America is encouraging youth teams to align themselves with secondary schools, even though the junior XVs usually do not enjoy official sanction.


Simultaneously, under-19 leagues are being pushed to follow state boundary lines, rather than conform to established sub-unions. Both moves would have the effect of moving rugby away from the traditional juniors model.


The pair of USA Rugby initiatives are intended to promote piggybacking on powerful, well-funded school athletic departments as well as the athletic associations that have grown up around football, basketball, and some 20 other scholastic sports.


In late October, the union said it would divide its national youth championship into two divisions, creating a new category for teams comprising players from a single institution. Another division will remain for conventional U19 teams.

'The strategic goal for USA Rugby is to have rugby formally recognized and supported by high schools,' Peter Steinberg, the union's youth manager, said in a prepared statement. 'The new championship structure will support this goal by encouraging the formation of single high school teams, while allowing multi-school club teams to continue to compete.'

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Also in 2008, Boulder is to begin disbursing cash grants to support the administrative costs - including executive directors and game development officers - of so-called state-based organizations. Some 14 SBOs have been designated to receive the grants. As America's 37 subunions generally overlap or subdivide its 50 states, the move portends a major change in governance.


In recent years, Tennessee and Oregon have established themselves as successful SBOs. But since neither are traditional strongholds, the forthcoming shift to the SBO model in the Washington DC area will prove a more important test of what amounts to a major bet that the USA's conventional approach to sports will promote growth in rugby union.


Local officials expect a three-way split among Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland teams will both increase the number of XVs and encourage them to make institutional inroads. 'Growth will come from attracting kids from high schools,' Potomac RFU director Eric Pittelkau summarized of the union's vision.


The Potomac union belongs to the densely populated Mid-Atlantic territory, which includes parts of the Eastern seaboard's Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and known its depth of competition and rigorous administration. But that heritage has not precluded the Potomac's aggressive departure.


The changes may not come without cost, however, as five of the six teams in the newly recognized Virginian SBO are 'club based,' and there is some concern that the move to align with the schools system shortchanges the senior outfits which have worked to build youth programs.


Additionally, the Virginians and possibly the balance of the Potomac schools are effectively conceding this year's national title chase, as early spring weather and a revised schedule all but preclude taking part. In the 1990s, Maryland's Whitman and Gonzaga both reached the American semifinals.


Source: Heaven's Game