My Christmas wish list

My Christmas List…

It’s almost Christmas so I thought I’d list the things that are on my list related to youth and high school rugby…

1. More dedicated volunteers – not a big surprise that this is the first thing on my list. We need more folks willing to take on the tough jobs of administering, coaching and refereeing high school and middle school rugby. This, more than any other obstacle, is the limiting factor in our growth. I’ve got two or three teams ready to start up right now if we just had the volunteers to take it on.
2. A national youth director – we haven’t had one for a full year. If USA Rugby truly wants to lead the youth movement then it’s trying to do it without a rudder. Peter Steinberg’s $50k contract ran out in December 2007 and wasn’t renewed. The position has been vacant since. Katie Wurst has worked herself ragged in the national office trying to do it all. How can it possibly take a full year to fill this position? Either the priority wasn’t there to hire someone or the position is a dead end and nobody wants it (or both).
3. A national youth committee with some power… We have one of sorts but its agenda and actions are controlled by the folks in Boulder. Our good friend over in Middle Tennessee, Mark Williams, served on this committee until a few months ago. He resigned from the committee and moved on to more productive endeavors. Oh, and it needs to be filled with folks with the vision of single school teams, state organizations and a varsity mentality for high school rugby and an AYSO mentality at youth rugby.
4. Transparency – looks like USAR has another nice sponsorship set up for 2009 with the National Guard. Financial details of the 2008 collegiate sponsorship were never revealed. Word on the street is that the 2008 deal was for $1.5M and USAR spent $.5M on kits. So, where’d the other $1M go? Alex Goff over at Erugbynews says the 2009 deal is not up to the 2008 contract level. If USAR is going to sell a product that we built with our own time and money shouldn’t we at least know the price?
5. Matching Grant Program – wouldn’t it be wonderful is USA Rugby would develop a matching grant program that made it possible to actually hire someone for development? I’m not talking about just for SBRO’s but for any qualifying organization that was devoted to the growth of youth and high school rugby. Think of what SMAC could do with a true employee in charge of development. Coaches would have a resource both on and off the field. It would be someone to ride shotgun during those principal and athletic director meetings at area high schools; someone to maintain media contacts and issue regular press releases; someone to organize coaching and referee training seminars; and finally, someone to manage the middle school and high school league schedules and the rugby park.
6. Reformed National Governance – USA Rugby changed its governance model in a matter of mere months back in 2006 but it has been three years of empty promises for State Based Rugby Organizations. At the 2006 Nashville Youth Conference it as identified and agreed by all parties that SBRO’s needed to bypass the archaic LAU / TU system and report directly to USA Rugby. Here we are three dues cycles later and most youth / high school administrators are still struggling with the TU/LAU relationship. How can this possibly take three years?
7. More true “rugby as a first sport” athletes – we still struggle to get players involved in representative rugby due to conflicts and in some cases general apathy. At some point, these young players need to realize the opportunities available to them if they simply apply themselves in our sport. It is extremely frustrating when we only take small steps forward each year.

I have lots of additional items on my list for rugby at the collegiate level but that’s for another time and another blog.

Wishing you Hope, Peace, Love and Joy - Merry Christmas!

Varsity Rugby and its Leadership

I offer the following two press releases for comparison.

Sabastian River obtains varsity status
Charlotte Catholic obtains varsity status

So, USA Rugby steps in to provide start up uniforms and equipment for Sabastian River and Catholic just goes about their business of building rugby on their own. What are the chances of Catholic getting some of that gear? I guess they’ll have to wait for the National Guard to drop it on them in 2009.

First, contragulations to both Sabastian and Catholic for their success. It took many volunteers and administators (and players) long hours to get where they are and they are to be commended. Well done. I’m all for the development of girls high school rugby and am working hard in my own back yard to insure that girls have opportunities to play; however, at some point there needs to be a clear and focused policy position delivered from USA Rugby on how it is going to assist high schools, high school leagues and state based organizations (boys and girls). There are several high school teams throughout the US that I'm sure were caught off guard by the first ever varsity girls program showing up this year in Florida. Where's their kit?

Where’s the leadership? Peter Steinberg’s contract to be a part time youth director expired in December 2007. Since December the position has been vacant with only periodic promises for the hiring of a replacement. Another year wasted at the national level meaning another year of high school kids passing through a system that wasn’t what it could have been.

What will it take for some to realize that every day that we don’t take a step forward, we are actually taking a step back… We must keep the go forward at the local level - regardless of what is happening around us.

*Additionally, on a related note, today (11/21/08) USA Rugby announced the agenda for the 2008 Youth Conference of the game to be held in Denver on December 5 – 7. Yeap, we get an agenda two weeks to the day before the event - plenty of time to make decisions on going and arrange travel, right?