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Coaching, admin roles showing signs of split

As school and university teams evolve, coaching positions are diverging from administrative roles, possibly to the game's overall detriment.

A California high school looking for a women's coach is touting the opening as a 'dream rugby coaching job'  because scheduling, logistics, and related chores are the responsibility of the school's director of rugby and its athletic department. Around the country, college leagues too are finding that many prefer technical specialization.

'Most of the coaches who are actually paid to coach can't / don't / won't serve in administrative roles', one league official said in an email. 'It is left to guys who have full-time jobs outside of rugby to both coach and administer competitions'.

As the game attempts to populate America's continental expanse, volunteerism is likely to persist, no matter whether it is organized by territorial or geographic union, state, or conference. Coaching stirs the blood because it's close to the action, while administration is not only thankless and obscure but also a responsibility shared with rivals, meaning no one wants to devote too much time and effort.

But separating how the game is organized and packaged from playing and coaching risks unmooring the sport from its primary competitive nature. Coaches, a team's single most influential voice, ought to be part and parcel of game development, to help shape routine administrative practice.

As one example of schism, staging the 2008 collegiate round of 16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, made sense in terms of event registration and staff logistics, but created superfluous travel while taking playoff matches out of the campus environment. The following year, broad unhappiness with the collegiate territorial (all-star) competition led to calls for a coach's association.

USARFU has recently made direct grants to school leagues for professional administration, with mixed results. Some policymakers are now discussing whether the geographic unions that are to replace the territories might employ full-timers.

Since the GUs are meant to govern senior rugby, however, it is unclear how such staff would work with the independent high school and college organizations that have already taken root. The conversation is preliminary, according to people familiar with the matter.

For their part, should school leagues develop commercially, they would soon enough have to decide when and how to reinvest in expanding capacity.

James Paterson used an illicit narcotic during the World Cup and therefore has been sidelined for four months, the International Rugby Board announced Friday.

During routine drug testing, Paterson acknowledged taking oxycodone for a shoulder injury, on the recommendation of the national team's medical staff.

'This was a very unfortunate case in the sense that it could have been avoided by referencing the [World Anti-Doping Agency] Prohibited List which is provided to all unions and was proactively made available to all participating teams and players prior to and during RWC 2011,' IRB anti-doping manager Tim Ricketts said in a prepared statement.

In addition to being the only failed drug test at the quandrennial championship, the case has attracted attention because the 24-year-old is native to Christchurch, New Zealand, and has played Super Rugby for the Crusaders.

The snafu is a major black eye for USARFU, which separately had recently been audited by the federal Department of Labor regarding improper player payments. Unlike most of American rugby, the national team is professionally managed.

The suspension began last October and extends through February.

SFGG bleacher plans signal expansion

San Francisco Golden Gate is looking to purchase more bleachers, indicating it believes expanded capacity will lead to additional revenue.

Unglamorous as they may seem, amenities such as stands, scoreboards and programs, concessions, and parking are the backbone of sports events the world over. The teams which provide them are the ones that get ahead.

Most American clubs neither own their grounds nor charge admission. SFGG too leases its Treasure Island facility, but sells tickets to Super League matches, operates concessions, and otherwise earns match-driven revenue against the fixed cost.

The club has further hosted such high-profile fixtures as USA 'A' versus New Zealand Heartland XV, a  charity match against intracity rival Olympic Club, (temporarily displaced) Cal against the University of British Columbia, and USARFU's club 7s tournament.

SFGG also runs large youth programs, so the stands would benefit parents. Approximately 180 of its 250 playing members are school students, with the under-14 group alone accounting for 100 athletes.

The estimated price of nearly $20,000 is material to the club's annual budget, according to a club official. There are hopes that donations may underwrite part of the bill, potentially warranting sponsor naming rights.

Adding three stands would bring the club to a total of five permanent bleachers.

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.

Nonprofit acclaimed for school work

A nonprofit promoting the game among urban schools and youth groups has won international recognition as 2011's outstanding grassroots program.

Play Rugby USA last week claimed 'community program' honors at a rugby trade show in Britain.

While premised on social value, the honor hints the British are coming round to understanding the importance of ensconcing rugby in the US school system, ideally as varsity teams. Overseas, a great many youth XVs are subsidiaries of well-resourced senior clubs. Foreigners have been slow to grasp that in America, public schools provide elite training for professional and Olympic sports.

Founded in 2004 by past international Mark Griffin, Play Rugby USA bills itself as a youth development organization based around the sport of rugby, meaning its technical and administrative program is suffused with a participant value system (e.g., teamwork and leadership). The flagship program operates within the New York City school system, with satellite operations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

Last month, USA Rugby's Rookie Rugby gym-class curriculum and train-the-trainer program separately won acclaim from the International Rugby Board for projecting the sport into public school gym classes. Youth are 75 percent more likely to take up a sport they've tried in phys ed, according to the union.

Both formats are essentially touch 7s. PRUSA's scope goes beyond Rookie Rugby, particularly in competitive / administrative features, while Rookie Rugby enjoys a broader geographic reach. Taken together, they could act to feed youth and high school teams, which have grown in number from 100 to approximately 1,000 over the past two decades.

Boston College and Brigham Young are the latest to decline invitations to USARFU's college 7s tournament. Billed as a 'true national championship' because of its qualification system, the hastily arranged debut competition's mid-December calendaring, conflicting with school finals and Christmastime as well as creating budgetary hardship, has warded off several prominent contenders.

Related: Youth nonprofit gains ground in New York schools

Rookie Rugby reports strong growth

USARFU's touch-rugby curriculum for gym classes and other beginner environments is on pace for 15 percent annual growth, according to union officials.

Rookie Rugby could reach more than 500,000 kids this year, up from 350,000 in 2010. The figure is premised on counting the total number of kids in any given school district or youth sports program with teachers and administrators who have been trained to present rugby lessons.

With such growth and low-cost operations, the four-year-old program looks to have become one of Boulder's most successful initiatives of the past decade. Last week Rookie Rugby earned USARFU the International Rugby Board's annual development award, becoming the first union to claim the honor.

Overseen by Boulder's youth department, propagation turns on a 'train the trainers' model, whereby USARFU staff or local personnel educate gym teachers, youth athletic leaders, and the like. The latter then lead touch rugby in school gym classes and similar environments, aided by lesson plans, videos, and other teaching aids.

As one example, an August program in Greensboro, North Carolina, trained some 200 gym teachers in the Guilford County School District. Wake Forest players have subsequently gone to several schools each week in support of the teachers. By result, 'We've exposed somewhere between 5,000-10,000 kids to the sport in that two-month period', a local official estimated.

The union's cost of organising teacher-training sessions is typically $500 or so, comprising airfare, hotel, and meals. Sometimes Boulder pays the cost directly, and sometimes the tab is picked up by state-based rugby organisations (so-called SBROs, USARFU-accredited youth organizing bodies), which may in turn use USARFU grant monies. Once initiated, school personnel can theoretically repeat the rugby curricula year after year, with no further instruction.

The program lacks tight, ready-made connections with youth teams, however. 'We're currently working on bridging the gaps between the [Rookie Rugby] and school modules and local youth teams. ... It is a critical component,' USARFU operations director Jim Synder Snyder said.

'For the more established SBROs this is becoming easier and easier as they are often the ones introducing the RR and can then follow up with the participants to provide them information about local leagues / teams', Snyder observed, adding that kids are 75 percent more likely to play a sport they've tried in gym class.

Rookie Rugby 'gives a taste of the game to those that may want to play the real thing, and gives those that will never play an understanding of the game should they become spectators', another youth leader observed. 'It also provides leverage for coaches and kids with their worrisome parents to let them play outside of the classroom: if it's been vetted by the schools, it must be ok'.

Sports Authority has teamed with Boulder to provide rugby balls to schools, as a means of driving more foot traffic into its retail stores. The partnership can be seen as market validation of the role schools play in accelerating entry into the sporting mainstream.

On world power and America's mainstream

There's new life in an old conundrum: Becoming a world power isn't the same as becoming a mainstream sport -- which should come first?

To gain stature in American sporting culture, name-brand schools, television, and Olympic 7s are a winning combination, as the USA Sevens College Rugby Championship is demonstrating. The formula for reaching the World Cup's knockout rounds is unknown, because it's never been done, although it clearly includes a larger share of the union's revenue and less third-party resources.

USARFU's budget relative to its would-be rivals and also the nation's gross domestic product is insufficient to achieve both simultaneously. One has to take precedence.

The plot thickens. USARFU's slogan is 'to inspire America to fall in love with rugby', which suggests that reaching the mainstream is the primary objective. But the union's biggest line item is the national team. And while the International Rugby Board is encouraging -- if not to say underwriting -- test competition, what Dublin really wants, on behalf of the small- and mid-sized countries that form its elite, is to tap into our commercial sports market.

Six years ago, when the union's parlous financial condition led to installing a new set of directors with little experience of American rugby, and the IRB simultaneously launched its test-oriented investment program, the matter looked to be settled. But test results haven't improved and Boulder's position has continued to deteriorate. Meanwhile, the youth and high school segments have exploded independent of central direction.

Though senior playing numbers are not growing so fast as the kids, the environment bears resemblance. While Boulder hasn't replaced the Inter-Territorial Tournament, thereby reducing the number of representative opportunities, the Super League (or division 1) never sought to lift the standard of national team candidates, but only to compete nationally. They pay their dues and their own bills too. Who's to say their model is 'wrong'? What moral authority impels them to sacrifice for the international game?

Reaching the World Cup semifinals would confer elite status on the US national team, yet probably not so much as winning a bronze medal at the Olympics. Ironic though it may be, 15s is becoming technically more demanding and athletically less prestigious.

It is said that 15s is where the real money is. Not in the States it's not, and the people who should know better appear to be confused about what they really want.

Jesuit, Highland claim youth titles

(Salt Lake City) Nick Boyer delivered a pair of vital tries as Jesuit raced past Xavier 50-27 for the high school championship.

Also on Saturday, Highland bested United 38-24 to farewell longtime coach Larry Gelwix with a third under-19 title, to go along with 17 schoolboy crowns won under the old format.

Both contests matched the 2010 champs against the teams they unseated, and duly the 'single school' final's lead changed hands 3 times in the first 30 minutes.

Chris Mattina opened Xavier's scoring account with a penalty goal, before Jesuit wing Ryan Shuler darted into tryzone after a bruising run from skipper Chris Fry.

The injury departure of Marauder flyhalf James Poindexter after 13 minutes marked a turning point, leading to Xavier backs Nicholas Conte and Ed Sullivan scoring inside 5 minutes of one another. The second touchdown, initiated by Sullivan's tap move and also converted by the fullback, gave the New Yorkers a 15-7 edge.

Back came Jesuit with a trio of tries showcasing the Sacramentans' trademark support play. Each of the deep three backs figured in flanker Clancy Smith's unconverted score; Patrick Barrientes was prominent in the phases leading to eightman Michael Bush's go-ahead try; and then Boyer dotted the afternoon's most elegant score.

Coming as Xavier was driving just before half, the long-range score featured skillful passing among wing Mathew Chipman, Bush, and Boyer, and transformed Xavier's hopes of reclaiming the lead into a nine-point Jesuit advantage, 24-15.

Moments into the second period, Chipman flummoxed three sideline defenders from a standing start for a sensational solo goal. By now it was evident that Xavier was struggling to contain their up-tempo rivals, particularly when yielding turnovers.

Jim Wolfer answered with a converted try in the 43d-minute -- halves being 35 -- after flanker Adam Duignan broke Jesuit's line. Again Boyer answered, this time beginning from a scrum pickup and using Chipman as a decoy.

Ahead 36-22, Jesuit copped a yellow card but Chipman again evaded Xavier's defense for a score that clinched the game. Duignan and Barrientes, whose improbable rebound from a semifinal injury proved important to Jesuit's surviving Poindexter's exit, then traded tries as time wound down.

Gonzaga downed Charlotte Catholic 17-15 for third place, after racing back from a 15-5 deficit. With the Carolinians down a man, Joe Taylor scored the game-tying try and Sam LaPaille booted a pressure conversion. The Eagles were overwhelmed 45-7 in their semifinal clash with Jesuit, while Charlotte dropped an 18-17 contest to Xavier in a penalty shootout.

In the U19 final, Highland ran in four tries after intermission as the 12-7 affair turned into a contest notable for solo playmaking and one-on-one matchups. Anthonly Lavemai nabbed a pair, and the center's contest against opposite number Kisi Unufe, who also claimed a brace, was among the most interesting battles.

At the second half's outset, Lavemai's 36th-minute try was quickly countered by a Russ Parai penalty goal and Unufe's intercept touchdown. Eightman Douglas Ferris than cruised over the line from a setpiece pickup to make the count 24-17, where it remained until 10 minutes to go.

A brokenfield scoring run by Joshua Faagalu, his second, stretched the lead to 14, until Unufe's 35-yard effort, made by Parai's simple cutout pass, brought the game back to a single score with 6 minutes to go. Lavemai's second proved the decider.

With the win, Highland presented Gelwix a retirement gift to embellish his place in American rugby history. Only Cal's Jack Clark has a national record worthy of comparison.

A father figure to players and tenacious opponent to rivals, some of whom have wondered about the team's Polynesian cast, the local businessman started coaching at Highland in 1975, a year before USARFU's formation. Many years before the school game was fashionable, Gelwix lead the union's youth committee, championing investment in participation and also nationalized competition. Dozens of his players became All-Americans and several won caps. In 2008 his successes were portrayed in the movie Forever Strong.

Jesuit 50 Xavier 27 (halftime: Jesuit 24-15)

Jesuit
Tries: Nick Boyer (2), Mathew Chipman (2), Ryan Shuler, Clancy Smith, Michael Bush, Patrick Barrientes
Conversions: Nick Boyer (5)

Frank Ramos; Mathew Chipman, Todd Cameron, Patrick Barrientes, Ryan Shuler; James Poindexter (Matthew Tiernan), Nick Boyer; Andrew Cowie, John Brown, Trevor Breault, Patrick Rockwell, Chris Fry (captain), Willem Bos (Anthony Calnero), Clancy Smith, Michael Bush

Xavier
Tries: Nicholas Conte, Ed Sullivan, Jim Wolfer, Adam Duignan
Conversions: Christopher Mattina (2)
Penalties: Christopher Mattina

Ed Sullivan; Charles Guiraud, Joseph Wolfer, Nicholas Conte, Jim Wolfer; Christopher Mattina, Andrew Brosnahan; Thomas Boule, Luna Mishoe (Martin Freda, Christian Mattera), Ricky Comis (Bryan Carley), James Kondrat, Connor Sweet (Michael Gorman), Patrick O'Grady, Adam Duignan, Joseph Corrado (captain)

Referee: Aruna Ranawera (Pacific Coast and United States)
Attendance: 750 (estimate)

Highland 38 United 24 (halftime: Highland 12-7)

Highland
Tries: Anthony Lavemai (2), Joshua Faagalu (2),  Jayce Hansen, Douglas Ferris
Conversions: Kobi Harris (4)

Jayce Hansen; Richard Vakapuna, Anthony Lavemai, Joshua Faagalu, Moses Lotulelei; Kobi Harris, Kepu Lauti; Kesni Tausinga, Kingston Liava, Logan Daniels, Kapi Pauni, Alai Motuapuaka, Josh Randel, John Kacinski, Douglas Ferris. Replacements unconfirmed

United
Tries: Kisi Unufe (2), Siona Hausia,
Conversions: Russ Parai (3)
Penalties: Russ Parai

Brandon Benavides; Zach Webber, Kisi Unufe, Mateaka Hausia, James Schultz; Russ Parai (captain), Marlin Green; Avalisi Bloomfield, D'vairo Auelua-Notoa, Wlater Murray, Brandon Wilde, Thayne Soloai, Robin Rudolph, Siona Hausia. Replacements unconfirmed

Referee: Paul Bretz (Pacific Coast and United States)
Attendance: 1,750 (estimate)

Private schools, local ties headline youth championships

Four years after USARFU sidestepped the thorny question of youth-championship eligibility by sanctioning both high school and under 19 titles, private institutions are dominating the 'single school' category while youth rugby's popularity in Salt Lake City has grown to rival the drawing power of America's top colleges.

Six of eight teams in the high school competition are parochial institutions that have adapted rugby to a varsity approach. That is unsurprising: Private schools often evince a strong sense of identity as well as a nimbleness that eludes their public counterparts in many fields, not only athletics.

But last years's Xavier-Gonzaga final, a breakthrough for the Washington DC XV, attracted little interest among Salt Lake's burgeoning rugby cognoscenti. By contrast, a raucous 3,500 or so watched United down archrival Highland in the U19 championship.

Local affinities rather the sport itself normally drive rugby crowds. It's one thing for teams to be advancing technically, and another for events to progress as a commercial properties. Only the USA 7s and College Rugby (7s) Championship, and perhaps temporarily homeless Cal, might claim otherwise.

As a another example, the audience for last weekend's College Premier Division semifinal was dismal, even though Denver isn't terribly far from Salt Lake. ESPNU's cable telecast notwithstanding, BYU fans clearly stayed home in anticipation of this weekend's finals matchup against Cal.

The collegians' Saturday night finale at Rio Tinto Stadium will cap a pair of school-age tournaments that kick off Friday in nearby Murray, before shifting to the Major League Soccer ground the next day. Xavier, New York's four-time champion, opens against St. Thomas Aquinas, which returns to the eight-team event after a year's absence.

The first day's drama figures to be in a semifinal match between Gonzaga and Sacramento's Jesuit, a perennial contender. A year ago, Gonzaga upset the then-reigning champs 17-15, fracturing the duopoly which had reigned since Highland exited in 2008.

While Highland and United look to be the class of the U19 tournament, there are a pair of sides from ex-Super League clubs, Belmont Shore and the Kansas City Blues. This supports the contention of teams which said they were withdrawing from the nationwide circuit to spend more on youth XVs.

Last week the RSL's expansion Utah Warriors announced it would be adding a division 1 side and assuming responsibility for Highland, America's most distinguished youth outfit.

As was the case a year ago, yellow cards will carry 10-minute suspensions even in 50-minute matches. International Rugby Board regulations limit youth players to a maximum amount of minutes for any given day, but USARFU's rugby (i.e., technical) committee has twice declined to decrease the sanction on the grounds that 10 minutes reflects how long it takes a 'typical' team to score a try, not an interval proportionate to the length of the contest.

The trophy commemorating the College Rugby Championship, set for next month in Philadelphia, will be named after Pete Dawkins, Army's 1958 Heisman Trophy winner who took rugby while studying at Oxford University, tournament organizers announced.

USARFU promotion aiming at gym classes

USARFU intends to market low-cost starter kits of gear and playing instructions, in an effort to seed school gym classes and other youth sports organizations.

Dubbed 'rugby in a box', the promotional initiative turns on the union's status and ability to risk losses. Conventional equipment vendors, which cater to established teams and players, lack Boulder's imprimatur and have not been willing to build inventory for selling into the unproven schools market.

Expected to come online this summer, the product would substantially recast USARFU's approach to spurring growth through subsidies.

Three years ago, the union provided free jerseys to college teams. Hundreds of lower-ranked schools used the kit happily enough, but it was not clear that any of them would not have played rugby but for the USARFU gear. The now-lapsed initiative looks to have been aimed more at sponsor fullfillment, specifically projecting the National Guard's brand on campus.

Rugby in a box will be far less expensive and combine gear with technical materials, aiming to win over new players. It will include 2 balls, flags, and cones; a six-week lesson plan tailored for gym teachers; and USARFU's Rookie Rugby curriculum. The final product specification will determine its price, expected to range from $150 to $200, according to youth manager Erin Kennedy.

'Our goal is to keep it affordable,' Kennedy said, adding the union is hoping sponsors may underwrite a portion of the cost.

USARFU will source equipment through its World Rugby Shop partner, and sell primarily via trade magazines and supply catalogs for school buyers.

State-based and other youth organizations have expressed interest in bulk discounts, to further their own game development projects. So-called SBROs have become America's leading resource for new youth and high school teams and leagues.

Circling back on minors

Earlier this month, an underage player came to be the topic of Gainline's comments section, thereby reacquainting rugby with the thorny question of whether minors are a suitable topic for civic journalism.

Here is my view: In off-field matters, I prefer to treat individuals, youth or adult, only when they shape public policy or at least are part of administrative proceedings. In this way, the discussion is shaped by the public record. As matches are inherently a matter of public record, there is a rough symmetry to the approach.

I can remember only one occasion when Gainline singled out a player in an off-field context. In 2008, America-qualified but England resident Chris Wyles was contracted by USARFU and 'loaned' to the Premiership's Saracens so he could train professionally and yet be available to the Eagles outside of the approved window for international matches. The move raised the issue whether the union was creatively managing the fullback's everyday schedule, or paying an Englishman to practice and live in England.

In the more recent case, I acknowledge it is meaningful to discuss how and why high school players choose college programs. Certainly school-age football and basketball players attract such attention: indeed, there are business devoted to following their recruitment.

On the other hand, to scrutinize rugby neophytes who are not public figures in any meaningful sense, and not typically themselves part of the conversation here, is to transform any topic into voyeurism, or worse.

Not a few of Gainline's readers are high schoolers, and my intent is that the site remains a serious-minded place for American enthusiasts of all ages. I would hope that those folks making comments will respect these views, and I reserve the right to moderate the conversation.

A USARFU official took umbrage with yesterday's post on New Zealand Universities Under 21. Boulder has agreed older players will be part of the Kiwi tour squad. Very well, call the side NZU 'A'.

The upshot remains that the tour does not pit their best students against ours. Moreover, we should not be content with staging such matches, since USARFU's tax intake funds representative play. Not only winning but also profiting from higher-profile games should be the standards of success.