The Saracens Experience
The second week of January head strength coach, Stu Roche, and head rugby coach Brandon Sparks traveled to St. Albions England to shadow Saracens RFC, one of the top European rugby clubs. Our host for the week was general manager J.P. O’Reilly who oversees the daily operations of the team and long term development. It was our goal to experience the unique culture that has been fostered at their club and bring back ideas to use with UMRFC.
As was mentioned above, the goal of this trip was to experience and learn about Saracens ‘Player first’ mentality. This differs greatly from the philosophy here in the USA of athletes being treated as a source of income, or piece of property to be used and discarded for a newer, cheaper model. Saracens takes an approach that owner Edward Griffiths described to us as ‘Family first’. He sat and explained to us the process by which they make up their roster, which is as followed; Before a player is even signed to a contract he and his wife are invited to dinner with Edward and his wife. This dinner is treated as a informal job interview where Saracens motives for wanting to sign the player and expressed along with the why the player wants to play his rugby for them. It was explained to us that this dinner is one of the largest reasons why they are, or are not, signed to a contract. Once a player is on the roster he is privileged to ‘The Saracens Way’ which is the name they give their culture both on and off the field. Off the field, the tone is set by Edward himself, Simon Matticks the director of player welfare, and David Jones the director of personal development. These three men work with each other to give support to the players and families. The following are a few examples of the support given to the players; 100% of the active roster (First team all the way down to academy) are either enrolled in university courses or a work study program, this is to help the players to prepare for life after rugby and to avoid what happens to most retired athletes. This is initiative is lead by Edward himself. David Jones works to take care of the player and staff themselves with philosophy clubs, team vacations, and goal setting. His role is a hybrid between psychologist and mental coach. Simon’s Matticks’ primary focus is the players and staffs families well being. He works to organize wives, or life partners the tools to relieve as much stress as possible for themselves and their significant others. Some of the tools to accomplish this are free daycare classes during the week and game days, special events for just spouses and children, assistance in finding schools, banks, homes, and anything else to help set up and maintain a healthy household. While these are only a few examples of their culture the buy in from the players was amazing to see. In our conversations with some of the more experience players who had played at several different clubs around Europe they spoke adimately on how more clubs should adopt this model and how happy they were to play here. I have experienced shadowing several professional teams and big time college teams, and never have I seen a group of professionals, not just the team but also the office, coaching and medical staff, enjoy each others company as much as the people at Saracens do. This club isn’t just winning trophies and producing stars, they are developing great people.
What and how do we plan to bring this back and use it at UMRFC?
We spoke extensively with J.P. O’Reilly and Dave Jones about this topic and we came up 3 main action items we want to implement by next Fall:
- We work the club mission statement to accurately reflect what we bring to the table both on the field and in the community.
- Help incoming freshman players prepare for college life by giving them resources for time management, dietary needs, and a supportive environment where they can seek help with the challenges of college.
- Give upperclassmen access to internship and jobs by setting up a network within our alumni group to help transition to post college life.
This are only three items, but we feel this will be things we can start on and implement immediately. As the club progresses we will continue to implement the notes on the lessons we took from “The Saracens Way”. We will also work to maintain a strong relationship with our contacts over there as the resource that they provide us can not be found here in America.
Our journey to England and time spent with Saracens could not be duplicated anywhere else in the world let a long America. Rugby is still a very young professional sport, with the global governing body sanctioning professionalism only 20 years ago. In those twenty years the United States has never had any form of professional set-up in it’s borders. The game in the U.S. is experiencing its heaviest growth, both monetary and in participation, in the college ranks which is leaving clubs scrambling for structure both on the pitch and in the administration branches. Rugby is a unique game and requires unique athletes that must be cared for differently than players from the big four sports. By us taking this trip and being given full access to the professional set-up of a global power in rugby puts UMRFC ahead of the curve in America. THe lessons we took away in culture, marketing, community outreach, medical care, training and match day management will prove valuable once implemented and make this club an entity that Rec Sports, the alumni and university will be proud of and use as a standard bearer for the rest of the country.
