What is the Legacy Rugby Academy?

"Provide a community for youth (U12), high school, college, and club players and their families centered around a high-performance environment and teams. We, the LRA staff, are focused on developing the complete rugby player, coach, administrator, and referee."

What you just read is the mission statement for the Legacy Rugby Academy. Please take notice that nowhere in that statement do you see an emphasis on winning. We are not a performance first club, we are a development first club (we use the term 'developmental performance within LRA). If we do our job right you'll have players who will come back to you fitter, fundamentally better and their performance will help you win more games. We aren't going to just focus on players either, we want to be a developmental tool for coaches, referees, administrators and any other role you can think of in the game of rugby. Below is the back story and the reason why I wanted to start an academy here. I will also cover the short and long term goals that we have for LRA and how you can help us achieve them.

Rugby in Michigan made me into the man I am today. I love this sport and I love this state for what it has given me, but I first had to leave to learn to appreciate it. When I left Michigan I went to England and there I learned the importance of fundamentals and community presence. I learned how to really play there and I also saw how the English rugby club becomes a part of a families DNA with grandfathers on the board, parents playing in the first team and children in the age grade set-ups. When I returned to America and landed in Boston where I played for a few years and my coaching journey really began. During my time there I was lucky enough to be invited to help establish and set-up their youth organization, I learned so many lessons during that process. I also saw the importance of home-grown talent with the club I played for, Mystic River. It was no surprise to me when they won the national championship this past season with a roster made up of mostly local kids. After Boston, it was a quick four-year stop in Northern California where I learned even more about what it meant and what it takes to be a high-level coach. That whirlwind journey over 10 years eventually led to me moving back to Michigan for a coaching job and where it all began both in life and rugby for me.

Upon my arrival it was incredibly disappointing to find that rugby had not grown at a rate like most other areas in the country, it may have even taken a step back. Sure, there was small pockets of growth and success but for the most part, it hadn't developed. For example, when I left Grand Rapids there was a Super League team producing eagles and I even remember playing the Tradesmen in a D1 playoff game while I was with the Mystics. What happened to those clubs? It was also concerning to see a 1990's hip-hop like the rivalry between the East and West side of the state that appeared to have developed at the youth level. This state and the people who play this great game mean a great deal to me and it troubled me to see it in such a state.

Enter the Legacy Rugby Academy.

This won't be like other academy set-ups for a couple of reasons. First, we want to make this developmental driven (we are using the term 'developmental performance' within LRA) and focus that development on local homegrown talent. Second, we currently have a senior level men & women's 7s team that will play through the Summer and a few other events during the winter (think New York, Barbados, Las Vegas, etc) we are looking forward to adding a high school age version of this team next Summer. Along with the expansion of the 7s program, we are also laying the foundation to bring back an all-star format team for high school, college and senior level clubs in 15s. Yes, that's right, we want to also have 15s teams here so no player or coach's development is excluded.

LRA isn't just focused on competitive teams. We are excited to launch a 3-week youth flag rugby league July 19th for kids K-6th grade. We are also engaged in bringing new and exciting coaching courses to the state as well. These will not be the type that you attend with USA Rugby. Our version will be about usable rugby content on what to coach. We are excited to partner with the local union and bring in former Northhampton professional player and current U-20 Head Coach Wil Snape on August 20th to present on attacking rugby in the modern game. Coach Snape is one of America's top coaching talents and has been coached by some of the best, including Wayne Smith, which has helped develop his coaching philosophies which he is eager to share with Michigan's rugby coaches. Best part, this seminar will be free to coaches who are connected to teams in Michigan. It does get better, we have also partnered with The Rugby Site to give coaches the opportunity to get an annual membership, which normally cost $90, for $40. These are only two of the things we are working on. We have so much more we want to accomplish.
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You can see we are working hard to make something special for the state of Michigan, but there is one catch...

We need buy-in from Michigan's rugby community to make this work. Now, I'm not asking it to be a one-way street of you giving us the attention, but we also want to hear from you about what you want. Does the community want more coach education? What kind? Attack, defense, position specific? Or maybe something on club administration? What do the players want? All of these questions are important to us and the more you let us know the better we can make LRA for you.

I encourage you to E-mail me, text, call me, or approach me at any of the numerous events that I'm at throughout the year. I NEED to hear what you want and have to say. I don't want Michigan to just make up the numbers in the rugby community, I want us to set the standard for the rest of the country. We all have given a lot to this game and wouldn't it be great to build a legacy that we can all be proud of? Please, help me accomplish this.