Welcome to Bingham Cup 2016!

It’s an honor for me to be invited to participate in this terrific event for its eighth time! Let’s think back: these past fourteen years we’ve been all over the world—San Francisco, London, New York, Dublin, Minneapolis, Manchester, Sydney. And now, Nashville! The city of country music, good food, gracious hospitality, and now—great rugby!

To the Nashville Grizzlies and to all our sponsors, players and friends, I am deeply grateful. Thank you for making us feel welcome for Bingham Cup 2016. Thank you for making our biennial rugby tournament a proud reality and a real success.

I hear that Bingham Cup VIII will have representatives from over forty teams, lengthening our list of participants with a new batch of fun names and logos. That’s mind-boggling. We started with six teams in 2002, as I remember. This is a chance for us to hobnob with our friends, new and old, on and off the rugby pitch.

Mark used to call out “With you!” as he ran alongside fellow rugby players advancing the ball up the pitch. Now Mark’s friends—black, brown, white, gay, straight, male, female—have come to Nashville united in their determination to play hard, to bring honor to themselves, to their teams, to Mark, and to all the beautiful souls lost September 11, 2001.

Mark loved every part of rugby: the camaraderie, the competition, the glory of winning. Mark once told me something I’ll never forget. I can’t remember his exact words but his message was wise: Winning is great, but I learn more from losing. Losing gives my team and me a goal for next time. Losing makes us grow, maybe more than winning does.

So all of us will have plenty of opportunity for growth in Bingham Cup 2016!

See you there!

Alice, aka Mom