GRR: Youth
What’s in a name?
Why should we care about nicknames for teams that don’t even, really, exist?
But that’s one of the premises of this article, that the New England Free Jacks Major League Rugby Team formed an academy system with a bunch of nicknames for each regional group. Instead of Group 1 or Region F, they picked names that had regional significance.
This is an Op-Ed Column by Josh Williams — COVID-19, whether we wanted it or not, has provided us an opportunity to reassess what we are doing and how to do it better moving forward. For those of us that are actively involved in youth rugby, this time is especially important, as we face multiple growing pains both within our clubs and the regions we play in.
Youth Rugby in Illinois got to go-ahead to hold rugby activities starting this past weekend and several programs were champing at the bit to get going.
Immediately after the announcement that the state of Illinois would allow non-contact practice, various programs ran non-contact sessions.
The tipping point for USA Youth AND High School's members to all get on board with USA Rugby appears to have been just that little bit of wiggle room in negotiations, and perhaps a pervading feeling that having a central National Governing Body is still something most members want.
It's not necessarily all clear sailing in the new Good Ship Youth & High School, as there remain some issues to deal with, but there are also some developments of interest that could be good news for everyone.