starting a college program

a few months back in the fall issue i believe on rugbymag.com there was an article about the next big college wave of teams should come from jc schools and the significance of having a jc program. from there a idea has been born, and my goal is to make this idea come true. i have so far spoken with 4 different college program directors/coaches. the school i am aiming for is DE ANZA COLLEGE in cupertino ca. great athletic fields and the only sport we would have to compete with for usage is track and field. so plenty of space. now that i am gaining in site on steps to take, my set of goals are to

1. contact USA rugby by Feb.14
2. begin writing and finishing club by laws, by April-7
3. begin contact with school and student club department by end of April
4. over summer get pricing of jerseys,t-shirts for player packets
5. by end of august have my finances and budget all set and ready to go
6. September being contact again with school and begin paper work with school/usa rugby
7. enter team into conference, http://www.eteamz.com/norcalcollegiaterugbyconference/

its a long list but i am ready to accomplish this. now i will not be taking a HC position with this club i will be doing behind the scenes work and will look to "hire" a HC. i have accepted the fact that in our first year or two , things will be watered down with the fact we may not have the best times to train or equipment to use. my goal for yr 3 is to purchase better set of jerseys, afford track packs for the players to wear and begin to purchase better hitting pads and so forth. along with being able to compensate a HC in one form or another.

if you have any advice or would like to help (once the ink has dried i will set up a account for people to donate or help out with the $ part of all this. ) please feel free to contact me via email : sanjosebenton@yahoo.com or twitter: @sjrugby

Top 25 high school ranking 1/10/13

1 Sacramento Jesuit (Calif.)
2 Xavier (NY)
3 Herriman (Utah)
4 Greenwich (Conn.)
5 Dixon (Calif.)
6 Penn (Ind.)
7 Gonzaga (DC)
8 Charlotte Catholic (NC)
9 St. Thomas (Texas)
10 Snow Canyon (Utah)
11 Chapin (SC)
12 St. Edward's (Ohio)
13 St. Thomas Aquinas (Kan.)
14 Notre Dame de La Salette (Ill.)
15 McQuaid (NY)
16 Jupiter HS (Fla.)
17 Wilson HS (Calif.)
18 East HS (Colo.)
19 New Orleans Jesuit (La.)
20 Capital HS, (Idaho)
21 Reynold Raiders (Ore.)
22 Edina (Minn.)
23 Greenville Red Raiders (SC)
24 Cathedral (Calif.)

youth rugby

youth rugby is and will be the back bone for the growth of the game here in the USA. take a look at soccer. there was a huge gap between youth soccer and the mens and womens national teams. now having a pro league and having the national teams make headlines does help. but with out the youth boom, soccer would not be where it is now in the usa. you have to build from the ground up. by increasing youth rugby through out the states, from u8-u19, you start to create a massive fallowing and players playing much earlier then there sr. year in high school. in 5 years i would like to have a test done and see what then the average age is that rugby players in the united states begin to play and i bet it will say ether middle school or freshmen year of high school.

who's the ones that put butts in seats for football,soccer,basketball games? no not soccer moms or "hard core"fans. its kids. if you had a child who kept bugging you to take them to a baseball game wouldn't you take them? minor or pro. same goes for rugby, when and i do believe its only a matter of time (its a post for another time) a pro league gets going here in north America, it will be the youth who will help maintain the average attendance for those games. picture on a Friday night or Saturday, the set of local (say 2-3 youth clubs play in a 10 mile radius, again youth means u8-u19) clubs decide to get together and go watch a rugby match but in stead of having to decided who's house or what bar would let them in, they head down to go watch there pro team. in 2-3 teams your looking at anywhere from 200-400 kids alone. plus adults. now factor in the money that will be spent, sure its not a billion dollar industry but everything has to start small.

youth rugby is the beginning for USA rugby and they need it to flourish. ~here's to seeing it prosper.

the next steps to get things in order, college rugby, men's(women's)/ pro rugby.

i hope you all take a second and go to my youth rugby club page and show your support also. losgatosrugby.com  . if your are interested in sponsoring please contact Chris fisher.

rugby in north america

the question ive always asked and my common response from other is ether, they ignore it or say bad idea and move on. ive always thought we can replicate what is done over in euro and super rugby by building up Canada and usa clubs first. and after clubs have been established and money has started to flow in (look how long it took mls teams to become money makers) why not add/start a club or two in the carabbiens and same with mexico. doesnt have to mexico city to start with, other parts of mexico are huge sports lovers such as , vera cruz, baja california, monterray, cancun are would actully be a good place to start. from there have a heinikin cup type with of course the majority clubs comeing from usa and canada and maybe two from both mexico and one of the island's.  on top of all that usa rugby, canada rugby,mexico rugby, and carabbien rugby should all be working together on building up this region. politics aside , mexico has pleanty of wealthy , half of the soccer owners down there are million/billionaires. imagine with there money thrown behind plus american money supporting major tournaments.