By Katy Rank

Every Saturday morning in July, you can find over 700 children gathered in Morris County, NJ to play rugby. These inter-town mini tournaments run like clockwork during the American Flag Rugby summer season, thanks in no small part to the yearlong organizational planning of the Morris Corporation.

Picture Denville, NJ, home of the Denville Dawgs and host to two of the matches last summer. The seven fields are numbered and clearly labeled for the parents and visiting teams to find their locations. Match schedules are emailed the week before and available for distribution at the central tent, where the athletes can get sports drinks and fruit in between their games. The referees, comprised of Morris men, women, and U-19 players, are given their match schedules and the games begin promptly at 9am.

Every ten minutes, the Referee Coordinator blows an air horn to signal the end of the half or match. At the end of the day, Youth Coordinator Tom Feury collects score reports from each coach to report to the local newspaper and the entire celebration moves to a volunteer parent’s home for a post-match social and barbeque.

The seemingly effortless execution of the youth program has inspired its growth this year to an estimated 1,000 children from Morris County. The success of the youth program attracted neighboring Union County to start the program, which will span three towns this coming summer. Danbury, Connecticut, the Boston Irish Wolfhounds, the Saranac Lake Mountaineers and other clubs in Pennsylvania and Oregon have also been in touch with the Morris Corporation and started other branches of American Flag Rugby.

“We have almost grown out of control,” jokes Mike Stumpf, Referee Coordinator and Laws Committee Chair, who says Morris would love to spread the game to every club across the country. “We have developed this program so we can get it to the whole nation—to the school systems, everywhere in the country.” With the start-up binders and videos the club produces and the recent growth of the program, it appears as though they are well on their way.

What is American Flag Rugby?

Morris Rugby developed a variation on Rugby Union specifically designed for the American child. “I came up with the name because I wanted to convey that this was a game that is clearly in tune with our kids. This game is designed and tuned for American kids, no experience necessary, fully inclusive, and with a level of structure and discipline that American kids and parents have come to expect from recreational sports,” says Mike Stumpf.

In this non-contact version of the game, kids play a version of sevens where the defense removes the ball carrier’s Velcro flag instead of creating a tackle situation. The game develops as the players develop in skill level. The youngest group of children focuses more on passing and flat defense and progresses through the age groups to a ruck-like simulation for the oldest group of children. All age groups have a slow introduction to scrums and lineouts and convert tries using drop kicks.

Why is the Program So Successful?

The bottom line reason for Flag Rugby’s success is that it’s fun. “The kids just love it,” says Feury of the enthusiasm for the sport. Unlike some sports in which kids participate, American Flag Rugby gets every child actively involved with the game and this is wildly attractive to kids who previously spent long days in an outfield or goal box. Everyone touches the ball in rugby and everyone can score points. “Our brand of rugby is highly inclusive,” says Stumpf, “kids of many ages can play together and include different athletic abilities and genders.”

Parents also appreciate the game because they can have all of their children participating in one location at the same time. They also appreciate the low commitment level and flexibility with missed practice time due to vacation or other sports. Stumpf says the attitude of Morris is “Show and play when you can,” leaving families the opportunity to keep their kids active in the summer but not have to miss out on other things.

                Long Valley parent Ken Ray was in town for just a few days when a neighbor gave him a flyer to send his daughter to play rugby. Ray was immediately impressed with the rugby culture. “All of a sudden she had this team around her!” says Ray. Through youth rugby, his daughter was “gaining camaraderie, which was very important to her those first few months of being in the community.” Six months later, Katherine is still wearing her rugby jersey everywhere and claims moving to New Jersey was the best thing to happen in her life.

Stumpf comments that Morris has demonstrated with flag rugby something that has not been seen anywhere and gotten entire families involved. The parents see how positively it affects the kids and get involved in the entire corporation. “We are not just creating rugby players, we are creating people involved with and promoting rugby just because they see the value in the sport. Parents help to promote the game because they see how healthy it is for their families.” Feury is also quick to emphasize that American Flag Rugby is a family and community oriented activity adding the phrase “It’s a social thing!” to most correspondence with players and parents.  

Feury and his wife KJ spent the next months getting their program started, securing permissions from town recreation programs and field space. KJ applied for and won the program many grants to give the program seed money to acquire balls, practice pinneys, cones, and other equipment. The summer of 1999, the Feurys had 28 children signed up to play.

That first season, Feury got help from Stumpf and from men’s coach Peter Glanvill. Glanvill developed skills clinics to teach the kids the basics of rugby while Stumpf created a video: “What is Rugby? A Youth Rugby Orientation.” The video was an excellent tool to bring the game to the parents and helped create enough interest for a second town to join the following summer.

Thanks to refereeing and coaching clinics before the Flag Rugby season, volunteer coaches who had never played rugby were able to learn the rules and participate in the growing youth program. The program expanded to cover even more towns and now includes teams from Denville, Montville, Long Valley, Parsippany, Mine Hill, and Byram.

                KJ solved this problem by securing grant money from the National Safe Kids Campaign, a program whose North Jersey Chapter she coordinates. “The program was getting a little tired of little league and football and they were intrigued by rugby,” she says. The campaign gave the group funding for three years with a focus on hydration. Most of the organization’s funding on a national level comes from Gatorade, so they were able to use the money to provide safety training for coaches and sports drinks at all events.

                “We just bombarded the kids with literature,” says KJ of the packets of information they handed out at the beginning of the season. All the coaches used grant money for CPR certification and a Rutger’s Safety Course for youth sports. The organization also handed out literature on concussions and encouraged the coaches to follow up by reinforcing the safety information with the kids.

                Sutherland pushed the corporation to pay for a set of jerseys for the kids that first season. The Morris Rugby Corporation had the creation of a youth program in its mission statement and had put aside money over the years to help create one.

                Morris Rugby tries to keep the cost of participation low so they can reach as many children as possible. Each child pays $35 per season, which covers a pair of flag shorts, a set of flags, a t-shirt, and a rugby ball with a bit left over toward food and refreshments. Since each match costs around $200, that leaves a lot of fundraising to do to meet the costs of supporting the program. Much of the food is donated or paid for from a tip jar at the games and the rest is covered by sponsorship secured by each town.

                By November, the group tries to set the budget for the coming year and discuss fundraising strategies. They design the year’s t-shirts for the kids, discuss potential program expansions, and begin to solicit price quotes for equipment. In February, the budget is finalized and equipment is ordered for the summer.

                This year, the corporation expects to have four sides for their U15 tackle program in addition to their AFR in July. So far, the only contact option for the girls is the newly formed high school team that also allows eighth grade girls to participate.

                The Union County Mudturtles, a neighboring county team, approached Morris about starting a youth program several years ago. They received the binder a year prior and attended the coaching and safety clinics with the Morris coaches before starting their summer seasons. “The best thing they gave us was that packet of drills,” says Chris Clark, BLANK TITLE for Union Rugby. “That was like having lesson plans to hand to each of our coaches.”

                Morris welcomed the Union team to join in their match schedule and final tournament and has helped the Union program grow to include 120 kids. Clark is quick to point out that starting a team still involves a great deal of hard work and organization, but “the comfort you get from someone else having already done it is invaluable. You know they are there as a resource but you still have to show up and do the legwork.”

Looking at the growth of high school rugby programs across the nation, we can see that there is a high demand for rugby among America’s youth. The established youth programs across the country have flourished and provide grassroots connections to rugby at the collegiate and club level. Morris Rugby Corporation has done the legwork and created rules, drills, sample training sessions, coaching clinics, and advertising campaigns for a successful youth rugby program. Best of all, this group is eager to share their work with other interested clubs.