FINALLY . . . New BC U20 League Experiencing Growing Pains: A Needed Transition Plan [ed. comments below] posted Sept 27 2013 Do you remember that time in your life when you graduated high school, you were one of the top players in your sport at high school, had a bit of a swagger and then hit the senior club league and bang... you were all of a sudden joe dirt riding the bench. It may not have been rugby but if you were a high school athlete you can probably relate, from a star that shines to riding the pine in a few short months. And then we scratch our collective heads and wonder why there is such a large dropout rate from high school to club. It’s a no brainer really. We need a league that transitions players from high school to senior club, where they play against athletes in their own age bracket. The BC U20 league is an attempt to create that environment. There is a BC U20 regional championship already, the Dunbar Keg is the annual three game series between Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Fraser Valley. It used to be in the summer, now it’s slotted in January/February. It’s good but not enough, the U20 league is the missing piece but its creation is not without its challenges. On paper there was a lot of support but now that it’s time to count numbers it seems to be down to the following teams: UVic, UBC, Capilano, Vancouver Island Tide. The universities form a natural core for this program but not all high school athletes go to university or universities that have rugby programs. So a regional U20 program like the Tide is very important, on the mainland the Capilano club is providing the same playing opportunity at the U20 level. Personally I think this league is very important for BC and for Canada and I’ll do everything I can to see it succeed, I think clubs should look at the big picture here and support it as well. Down the road I can see this becoming what the BC Premier league is for senior rugby, basically a Canada-wide winter league. I can foresee a time, if this league matures, when recently graduated 19 year olds from across the country will look at the option of moving to BC from September to May to participate under the watchful eye of selectors. I would think the national U20 coaching staff and selectors would welcome a vibrant U20 league in their own backyard. We’ll see how it pans out but small steps first, get a first full season completed and then evaluate. For more information contact the following in your area: Vancouver Island – Matt Mortenson (drmattmortenson@gmail) Mainland - Chris Robinson (crobinson25@hotmail) UBC - Curry Hitchborn (curryhitchborn@gmail) UVic – Doug Tate ([email protected]) BCRU - Dave Brown (dbrown@bcrugby)
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 08:32:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015