Middle School Rugby growing in Upstate
RugbyNY is excited to share the news of the growth of middle school rugby in Upstate NY with two new boys teams and the addition of our first ever Middle School Girls competition.
New middle school girls sides from Albany/Saratoga, City Honors (Buffalo), Corning, Fairport, Kenmore, and Syracuse will join this year's 7's tournament series playing modified tackle 7's.
"Adding tackle rugby for middle school girls fills the last remaining gap in our player development path from Rookie Rugby all the way thru to high school rugby" - RugbyNY Exec. Director Rob Sliwinski
On the boys side, teams from Albany/Saratoga and Syracuse are joining Corning, Fairport, Kenmore and McQuaid Jesuit (Rochester) who played in the innagural middle school 7's series last year.
Boys and girls teams will compete alongside each other in up to five tournaments this year kicking off with the first tournament on April 30th hosted by Fairport Rugby.
Teams will play a modified version of 7's with uncontested scrums and lineouts, no quick tap penalties and a few other modifications, all designed to maximize time with ball in hand and to develop basic rugby skills in a game setting each week.
RugbyNY is the governing body for youth and high school rugby in the state of New York. They are a member of USA Youth & High School Rugby's Northeast region and are an officially recognized State Youth Rugby Organization (SYRO) by USA Rugby.
RugbyNY is registered with the New York State Department of State as a not-for-profit corporation and is recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.