Eagle Rugby Blog

In a release sent out this week, USA Rugby has announced that they will change the structure of boys high school national championship as part of a long term transition to reshape the high school rugby game in America.

The changes for 2008 include the creation of an eight team competition Boys High School Championship for single high school teams (e.g. St. Edward, Gonzaga, Xavier, etc.), and a separate eight team competition championship for Boys’ U19 club teams (e.g. Westerville, Penn, Highland, etc.).

According to USA Rugby, the goal of the reorganization is to support the development of rugby as a mainstream high school sport, conceivably to allow rugby enter the various high school organizations, such as the OHSAA.

“The strategic goal for USA Rugby is to have rugby formally recognized and supported by High Schools,” said Peter Steinberg, Age-Grade Manager for USA Rugby.  “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.  The end of the transition will include separate tracks for high school and club teams so the game can be as inclusive as possible.”

Along with the format change and an addition of a girls U-19 national championship, the dates of the 2008 High School Championships has been changed from May 24-26th, 2008 to June 6 - 8, 2008 at Founders’ Field in suburban Pittsburgh.   The date was changed so teams could prevent traveling on Memorial Day at a premium cost.

You can view a run down of the changes at the Gainline blog.