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High school yearbook tells the story

I like American rugby stories, so Gonzaga College High School's 2009 yearbook is a welcome addition to the collection.

Among my favorite features are a list of alumni at top college teams (including Cal, Penn State, and Tennessee), player profiles that identify where the seniors are heading next (last year's tri-captains were to enroll at Harvard, Navy, and Virginia Tech), and an honor roll of youngsters who have played for local representative teams. These are the details that bring to life the Washington DC school's prodigious achievements.

One could argue that 100-page, photo-filled yearbooks are a byproduct for a team that's won 2 consecutive MAVRC titles, 10 straight Potomac crowns, and 5 Mid-Atlantic championships in the past 6 seasons. Lesser outfits needs to focus on 'the basics'.

I think it's the other way around. Mindful that any one person's time is limited, we know that great programs address all facets of building a team, and thus winning becomes a measure of the system's performance. Act like a champion, then become a champion.

Moreover, the 2009 yearbook presents Gonzaga rugby as a sport you'd want to be part of: winning tradition, strong support from the administration, seasoned coaching, and the opportunity to travel abroad. The focus is the student athlete, and there is no drivel about positional descriptions or 'how to watch a rugby game'; implicitly, the staff is more than capable of teaching such things.

Gonzaga began practicing this past Monday for the 2010 season, which sees the Eagles head to Italy before opening the MAVRC league season against Hyde on April 16.

Related:
    Expanded Maverick league kicks off
    Maverick league underway in Washington DC

Refs mentor Porter stepping down

Bryan Porter, whose sharp eye helped mold many of America's international referees, is stepping down from active duty with USARFU and the IRB.

Having emigrated from New Zealand some five decades ago, Porter played in San Francisco before taking up the whistle. He would have been a candidate for national honors at the time of the union's founding, but instead agreed to chair a new committee charged to standardize and improve the America's officiating.

Porter has held the role of national evaluator ever since. Most of the country's best and brightest, ranging from Dennis Shanagher, Ian Nixon, and Don Morrison to Don Reordan, Al Klemp, and latterly Dana Teagarden, would have worked extensively with the former insurance executive.

Like players, referees are promoted on the basis of consistently good performance, and an official's showing in high-stakes contests is thought to reflect on his referee society, if not the entire union. Even within rugby's closely knit fraternity, the matter of identifying and evaluating elite referees is an enigmatic calling, requiring judgment of technical skill and also temperament.

More a jocular fellow than eminence grise, Porter was often be found on the sidelines or under the referees' tent, intent on the craft. He is expected to continue working in the Northern California area, which boasts one of the country's larger and more active referee societies.

Porter is to be honored at dinners on both coasts in the springtime.

Related: Ref rankings revamped

Pathways doubt after All-American post filled

Alex Magleby's quiet reappointment as Collegiate All-American coach is likely to be seen as another letdown for domestic coaching hopefuls.

Magleby, a Dartmouth All-American and 7s and 15s international turned head man at his alma mater, possesses well-established credentials but will not be helped by USARFU's yet-unannounced move. The AA program has become a flashpoint for unhappiness with Boulder's so-called pathways: Hundreds if not thousands of coaches work at the university level but have no defined route to top jobs.

Last summer all of the collegiate territorial coaches circulated a letter calling for coaching candidates to have advanced USARFU certification and rise up through an established process. The letter also lobbied for revising All-American selections and match scheduling as well as a coaches association.

Chief executive Nigel Melville responded by agreeing to hire a collegiate director while provisionally endorsing a 60-player training camp and a home All-American match. He reserved appointment of the 2010 AA coach to himself, however, according to notes from a September conference call.

Competitive applications were very much on the mind of the territorial coaches, who subsequently established a breakaway organization called US College Rugby Association. USCRA is scheduled to meet next weekend in Las Vegas in conjunction with the USA 7s.

The decision comes on the heels of Ric Suggit's controversial selection as coach of the women's 7s Eagles.

Meanwhile, the All-Americans' summer schedule has not been determined, and it seems apparent that standout students do not figure in plans for the USA 'A' team to compete in the 2010 Americas Rugby Championship. Last week, Eagles coach Eddie O'Sullivan indicated his preference for domestic Eagles, which suggests the fall tournament ought not be viewed as a pathway competition but a tuneup for established internationals.

Related:
    Territorial coaches call for sweeping college reform
    Collegiate reaction could loose broad changes   
    On sponsoring the All-Americans
    Canadian Suggit wins women's 7s post

On funding development and national teams

In response to 'On principles, strategy, and organization,' an estimable volunteer wrote to ask whether I am in favor of dues and if not, 'where does the money come from to fund growth / development?'

The question takes us to the heart of matter of USARFU's transfer regime.

Dues are the union's primary revenue source, and the largest segment of dues payers are high school and college players. Additionally, students drive the National Guard sponsorship, reportedly a seven-figure deal, as the military service is interested in recruiting. Yet Boulder's primary expenditure is not development programs but 'high performance' (HP) and national teams.

For every dollar USARFU spends on development, it spends three on the 'top of pyramid', according to figures provided to Congress in fall 2009.

Further, development programs generated $219,000 in fees last year, paying for 21 percent of their cost. International matches generate revenue too, but that is a stated purpose of test competition. Development programs are quintessentially an investment, and so user fees reflect one's priorities or penury, or both.

To the original question, for the time being how the money is used is more important than dues' existence. Longer term, the union should pledge to cease relying on student funding, and to revive the goal of offsetting the costs of teams that make sponsors dollars possible, an idea goes back at least to Ian Nixon's time. Then there is the abandoned precedent of requiring the test teams to fund themselves.

Kevin Swiryn returns from injury to captain the USA squad at the New Zealand 7s in Wellington, as do forwards leader Matt Hawkins and Mark Bokhoven. 15s stalwart Paul Emerick and Marco Barnard join the team for the first time this season, which has been disappointing season to date.

The Eagles yesterday wrapped up a training camp in Fiji by releasing footballer Bennie Brazell, 19-year-old Dimitri Efthimiou, and Trevor Richards, prospects whom coach Al Caravelli is 'intent' on naming to a future roster.

United States to New Zealand 7s
Marco Barnard (Kutztown Univ.), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Nick Edwards (New York AC),  Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore), Valanese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Leonard Peters (Gentlemen of Aspen), Mile Pulu (San Francisco Golden Gate), Shalom Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (capain, Old Puget Sound Beach), Zack Test (Loughborough Univ.)

On principles, strategy, and organization

Know thyself, the better to use your strengths.

USARFU appears to need a look in Plato's mirror. The broadly unpopular decision to hire on a Canadian to coach our 7s World Cup semifinalists may mark the point when the union lost touch with the wellspring of American rugby.

Whether attributable to a colonial mentality or the union's financial dependency on the IRB, ongoing attempts to transplant Commonwealth norms ('to professionalize') have played a primary role. Also significant is Boulder's focus on eligibility, in as much as compliance fuels dues gains, Boulder's most reliable source of revenue growth.

Thus, even before the ill-fated 2006 strategic plan took shape, USARFU was on its way to becoming an organization that exists for its own purposes. The new constitution may be legally sound but reflects none of American rugby's historic character. These days, USARFU's members are taxed but not effectively represented, since the congress has no veto of the board's budget. Boulder's centralized planning is unaccountable to any electorate.

The purpose of identifying and enmeshing bedrock principles within charter and policy is not to prescribe an organization's activity, but to ground it, to lend experience and even wisdom to ongoing activity and new ventures.

USARFU's top-priority pursuit of test rugby amply demonstrates the absence of principles leading to operational dysfunction. As the game blossoms among high schools and colleges, Boulder collects dues and sponsors but students pay to compete in national championships and on representative teams. Notwithstanding, the union makes a loss, largely on the administration of senior national teams, which still cannot fully support the athlete's costs.

Chair Kevin Roberts, chief executive Nigel Melville, the board, and allies on down would contend that test rugby is the best hope for commercializing the game. Though virtually everyone wishes American rugby enjoyed a higher profile, it is far from clear that most participants want to bankroll the attempt to break into the world's largest sports market, particularly in the midst of a virulent recession. Given a voice, most probably would say build the union, then the Eagles. (Alternately: wrong plan wrong time.)

USARFU's leadership also would assert it is investing in the game through development programs. Setting aside that the balance of funds actually goes elsewhere, dues-paying members evidently do not feel they are getting their money's worth. (The last verified check on program expenditure dates to the union's 2007 tax return.) Breakaway movements in the aforementioned high school and college segments are not buying the argument that the benefits have yet to be seen.

Ironically, the matter of investment is where USARFU's management has diverted from the model it has tried to import from IRB strongholds. In ''Tier 1' nations, the union is expected to serve the clubs, which are considered to be shareholders and therefore receive dividends from revenue sharing to match tickets and other perks. Commonwealth teams are rarely, if ever, taxed to finance union initiatives. Members' dues generally 'stay at home'.

There is a word for an organization that follows self-defined logic and serves its own purposes: bureaucracy.

1. The nucleus of American rugby is the team, and its purpose is to provide competition for its members.
2. The leading resource for growth and improvement is the school system, which requires rugby to adopt a mainstream approach to sports.
3. The sport is too small for a large number of full-timers, so union administrative and commercial initiatives should be measured according to benefits for teams.

Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 3

An effort to elucidate the few principles on which any successful rugby policy in America must be grounded:

Principle 3: The sport is too small for a large number of full-timers, so union administrative and commercial initiatives should be measured according to benefits for teams.

• The playing community, even if energized by successful national teams, diminishes its focus when asked to endlessly pay for athletes, coaches, and officials. The game will become ‘professional’ only when subsidies are no longer necessary.
• The purpose of union initiatives is to generate financial returns to seed the growth and improvement of team competition.
• The most important commercial opportunities lie in 7s because it is an Olympic sport with a privately managed international tournament, posing no risk to teams.

Previous:
Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 2
Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 1

Related:
    Is American rugby adaptive?
    USARFU losses undermine strategy

Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 2

An effort to elucidate the few principles on which any successful rugby policy in America must be grounded:

Principle 2: The leading resource for growth and improvement is the school system, which requires rugby to adopt a mainstream approach to sports.

• Junior high, high school, and college teams sanctioned by school authorities enable rugby to systematically access valuable public resources.
• Rugby teams, varsity or otherwise, that emulate mainstream sports in providing advanced coaching, facilities, sports science, etc. obtain more of the most valuable resource: athletes. School teams also benefit from scholastic brands.
• Elite (i.e., representative or national) teams that replicate the varsity structure better prepare athletes since superior training is more practical than tougher competition. Olympic 7s represents the apotheosis of varsity training and support.

Previous: Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 1

Related:
    Is American rugby adaptive?
    USARFU losses undermine strategy

Principles for an American Rugby Policy: Part 1

Evidently it's not going according to plan, but what have we learned?

USARFU's 2006 strategic blueprint sought to import 'best practice' from rugby's professionalized powers, which tend to be small to midsized Commonwealth countries. Thus, beyond the unlikelihood of suddenly growing fourfold to become a $20 million organization, the union was counting on underlying socioeconomic and sports dynamics that do not obtain in the world's most vibrant democracy.

Still, the game is not irreconcilably different from place to place, and American rugby boasts a 100-year heritage of which we may be proud. So how should 'Tier 1' norms be adapted to our traditions and competitive environment?

In an effort to elucidate the few principles on which any successful rugby policy in America must be grounded, I recently reviewed writings on the 2009 season and then backtracked further, while also drawing on the work of colleagues at Rugby Magazine, American Rugby News, and elsewhere. I've also benefited from speaking with many players, coaches, and officials; but any errors of commission or omission must be my own.

Principle 1: The nucleus of American rugby is the team, and its purpose is to provide competition for its members.

• The main role of third parties (e.g., referees, league officials, vendors) is to promote competition. Commerce is a byproduct of serving teams.
• Decisions about competition are best made by those authorities closest to the competitors, because the game encompasses the diversity of a continental nation.
• To the extent that it directs resources away from team competition without delivering practical benefits, the claims of unions on teams are limited.

Related:
    Is American rugby adaptive?
    USARFU losses undermine strategy

Collegiate reaction could loose broad changes

Collegiate changes may be coming in spite of the leaders who are triggering them.

USARFU last season collected millions in dues and sponsorship dollars while student teams paid hundreds of thousands to compete in the game of the month, regional and national championship competitions, and on representative teams including the All-Americans.

The lopsided relationship triggered volunteer uproar and then well-publicized plans for a breakaway organization that's to convene next month in Las Vegas. While the US Collegiate Rugby Association's ambitions are unclear, the threat to one of Boulder's primary revenue streams is evident, prompting the incumbent body to announce in November it would hire a collegiate director.

The tumult's lasting impact could be to drive home the realization that collegiate teams themselves hold the keys to improving their lot.

Presuming USCRA gets off the round, the question of whether a club team may choose its affiliation or must defer to school authorities underlines that the university is pivotal to recognition as well as access to the many resources embedded within the campus environment. Thus teams previously oriented toward rugby's impecunious bureaucracy may learn to refocus themselves on those college officials who allocate fields, approve projects, and so on.

As another example, both groups have drafted strategic plans that dwell on 'governance' and administrative efficiency, hardly the sort of stuff to fire the imagination. Accordingly, important conversations about improved competition -- such as a 'collegiate super league' that would create exciting commercial opportunities -- have taken place among principals, outside official channels.

Political scientists hold that authoritarians yield to democracy not because emerging elements of society wish for representative government, but when expectations of civil conflict make self-rule the more pragmatic option. Witness Eastern Europe in 1989, the subsequent collapse of Soviet Russia, or South Africa in 1992.

USARFU has yet to hire a dedicated staffer, USCRA remains an unproven concept, and so the country's hundreds of college outfits have no collective voice nor practical means of holding the union's directors to account. All that is secondary to the ramifications of schools balking at the continued financing of Boulder's IRB-driven, top-down strategy, a development that would reverberate across every segment of the American game.

Coda: I am indebted to those Gainliners who last week reported key elements of this story, supported by primary materials, as well as to those who provided enlightening debate.

Huckaby succession as Arkansas St gains ground

Former 7s Eagle Matt Huckaby will be the next coach of Arkansas State, succeeding his father Curt, whose tenure enmeshed rugby in the Jonesboro school's fabric.

'Because of Curt’s dedication and hard work, Arkansas State University has enjoyed extensive positive exposure nationally and internationally for our rugby team’s achievements,' chancellor Robert Potts said in a prepared statement. 'We will always be appreciative to him for his efforts, and we are confident that Matt will continue to carry the program forward.'

Although ASU classifies rugby a club sport, in deference to the NCAA, to enjoy such a ringing endorsement is to be varsity in spirit if not in fact. The program's future, warranting a school-administered search culminating in yesterday's announcement, evidently has the attention of campus leaders.

More specifically, Arkansas State sees rugby as advancing its brand internationally, something that interests many American universities, which covet a broad base of students as well as students who pay full tuition. With a bit less than one-third of the squad coming from overseas, the sport effectively pays for itself, according to the school's release.

The elder Huckaby steps down with a record of 183-44-1 over 14 seasons, including runnerup finishes in the 2001, 2004, and 2006 division 2 national championships. Afterward, the Red Wolves stepped up to division 1, winning consecutive South territorial titles and falling last year to eventual champion Brigham Young in the round of eight.

Matt, who played for his dad, was an unheralded, 6'0", 200-lb flanker who competed 'much harder than most,' according to one contemporary coach. He nabbed All-American honors after the 2001 and 2002 seasons and would go on to claim a handful of Eagles 7s caps and invitations to several 15s assemblies, yet never quite managed full international honors.

Along with Dartmouth's Alex Magleby, BYU's Kimball Kjar, and San Diego State's Matt Sherman, the younger Huckaby is one of promising generation that has moved quickly from being All-Americans in the early years of the decade to coaching leading teams by its end.

Fifteen players have been named to the USA 7s squad competing in the January 21-23 Fiji 7s, an important precursor to February's Wellington and Las Vegas stops on the Sevens World Series.

Three will released before Al Caravelli's troops head to New Zealand, where another failure to score series points could raise questions about America's automatic qualification for the 2010-11 circuit. The roster includes Bennie Brazell, a 7th-round pick in the 2006 NFL draft; Kevin Swiryn, who missed the Dubai and George tournaments due to injury; and Paul Emerick, made available by his Italian club.

United States to Fiji 7s
Marco Barnard (Kutztown Univ.), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Bennie Brazell (Unattached), Nick Edwards (New York AC),  Dimitri Efthimiou (Mystic River), Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore), Malenese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Leonard Peters (Gentlemen of Aspen), Mile Pulu (San Francisco Golden Gate), Trevor Richards (Univ. of Nebraska), Shalom Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (captain, Old Puget Sound Beach), Zack Test (Loughborough Univ.)