Back to Beltway high schoolers ... across the Potomac, a true high school competition comprising some of the Washington DC area's marquee names is underway.
Provocatively, the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference (the "Maverick league") aims to make inroads with school athletic directors, and pointedly ignores USA Rugby.
The 7-team competition culminates in a city championship, and only one 
competitor is also trying to compete for USA Rugby's national title.
One reason, according to organizer Jason Maloni, is the Maverick league
needed to set its dates in advance of Boulder's determining its calendar.
The approach is notable because the competition comprises some of the region's 'name brand' schools, and some of its leaders have substantial national experience, borne of working within the union system for many years.
'We want to create a product that our athletic directors and other ADs can understand,' organizer Jason Maloni said in an email.
Several of the league's guidelines are modeled after customary features in mainstream sports, but exceed rugby's standards, including sideline medical care and field standards. Meanwhile, taking a cue from baseball, the league plans to host a midseason all-star match between Maryland and DC squads.
The Maverick league intends to pay local college players to referee its matches. Youth teams are often the last in line to receive certified referees. But the approach is also important because officiating has in the past been one of Boulder's leading tools for bringing so-called rogue competitions to heel.
Chair Kevin Roberts, chief executive Nigel Melville, and others have recently floated the idea that the board and much of Boulder's top management should focus on elite levels, leaving 'recreational' and age-grade rugby to the (largely sidelined) Congress and local volunteers. But competitions such as in DC suggest a more thorough withdrawal -- including crucial CIPP dues.
The league comprises Dematha, Eleanor Roosevelt, Georgetown Prep, Gonzaga, Hyde, Landon, and St. John’s. Competition kicked off in March.
Related: Virginia youth competition underway
Good for DC and Good for Virginia who is doing something similar. USA Rugby has bigger fish to fry and has no control over leagues like this. Soon colleges will also break off as more and more become varsity or at least recognized sports teams (not clubs) under athletics.
USA Rugby will be a club sport entity and run the National team and things of that nature.
The HS competitions will take a life of their own. Even in Massachusetts, the Catholic Conference is starting up their own league very soon. VT has a pretty established league of their own. Few of them care about Nationals, but they all care about states.
Posted by: Northeast Realist | 03 April 2008 at 09:21
There are certainly an increasing number of states who have scheduled their seasons later to align with a high school spring sport schedule and also to avoid water logged (or snow bound) fields.
In Oregon, as we have grown, we have needed more weekends for league games and as the season lengthens it pushes up against the nationals. The national champs have never been a focus of Oregon teams. To qualify this year they would have to travel to a qualifier in Utah (U19) and come up against Highland or travel to No Cal (HS) to play against the likes of Jesuit. Then if they survived that they would have to travel to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks later. All this takes a lot of money and time. I understand that the teams in Washington State have come to the same conclusion as the Oregon teams. It's not something they plan to pursue.
While the vast majority of Oregon HS coaches have never seen the value of a National HS championships they have certainly not turned their backs on USA Rugby. We host an annual CDP course attended by 40 people this year, are hosting the Falcons vs. Hawks NA4 match, use the liability insurance to secure fields and are planning to host a continuing education coaching course using a coach provided by USA Rugby. We also attend the Annual Youth Conference on the Game and contribute in whatever way we can.
FYI - I checked the USA Rugby membership database and it looks like all of the Washington DC schools, with the possible exception of DeMatha, have CIPP'd their players this season. In fact Lee Kelly's Gonzaga team has 117 kids!
The guys in Virginia have also registered their kids with USA Rugby I believe.
Posted by: Jeff Arker | 03 April 2008 at 13:08
Realist, I am with you 100%. I don't really care that Scott Johnson is the coach, other than to wish him well. I want the Eagles to do well, but it doesn't have much of a bearing either way on US rugby and won't have for many years. What matters to US rugby is the work being done, by seemingly everyone but USA Rugby, in the trenches. We need to hook up our sport to the American sporting machinery, not some commonwealth model.
Posted by: ERT | 03 April 2008 at 13:46
The Ohio based city leagues in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati are doing something similar. Teams pay into a a state based organization called Rugby Ohio (www.rugbyohio.com) via a per player fee that covers referee fees, onsite trainer (at each game) and administration/staffing of league and state tournaments.
While the Midwest and National Championships are overall goals, many Ohio solely focus on league and state championships. While I like the idea of national championships, it can unravel some of the local and state preparations. Teams with National aspirations participate in the Midwest Qualifier, Midwest Championships and (hopefully) National Championships, taking away three weekends. What happens is leagues end up having to accommodate for two or three teams.
Posted by: DJL | 03 April 2008 at 17:34
Another knock-on effect of making the leagues local: it creates more local interest in newspapers.
Getting local mainstream papers to name "all City" teams will help raise the profile of rugby amongst the rugby uninformed.
Case in point: The Washington Post publishes "All-Met" teams for nearly every sport.
Even when HS hockey was just beginning in the area, they published an "All-Met" team.
The local DC-area leagues would be well-served to drive this free publicity in a massive newspaper.
Washington Post's sports departments (they have two -- print and online) have their share of rugby players & fans on staff....
Posted by: Cheyanquí | 03 April 2008 at 18:26
We usually have only one or two teams interested but our state tournament has always been later than the territorial tournament so we just let the prior year champ have first choice to attend. Our kids are consumed with the state championship pursuit.
The reality is that if the national tournament went away tomorrow, 90% of our participants wouldn't even realize it.
We do have a bunch of kids interested in age grade all-star participation and have several success stories this year.
Nice to hear that Jeff is now getting a return on his investment in USAR. We have over 500 registered this year but I'm guessing that may be a high water mark...
Posted by: M. Bradley | 03 April 2008 at 18:52
Good luck to all the local temas and leagues, hope they communicate what they are doing if only to encourage startup teams in other areas.
Fostering communication and sharing administrative best practices should be the focus of USAR. Now, on with the show.
Posted by: Mike | 03 April 2008 at 20:03
The best advise is to just keep paying usarfu the cipp dues, while doing all the work yourselves. This will keep them from messing with you. Then at some point in the future, tell them where they can stick it and form your own national organization and take HS rugby to the next level. Last point, don't let the usarfu crowd bother you when they say it was all their idea and want to take credit for your work, we all know the truth.
Posted by: HS rugby neworg | 04 April 2008 at 12:14
HR rugby neworg,
The problem with your final sentence is that so long as you pay CIPP, USARFU claims you as part of their population.
But I guess you're right. It's a bit like living in a Authoritarian country with a one-party system. You need your party card to get ANY job, regardless of if you agree with the party.
Posted by: Cheyanquí | 04 April 2008 at 13:12
Cheyanqui,
That's because, like you, I don't hate USA Rugby, I only hate their lack of vision and accountability. I want USA Rugby to be successful with the Eagles, I wish they would just admit that is all they are trying to do. HS and college rugby needs an organization with American leadership and understanding in order to grow the sport. We should continue paying dues until we get enough of a critical mass to go our own way. I do hate that so much of our dues money is wasted on a huge poorly performing staff.
Posted by: HS rugby neworg | 04 April 2008 at 13:51
As far as I could tell from my days with SFGG u19s, we weren't terribly bothered by the national championships in youth rugby. I have these vague notions of playoffs, but it seems like Jesuit would inevitably play Highland while our season was still going on.
As for USA Rugby, I could care less if they see their only responsibility as to the Eagles. USA Rugby can't be all things to all people, and our reputation as a rugby playing nation rests on the Eagles. One person said above that the Eagles have no bearing on our rugby - I disagree completely. American soccer was exploding in the 80s but no one noticed abroad or at home either. It took the US qualifying for the World Cup in 1990 to make that known. Our equivalent would be qualifying for the QFs.
Posted by: Flynn Hagerty | 05 April 2008 at 01:23
Just a difference of opinion. The Eagles aren't going to the RWC quarters any time soon, therefore, best of luck to them, but they just don't matter as much as high school and college rugby does. More importantly they don't matter as much as better planning does at the high school and college levels. Even if the Eagles went to the RWC quarters what do you think would happen? Nothing I'm afraid. We as rugby people would get all excited, but the happening wouldn't even be covered in the local newspaper. Wake up, this is America, lets make a plan for America with our sports culture in mind.
We need better American athletes playing rugby. More high school and college AD's proud of their rugby teams. Providing more support in the way of facilities, budget and overall leadership.
This is the end game. This is when the Eagles become a force in world rugby. With all due respect to Scott Johnson and his handlers, we are not just a little skill away from making a mark. We are playing international rugby with overseas 'never have beens' or American 6th string athletes. We need to move up to American 3rd string athletes and get them playing better rugby for a longer period of time.
USA Rugby is led by people not from here, they don't understand our potential, or our athletic systems. This is why the work being done by these high school and college, coaches, administrators and parents is so critical to the mid to long term future of US rugby.
Posted by: FrankRM | 05 April 2008 at 07:37
HSRNO,
USA rugby's inability to manage everything is yet another reason we shouldn't have so many "national championships".
Who is really well-served by a D3 men's national?
USA Rugby should essentially focus on a few focus events. Pool all your resources and sponsorship into them.
Make the product be scarce and of a higher quality, and people will look for it.
Instead, they are trying to manage 9+ national championships each spring (four college, 3 sr. men, 1 hs, 1 u-19), along with NA4 prep.
It's clear that they are spread too thin.
Focus on making one "dish" really well, and people will eat at your restaurant. If you try and be all over the place, you won't make anyone happy.
To metaphor Seinfeld, they are Babu Bhatt's Dream Cafe. Dishes all over the place, and they all suck.
Posted by: Cheyanquí | 05 April 2008 at 10:16
"We need better American athletes playing rugby. More high school and college AD's proud of their rugby teams. Providing more support in the way of facilities, budget and overall leadership."
This is all great, but this is going to have to come from men on the ground. USA Rugby cannot micromanage the game.
"USA Rugby is led by people not from here, they don't understand our potential, or our athletic systems. This is why the work being done by these high school and college, coaches, administrators and parents is so critical to the mid to long term future of US rugby."
I agree, but it shouldn't be USA Rugby's job. USA Rugby's job is to make the national team better.
Posted by: Flynn Hagerty | 09 April 2008 at 11:27
OK Flynn I agree, the job of USA Rugby SHOULD be to make the Eagles better.
Two points; we are falling in the ranking over the last several years, so USA Rugby had better get going with this sole responsibility. Lastly, if thats USARFU's only role, why do we pay dues for a bunch of poorly performing employees tasked with running just about every aspect of the domestic game. If we can agree that USARFU has their hands full with their Eagles responsibilities, why do we allow them to fuck up the rest of rugby, on our dime no less.
Posted by: CJ | 10 April 2008 at 11:10