker, Dave Whitney to outside center Chris Casi that saw Casi go in for the try. Sheedy hit the difficult conversion and the Lions had their first lead of the day 12-10. Undeterred or perhaps motivated by the Lions taking the lead, a strong run by the Wisconsin lock down the touchline with a nifty boot saw him get rewarded when he tied up the Lions player and caused a not releasing penalty. A heads up quick tap by the Wisconsin 8 saw him get by an unset Lions defense and score an unconverted try in the 43rd minute to bring the score back to 12-15 Wisconsin. A Lions offside penalty on the ensuing kickoff (their second of the day) gave Wisconsin momentum to again attack the Lions defense in the Lions half of the field. After a few both sides traded the ball a couple times, a nifty move by the Wisconsin 10 saw him slice through the Lions defensive line and race into the try zone just next to the far side post. The easy conversion saw Wisconsin increase their lead to 12-22 with 33 minutes left to play. In the 53rd minute the Lions were able to draw closer as a scrum at the Wisconsin 10m meter line saw Lions 8, Dave Mitchell pick from the back and dish to feisty scrumhalf, Kevin Lydon who with a nice dummy was able to split a pair of defenders and go in for the try. Sheedy’s kick was true and the Lions closed the gap to 19-22. A Wisconsin penalty in the 63rd minute allowed Sheedy a shot from about 35m out and he nailed it to even the slate at 22. The game would remain knotted up at 22 until another Lions penalty in the 80th minute gave Wisconsin a shot at goal from nearly straight on from 25 meters. The Wisconsin kicker easily split the uprights to send the guests home winners by 3 points. Lions man of the match was a very deserving Phil Spagnolo. The Lions D2 next travel to winless, but always dangerous Metropolis D2 for a battle of winless teams. Lions D2 manager, Bobby Bloomfield said: “Someone has to win this game and with Milwaukee falling to Green Bay this past weekend, we are only 2 points behind them for second place and a playoff berth so there is still plenty to play for this season. We need to be more disciplined and get our penalty count down and we’ve been right there the last two games. We are starting to come together as a side so if we can get some momentum going this weekend, we can really turn our season around and factor into the MW D2 playoff race.” ~ Coach Plackmann Allstate Insurance Company helps youth build social and emotional learning skills, crucial to learning and leading so they can make a tangible impact on our world. Youth Rugby Reports It was an early start for the coaches who were down early to start setting up for what was an amazing and historic day for the Chicago Lions. With all Lions pathway programs playing on the brand new J Tyke Nollman Field in one day. Our Rookie Rugby players and Middle School (MS) kicked off the day at 9 am sharp followed up by High School, then the women and then the two men’s’ teams. With the new field there was ample space to run all five youth programs at one time. With our 3 Rookie programs using one half of the field and our MS Jr and Sr using the other. We would like to thank Chiefs Rugby for joining us on such a historic day. We would also like to thank all our sponsors for their continued support and the CLCA board for this beautiful field and all their hard work in realizing this dream. Rookie Rugby - Ahn Gallagher The Rookies had a good turnout this week. Our U11 were able to scrimmage with the Naperville Chiefs for their first match on our new field. Our U9 ran practice with the Chiefs. They finished up with a great game of Sharks and Minos. Our U7 worked on teamwork and tagging with a game of Rugby Tag. We are seeing our numbers increase each week and are hearing from parents that their players can't wait for rugby on Saturdays. Middle School Rugby - Andy Rose With a number of players unavailable due to other fall sports, we started with 13 players but that soon swelled to around 20 players. The kids were put through a short clinic just to recap the catch and pass, the tackle and rucking due to a number of brand new players. The players were then split into Junior and Senior, and divided again into two teams and then played a 20 minute game against each other. There were no winners or losers, just smiles. Thank you to all the players, coaches and administrators for coming out and supporting the Lions on our big day and we are looking forward to hosting you all again soon. High School Rugby - Jeff Steele This weekend the Chicago Lions High School Boys put on an impressive display of grit and determination. They fought hard right up until the end falling to the Arlington Stallions 28-35. The Stallions started off hot scoring 21 unanswered points in the first 25 minutes. After a good defensive effort on the try line and a hard fought drive down the field the Lions boys scored their first try through the man of the match, Mike Velazquez, to end the first Half. The second half saw each team trading blow for blow as they scored one after another. With this being the first game of the season, the coaching staff is really pleased with where the boys are considering. The team is built of some very young talent with newly added freshman in Anthony Valentin, Aidan Smalley and Keandre Bates. This weekend come check out the Lions Boys as they take on the South Side Irish Academy team in what is sure to be a thriller at the Lions for Hope Complex! "Celebrating 56 years of excellence."