Early application deadline for school-age championships

Applications for USARFU's school-age championships are coming due, weeks before play kicks off.

The foreseeable shortage of results and therefore comparative merit did not dissuade the union from converting these competitions to invitationals. Since declaring its intent to wind down national playoffs in 2009, Boulder has not wavered from the view that state bodies should organize school competition.

'I just met with the [National Federation of State High School Associations] and all the heads of the 50 state [high school] athletic associations. They all wanted to see strong state champs and had very little interest in a national champion', youth director Kurt Weaver said in an email.

Constitutent demand, much of it from the parochial schools which have dominated affairs, temporarily keeps USARFU in the sector. But the union is now essentially competing with state- and privately run tournaments, and financial performance may come to weigh on whether Boulder continues. Already the union is requiring a cash deposit to ensure teams turn up.

The trajectory of under-19 competition, a subset of school-age play which lacks natural allies like the NFHS, is still less predictable. After being split from 'single schools' in 2008, the category has continued to foster debate over whether eligibility should be grounded in simple age or the model of multiple schools combining to form one scholastic side, often seen as a stepping stone to a conventional 'varsity' approach.

Either way, the format's national role is dependent on USARFU, spurred by the International Rugby Board's annual under-20 tournament. Given the union's declining revenue, Boulder's support for U19/U20 activities essentially comes at the expense of the next level up, the universities, and specifically the Collegiate All-Americans.

That said, responsibility for collegiate play also has been devolving out to college conferences, which are functionally independent of USARFU.

Though there have been worries about the schoolboy field's geographic diversity, the tournament will not allow a team which has been accepted to withdraw in favor of a superior local competitor. 'No teams will be accepted as placeholders. ...Since this is an invitational tournament, we are not bound by geography,' Weaver said.

Each field, single school and U19, will comprise 8 teams. Invitations are to issued in mid-Feburary.

Comments

[anon]

This is as "Varsity" as it gets.

[Matt]

This is a very strange way to run a "national championship." The odds of the best teams being there are not good.

[college]

I would say the odds are pretty good. Not guaranteed like it is with the previous system, but still pretty good. And the money saved for clubs nationwide and the promotion of state-based competitions is worth going from guaranteed to have the best teams to probably having the best teams.

Let's face it, the same teams have been always. Jesuit, Xavier, Gonzaga, Penn, United, Highland etc. And that is who will probably be there this year.

[well done]

This is not a national championship, it is a national invitational tournament. I think they dropped the term "national championship." this is a great step forward-allows the best funded and some of the higher level teams to compete against each other but moves towards the state-based championships that are the pinnacle of other high school sports. Very good move by USAR.