Youth Conference Update

A few highlights from the youth conference last weekend:

-140 people attended the youth conference, the most ever. 27 states had non-profit youth organizations represented, with several more being formed.

-Rookie Rugby and Play Rugby USA are growing significantly in other parts of the country. Checkout the picture used at the top of Rookie Rugby's home page; it features one of Wisconsin's great high school players, and four-time national champion, Lauren Franzen.

-All but three of the attendees said they supported USA Rugby's eligibility proposal focusing on strictly high school teams, instead of u-19 clubs.

-The long-term vision of USA Rugby is to support a single-school team system, with an understanding that we’re a long way off from that.

-The reaction to USA’s All-star schedule was more divided.

-Support for a national championship remained strong.

-There did not appear to be any interest from other states in 7’s or all-star teams for girls in the spring. That’s their team season for now. Indiana has some interest in a fall girls season.

Wisconsin Delegate to Speak at National Conference

This coming weekend, WGR’s John Klein will be speaking at the National Youth Conference on the Game in Indianapolis. Klein has the rare honor of speaking at the beginning and end of the conference. In one of the opening sessions, Klein will present about the opportunities for girls rugby and how these opportunities have increased dramatically in the last few years. At the conference’s final session, as part of a prestigious panel including Mike Tolkin and Lee Kelly, Coach Klein will address how great programs are developed. Mike Tolkin coaches Xavier High School in New York (The 2010 National Champions), Superleague team NYAC, and the USA Men’s National Team, as defense coach. Lee Kelly, coaches Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C.


WGR will be dispatching one of its beat writers to report back live on the event.

No More High School National Championship?

As reported by Rugby Magazine, USA Rugby’s Youth and High School Committee is considering several significant changes.

"The long-term outcome of this vision will be to create a High School focused season leading to a state championship; followed by a ‘travel or club’ season, potentially leading to a national championship," said Youth & High School Committee member Kurt Weaver. "These travel teams might be all-star teams, city based club programs, or even sevens clubs, but the focus will be on an actual season for these programs instead of the one-off tournaments we currently support for our select teams. Through this process, both our saturation and our rugby talent will improve."

“Proposal Highlights:
U19 designation changed to "High School Club."
Players on High School Clubs must be in high school to play.
Players in Single-School teams must be current students at the school they play for.
Age requirements (must not have turned 19 by September 1 of the School Year) remain.
Players who graduate during the season can still play.
Provisions allowing players who graduated last year to the year before to still play will be stricken.”

Implicit within Weaver's statement is that USA will no longer support a high school national championship. The committee’s intent, according to the article published Nov. 29th, was to have the proposals adopted by the New Year. Not a lot of time for discussion or feedback. No further announcements have been made at this time, so it appears the issue may still be open.

The High School and Youth Committee is:
Bill Middleton (chair) bmiddleton@usarugby.org Kurt Weaver kurt@rugbyohio.com
Mark Van Trees everythi@mindspring.com Tal Beyer tbayer@hydedc.org
Dick Podmore dick@dickpodmore.com Mark Griffin mgriffin@usarugby.org
Erin Kennedy ekennedy@usarugby.org

Women's Rugby Pioneers

( Photo courtesy of the New South Wales Heritage Library, Australia.)

For our 201st post, we'd like to pay tribute to all the girls playing rugby in America. You are pioneers who help break stereotypes. For one, there haven't been women playing contact sports in great numbers, especially as a team sport. In addition, you've all been playing a sport that for a long time was seen as foreign.

Sometimes rugby inspires that kind of independence and i suppose it's been that way for some time. Women's rugby had some success in France starting in the 1920's. Some French even tried a women's version of rugby they called "barette" which did away with rucks but kept scrums and lineouts. Our first vintage picture is from a French magazine advertisement of that era. The second is a group of Australian ruggers from New South Wales.

The first documented evidence of an attempt to form a purely women's team occured in 1891 when a tour of New Zealand by a team of female rugby players was cancelled due to a public outcry.

In Wisconsin, Divine Savior Holy Angels High School began forming the first girls team in 1996. These brave young women played mostly college b teams. It took two years before they scored the first try in team history, thanks to a young Miss Allison Urbanski. It wasn't until years later, the Fall of 2000, that the second team, Kettle Moraine, came on the scene.