In this year’s Scottish Walk parade or St. Patrick’s parade in Old Town, you may have seen a lively group of boys and girls passing a rugby ball—which looks like an oversized football—to their volunteer coaches Fred Wixson and Owen Malone. You may have seen signs that read “2010 Virginia Youth Rugby state champions.” But you may not have realized that the City of Alexandria has had a youth touch rugby program since 2003.
Many think of rugby as a tough game, like football but without the protective gear, and more popular overseas than in the United States. The game played by kids in Alexandria is “touch” rather than tackle rugby. A simpler non-contact version of the adult game, it looks more like a game of flag football or even an organized version of tag: one kid runs with the ball until he is tagged and must throw the ball to a teammate.
Alexandria’s youth league is for boys and girls ages 6-14. It teaches the basics of the game, like the “scrum,” when several players have to ‘bind together’ with their arms in a connected circle to restart play. Where the adult game fields 15 players per team, kids play with 7 per team.
Rugby became an organized city sport in 2003 when Jeff Murphy, a city resident and current Director of Rugby for T.C. Williams High School, who had been running youth clinics in the local schools, approached Mac Slover, Sports Director at the Alexandria Department of Parks and Recreation, about starting a program. This first engagement has resulted in a partnership between Alexandria Rugby, a local non-profit, and the Recreation Department that has fostered notable growth and interest in the program. In 2008, Fred Wixson, a program parent who played rugby in college, became Alexandria Rugby’s Youth Program Director and together with the help of other committed parents and volunteers, started to push more directly into the schools with after-school rugby programs.
Until 2009, only about twenty kids participated. But with the arrival of the Mayors Cup Rugby Challenge, the release of the movie Invictus, and the dedication of the adult league, youth rugby has really taken off. Before Alexandria Rugby began its programs, says Mac Slover, most kids didn’t even know what rugby was.
The Recreation Department’s program is primarily a summer league, while Alexandria Rugby runs afterschool clubs in the spring at Cora Kelly, Mount Vernon, Maury, and soon at Charles Barrett elementary schools. In the summer of 2010, around sixty boys and girls completed the season - the first time the program was big enough to compete in northern Virginia’s Rugby Youth League, where Alexandria’s two under-9 teams competed in the state finals for the U9 championship, and Alexandria’s U13 team came in third place in their division.
To go from a handful of kids in borrowed jerseys to playing in this large competition, says Wixson, “then to have the success that we had in the tournament, that was just really great.” This year, the kids proudly took the field at the season’s kickoff tournament in Springfield wearing professional looking team jerseys in front of a row of tents representing Alexandria families and fans.
Says Slover, “We have kids who will play rugby, then go on to play flag football or regular football, but it is also a nice alternative to and segue into other sports. One of the benefits of the summer program is that kids can play rugby but also continue to play their other sports like soccer, etc. One goal is always to get kids the experience at the youth level, then hopefully they will get involved at the high school or even college level.” With practices in the evening at Braddock Road Field next to George Washington Middle School, the low cost summer program focuses on fun, fitness, skill development, and sportsmanship, offering kids another activity in addition to whatever camps or programs they attend during the day, as well as some healthy competition on the weekend.
Wixson and the other volunteer coaches also try to foster the social traditions of rugby by hosting a potluck party after every game as well as special events throughout the year, such as the parades and exhibition games. The program is lucky to have the support of both the Rec department, which is “very pleased with the program” says Slover, as well as local businesses that help support the program. Alexandria Rugby leaders hope to bring rugby to other elementary schools in the city with touch rugby for the younger kids and tackle rugby for those 12 and older.
Players can register for the summer program, which runs from mid-June to early August, through the Alexandria Rec Department at www.alexandriava.gov/recreation or through www.alexandriarugby.com.
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