Youth Rugby in Hobe Sound, Jupiter and Stuart, Florida!

After a successful launch in Atlanta, GA, ACE Rugby Academy’s founder relocated due to work and will be hitting Florida’s Treasure coast in 2014!!! Read ABOUT COACH here!

2014 marks a very important time period in the Stuart/Hobe Sound, Fl. Rugby world with the opening of our first Youth Rugby Academy partnering with The Pine School (two campuses, Hobe Sound and Stuart). ACE Rugby Academy will be looking to register as their own 501(c)(3) in the near future.

In addition to the youth rugby (everything U18) ACE will be looking to form a competitive travel Men’s Rugby 7’s program that will be able to compete at a national level earning recognition and the opportunity to try out for the Men’s  U.S.A. National 7’s team. Rugby is now a viable professional sports option for exceptional athletes. Here is just one example of a track star who recently made a successful switch to Rugby and will be in line for a spot on the USA Olympic Rugby team for 2016. Fastest man in Rugby – Carlin Isles. Olympic Dream!

Rugby in the Spring HELPS football in the Fall

Great video highlighting the benefit to football players playing rugby in the off-season!

Future USA Rugby Olympians!

From the Sandy Spring Location – Enjoy!

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Rugby in the USA goes PROFESSIONAL!

USA Rugby to Offer 23 Fulltime Player Contracts

Author: Jarrod Beckstrom

Date: 11/30/2011

For Immediate Release

November 30, 2011

USA Rugby to Offer Fulltime Contracts to 23 Athletes in 2012

• A USA Rugby and USOC partnership will allow USA Rugby to provide 23 rugby sevens athletes (15 men, 8 women) with fulltime training contracts in January 2012
• The 23 athletes will live near and have fulltime access to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
• Both the men’s and women’s sevens teams will compete in more international tournaments in 2012
• There will be expanded training opportunities for USA Rugby’s All-Americans at the Olympic Training Center

Rugby vs. Football – Is Rugby Safe?

I have heard many so many people in the United States refer to Rugby as “Football without pads” – something that couldn’t be further from the truth, that I wanted to share some information regarding this topic.  It is true that rugby players don’t where much padding and that most individuals who are new to the game would simply see it as a “violent” sport and certainly wouldn’t want their son or daughter involved in something this “brutal” opting rather for the “safer” option in football since they wear pads. BUT, I challenge you to review the information below that outlines the regularity and severity of injuries when comparing it to football related injuries. Hopefully this information sets your mind at ease and encourages you to let your son or daughter give this wonderful sport a “try” whether they are between football season, want to try another sport, or simply want to stay in shape while having fun!

Dr. Lyle Micheli is director of the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and currently serves as chairman of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Dr. Micheli is chairman of USA Rugby’s Medical & Risk Management Committee.

Why rugby is a safe sport – paradoxically

The main reason rugby players have a relatively low risk of injury compared to football players is paradoxical – rugby players don’t wear protective equipment. Thus the rugby player doesn’t have the same disregard for the safety of his or her head, neck, and shoulders when tackling or trying to break through a tackle. The other reason is that unlike football, rugby is a game of possession, not yardage. Consequently rugby players don’t tackle by “driving through the numbers,” as football players are taught to do with their heads when tackling a player. In rugby, players are taught to use their arms to wrap a player’s legs and let the momentum of that player cause him to go to ground. Furthermore, in rugby there is no blocking, and so players who don’t have the ball don’t get hit when they’re not expecting it.

One of the reasons rugby has a reputation for being “dangerous” in the United States is because when the average American sees rugby being played, he or she sees a free-flowing contact sport. Because it doesn’t have the familiar stop-and-start character of football and other TV-shaped sports, to the uninitiated rugby can appear confusing and “scary.”

How Rugby makes Football Players better!

How Rugby Makes Better Football Players (This First Appeared in Gridiron Coach Magazine)

By Alex Goff

Your High School season is over. Your players are already making plans to play other sports during the winter and the spring. What should they play?

In the spring, especially, football coaches find themselves at odds with their players’ choices. But what if your players could play a sport that not only keeps them in shape for football, but actually makes them better football players? The sports is out there, it’s called rugby, and strangely enough some football coaches won’t let their athletes play the game.

High-school age rugby is played throughout the USA, culminating in a national championship tournament in late May. The game itself is an ancestor of football, and is similar to a no-huddle, wishbone gridiron game with all two-way players. Forward passing is not allowed, so the ball must be advanced by hard running and intricate lateral passing. After a tackle, play continues as teams for essentially a compacted line of scrimmage and try to drive each other off the ball. Players and football coaches who have been involved in both sports agree that playing rugby can make for better football players, and more dedicated athletes.

The improvement in fitness, hand-eye coordination, and tackling technique after a season of rugby is phenomenal,” said Mark Bullock, who served as head football coach and head rugby coach for Kentwood High School in Kent, Washington before becoming the USA Under-19 rugby coach. “I always recommended my football players to play rugby is they weren’t playing a spring sport.

Parent Information

So, you have an interest in rugby for your children?

Or your son or daughter is interested in playing rugby?

DON’T PANIC!

Rugby is a wonderful game, with a rich tradition around the world. It is the second most popular sport in the world. Throughout the world people play rugby from grade school through adulthood. In fact, rugby is truly a “Life Sport” because, unlike many American sports, legions of players continue to participate in the Rugby game long after they leave school. Players continue playing competitive rugby for years and years by joining local men’s or woman’s adult clubs. Senior Clubs even have Masters teams composed of players over 35 years of age. Add to this that Rugby is the fastest growing sport in the United States!

Life on the Sidelines

Many, many notable people have played rugby…..Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; Senator Ted Kennedy; Tom Foley former PA State Commissioner of Labor; Princes William and Harry; former Secretary of State Jim Baker; former Governor of Virgina George Allen; former or current NFL’rs Stewart Bradley, Haloti Ngata, Darrin Nelson, Gary Anderson, David Dixon and Steve Tasker; professional golfer Ernie Els; Tony O’Reilly, chairman of Hienz foods; actor Boris Karloff was a founder of the Southern California Rugby Football Union; fellow screen stars Billy Cambell, Richard Burton, David Niven, Richard Harris and Sean Connery; Saturday Night Live funny man Chris Farley; professional wrestler Andre the Giant and Mark Cuban, self made multi-millionaire and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

Article from: http://www.pacyouthrugby.com/parent-info/

Rugby – More Americans are being converted to the sport!

Official Link to the article in the Economist – February 2011

Rugby in America

Worth a try

More and more Americans are being converted to the sport

Feb 3rd 2011 | SAN FRANCISCO | from the print edition

THIS weekend tens of millions of eyes will be glued to television screens as the Pittsburgh Steelers meet the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl, which takes place in Arlington, Texas on February 6th. American aficionados of rugby union can only dream of the Croesian sums of money that are lavished on American football, a sport that vaguely resembles rugby in wimpish armour-plating. But although their resources are far more modest they have achieved some notable successes.

One of them has been to get young Americans engaged with the game. Last year almost 360,000 children played a non-contact form of the sport at school, according to USA Rugby, the sport’s national governing body. That has helped raise rugby’s profile: a study by America’s Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) found that between 2007 and 2009 (the latest year for which data is available), it was the fastest-growing team sport in the country, outpacing rivals such as lacrosse and hockey. In 2009, says the SGMA, some 750,000 Americans played rugby, over 20% more than in 2007. “For the sport to be on our radar screen is a sign it’s got some legs,” says Mike May, an executive at the association.

To bolster the game’s appeal, USA Rugby is launching a college premier league next month that will see teams compete in four regional “conferences”, with the top two from each conference heading to playoffs in May. The league’s promoters hope it will act as a magnet for high-school players, as well as introducing rugby to more students. “This represents an enormously powerful opportunity to promote rugby,” says Bill Campbell, an enthusiastic supporter of the game who happens to be chairman of Intuit, a technology giant.

Rugby – Fastest Growing Sport in America!

From USA Today!

In terms of sports Americans play, wrestling, softball, football, hockey and baseball are long-term losers.

The latest authoritative Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association annual report on U.S. sports participation, based on about 15,000 individual surveys and 24,000 households surveys, found that about 2.1 million Americans say they competed in wrestling last year — down 44% from 2000.

CAPTION

By Nikki Carlson, AP

Other drops in total participants over the past decade even as the U.S. population steadily expanded: slow-pitch softball (-38%), football (-16%), ice hockey (-12%), fast-pitch softball (-11%) and baseball (-8%).

Basketball held steady as the most-played team sport, ending the decade with about as many participants as it had in 2000 — 26.3 million. (That easily topped soccer, which had a total of about 20 million for its outdoor and indoor games.)

Part of the ongoing declines in traditional sport comes from participant growth in niche sports. Between 2009 and 2010, lacrosse had a 38% gain — albeit to a diminutive 1.6 million total players — while rugby jumped 51% to 1.1 million.

Article Link Below
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/09/what-us-plays-softball-football-hockey-baseball-down-over-decade/1

Rugby an Olympic Sport Again!!!

Rugby will be an Olympic Sport again in 2016.
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