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
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