New Mexico Youth Rugby

During the 2005/2006 fiscal year members of the New Mexico Youth Rugby or groups it supports contacted approximately 30 elementary and middle schools in the Santa Fe and Los Alamos by letter and telephone offering to provide youth non-contact youth Rugby demonstrations. We gave about 30 demonstrations of about 45 minutes to a total of about 2400 boys and girls in third through eighth grade stressing character development, sportsman ship and physical fitness.

We registered approximately 175 boys and girls in 16 teams for a 2006 spring youth rugby program. We provided each team with a volunteer coach and each player a rugby jersey and rugby ball which they could keep at the end of the season. Practice locations were found for each team for which we paid all park fees and provided liability insurance.

Two preseason practice and training sessions were held in March followed by a 6 week regular season consisting of a midweek practice and Saturday morning match for each team. The regular season was followed by and end-of season state youth rugby tournament. We provide fields, volunteer referees and all field equipment. At the end of the tournament excellence and character awards are presented and each participant is given a tournament T-shirt. Food water and sports drinks are also provided.