Chico Oaks Youth Rugby founder Mitch Jagoe on four decades of building the game in the North State
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Mitch Jagoe is a Commercial Banker with Tri Counties Bank and has been involved in rugby for nearly four decades — as a player, club builder, coach, and administrator.
He first stepped onto the pitch in 1988 and moved early into club management. He led the Chico Mighty Oaks Rugby Club as president through the program's rise from a respected regional club to a national powerhouse in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a run that culminated in a National Championship in 2002.
He then joined the Chico State Men's Rugby Club as an assistant coach and later became head coach, producing multiple National Top 20 year-end finishes on the D-1 collegiate scene.
In 2012 he stepped down at Chico State to found the Chico Oaks Youth Rugby Club, where he remains Director. The program serves roughly 100 to 150 youth players from across Northern California.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
Thur, Aug 20 - Programs Committee Meeting (get your ideas to Glen Eaton)
Tue, Aug 25 - Greg Blake, CUSD Superintendent
Tue, Sept 1 - Dr. Joan Schumann, Northern California Literacy
Karli Olsen reported for the New Zealand All Blacks, and the list she read made the case for a team that has not been idle.
They volunteered at the 4th of July Parade, at Slice of Chico, and with Blue Bags. They held a coffee meetup at Centennial Park to donate books. They've been holding team meetings at the Pour House, and worked in a bar crawl downtown.
Ahead: a pool party social at Annabel Grimm's next week with the Springboks, and a night out to hear Robert Delgardo's band play at The Commons. Annabel Grimm and Andy Amaro are her co-captains.
President Beau on the All Blacks: He gave his history minute to the Haka — the Ka Mate, composed by Te Rauparaha early in the 19th century, first performed before a match in 1888, and revived in 2005 by Tana Umaga as a permanent pre-game fixture.
It wishes both sides well in battle. The clip he played was France's: one of very few sides ever reprimanded for it, for forming an arrow and advancing on the All Blacks mid-Haka.
VISITING SIDES
Rex Moseley, Rotary Club of Oroville
IN THE GRANDSTAND
Holli Drobny, guest of Annabel Grimm
Susan Moretti, guest of Kevin Moretti
Tina Smith, guest of Tyler Smith
Jaime Ott, guest of Luke Milliron
Lacey Lightfoot, guest of Robb & Karin Lightfoot
Patrick Perrine, guest of Cynthia Perrine
Michael Dominick, guest of Rob Reddemann
Sean McCreary, guest of Pat Conroy
Kevin Moretti introduced Susan and mentioned they'd just hit their 30th anniversary, which set off the anniversary roll call below. Patrick Perrine is starting ninth grade at Inspire. Sean McCreary has now been Pat Conroy's guest often enough that President Beau asked whether he was milking it for lunches. And Beau, on being introduced to Annabel Grimm's guest, took the opportunity to ask the table whether it's true that Annabel's rugby name is the “Grim Reaper”.
FROM THE SIDELINE
The anniversary roll call.
Kevin Moretti's 30th opened it, and the room kept raising hands.
Chuck Priddy and Marianne celebrate their 70th on Wednesday — the number that stopped the room. Tom Huston and Carol marked their 50th yesterday, August 10. Ken “Red Badge” Chase, 72 as of Sunday, and Becky marked their 52nd yesterday, August 10. Val and Rob Reddemann have their 33rd on Friday, August 14. And Alberta Simic reported that she and Don just celebrated their 68th anniversary.
President Beau's summary, which is about right: “I just hope I live to be 68 or 70, let alone married.”
August Blood Drive.
So far, 3 people have donated and there are 5 appointments on the books.
Remember: three points per person who donates, plus another three points per person you recruit — spouse, family, friend, colleague!
Special Grants makes its first award.
The Special Grants Committee voted its first grant of the year — $1,000 to American Legion Post 17 for its coffee time program, which brings veterans together for fellowship and resources. Leanne Chrisman brought it to the committee.
Debbie Moseley explained how the committee works: a $5,000 budget for the year (thanks Beau!), awards up to $1,000 each, applications reviewed by the committee, questions asked, thumbs up or down.
Harvest Moon and Enloe.
Devin Potter pointed to the flyer on every table for Healthy Rural California's Harvest Moon Black Tie Benefit, Friday, October 2, at the CARD Creekside Rose Garden.
Tickets and sponsorships are behind the QR code on the flyer; Healthy Rural California is the 501(c)(3) behind the effort to expand care in the north state — as Beau put it, the ones who funded getting doctors up here.
Potter, who is vice chair of the Enloe Health Foundation Board of Directors, also reported on Monday's Enloe ribbon cutting with the Chico Chamber: 760 community members turned out, which he offered as the measure of how much the new facility means, and how much of a magnet it might be for new physicians.
Get Ready: Surf & Turf is Right Around the Corner.
Evan Markey reported from the committee's second meeting. Roughly 30 of the 63 tables are already spoken for, and his advice to anyone thinking about one was to move sooner rather than later.
Multiple sponsorships and table sponsorships remain — see Evan or any committee member. Alex DuBose, Rental Guys, has already claimed Title Sponsor.
On the difference between the $1,500 and $3,000 tables: more wine, better location, bar runners, and some branding. And this year the club has hired a professional auctioneer. Jeni Moore will be up soon with more.
Logistics: November 14, Saturday, 5:00 PM at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds — same date and structure as last year, same band, same food.
TRIBUTES
Devin Potter got the first call, on the strength of his photo montage, and Beau opened where anyone would: with the puppies.
Potter started at the left instead — a picture from Glen Eaton's presidential year, in which his sister thought it would be funny to have his niece hold up a sign advertising him as single. Glen, Potter said, ran with that. Relentlessly.
Six years later, Potter was happy to report to Glen that his efforts had finally worked: the photo in the middle is Potter and his girlfriend, Jessica Covello.
The rest was dogs — nine years on the Butte Humane Society board, a shot from BHS's Woofstock, and his golden doodle Callie alongside Charlie, a bundle of joy of no determinable breed, the two of them now inseparable.
Asked what he's most proud of, Potter went smaller and better than expected: at one point in college he considered leaving Chico, and he stayed. What means the most now is getting to show Jessica, who isn't from here, what being part of this community actually feels like. Twelve bells.
Evan Markey followed, and led with the claim that he's been married 71 years -- which caught the audience, and Chuck, off guard -- before correcting to 19 years in October.
His photo montage ran to family: McCloud Falls, his brother's family on the Truckee River four weeks ago, seafood in Aptos, Santa Cruz, and a Giants game from when the kids were younger. The cat, Samson, wears a bow tie and pees all over the house, a combination Beau found hard to reconcile.
The dog, Bree, chose him — she came up at an adoption event and would not leave until he took her home. He also mentioned joining the Butte Human Society recently. Son Jackson starts at Bidwell next week; his daughter just made the JV field hockey team, and the family is sticking with flag football, which Beau allowed was probably wise.
Then the thing we didn't know: in college, Evan was on a first-name basis with Oprah. It's a long story, he said, and it's a true story, and that was all anyone got, thanks an evergreen NDA with her estate. Twelve bells.
RUGBY KIT BAG
This week's winning prize was a dozen cookies from Mike's Cookie Shop — not, President Beau conceded, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day like last week, but close enough.
His read on where that lands in the club's three taglines: "more the happy, as opposed to healthy and active."
The winner - Mark Johnson - was wearing a pin, which triggered the club's $40 donation, and named Catholic Charities as the recipient.
MATCH OF THE DAY
Tyler Smith, CEO, Matson & Isom Technology Consulting — introduced by Glen Eaton, who fed the assignment to an AI and asked it to dial down the flowery version Mike Donnelly got out of the same tools a year ago.
Tyler returned a year after his first AI talk with a sequel he'd labeled 2.0 — more capable, the slide said, and also more terrifying. His thesis hadn't moved: this is a tool, and the philosophy that matters is using it to amplify the impact of people, not replace them.
The numbers had all roughly doubled. Pew Research now puts nearly half of Americans on AI chatbots, one in four of them daily. Big tech is on track to spend $765 billion on AI infrastructure this year — which, he noted, is why a laptop costs what it does now. Those companies are buying up the world's supply of memory.
Last year, AI could chat, he said. This year it can work. He proved it live: before the talk he set a Claude-based "Rotary Agent" running in the background to turn his own takeaways into a formatted one-page PDF, then checked on it at the end of the hour. "Hey, it worked." Email Tyler for a copy.
His rule for all of it, offered in the Q&A: never delegate to AI what you wouldn't want to take responsibility for yourself. Trust it 85 percent, maybe 90 next year, never 100.
Team in Charge: New Zealand All Blacks!
President Beau on the All Blacks: He gave his history minute to the Haka — the Ka Mate, composed by Te Rauparaha early in the 19th century, first performed before a match in 1888, and revived in 2005 by Tana Umaga as a permanent pre-game fixture. 
Debbie Moseley explained how the committee works: a $5,000 budget for the year (thanks Beau!), awards up to $1,000 each, applications reviewed by the committee, questions asked, thumbs up or down.
Harvest Moon and Enloe.
Evan Markey reported from the committee's second meeting. Roughly 30 of the 63 tables are already spoken for, and his advice to anyone thinking about one was to move sooner rather than later. 
