Eagles appoint new coaches

The Seppos really seem to be lining up their ducks. Nice to see that they can manage an A team - more than we can!
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Following a recent interview process conducted by USA Rugby's CEO Nigel Melville with input from Eddie O'Sullivan (Eagles Head Coach), USA Rugby officially announced its coach appointments for the USA Men's Select XV, Men's Under-20 and Boy's High School All-Americans.

"I was impressed with the number and quality of applicants," Melville said. "There was tremendous competition for these places and I look forward to working with all of our high performance teams."

The staffing of each team will be identical at each level and mirror the work of Eagles Head Coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, enabling USA Rugby to produce players with the core skills required to represent the Eagles in the future.

Each team will have a Head Coach, forwards and backs assistant coaches, plus a skills coach and a manager. Each team will be provided with full medical and conditioning support.

"Eddie and I will now be discussing the playing program for each team with the coaches and management, and we look forward to supporting them with the challenges they will undoubtedly face in the months to come," Melville added.

"Having a coach who is keen to work across the whole program is a massive advantage to both the coaches and players."

The Coaching Appointments are as follows:

Select XV:
Head Coach: Paul Keeler (Emeryville, Calif.)
Asst.Forwards: Eugene Mountjoy (North Dighton, Mass.)
Asst. Backs: Jason Kelly (Henderson, Nev.)
Skills Coach: Paul Barford (Alpharetta, Ga.)
Manager: TBD

Under-20:
Head Coach: Ray Lehner (San Leandro, Calif.)
Asst. Forwards: Luke Gross (Boulder, Colo.)
Asst. Backs: Salty Thompson (Tempe, Ariz.)
Skills Coach: Jason Payne (Clarksville, Tenn.)
Manager: Craig Brown (Bellingham, Wash.)

High School All-Americans:
Head Coach: Scott Lawrence (Atlanta, Ga.)
Asst. Forwards: David LeFlamme (Warwick, R.I.)
Asst. Backs: Michael Engelbrecht (Roanoke, Texas)
Skills Coach: Damian Dowling (Brighton, Mass.)
Manager: Justin Hickey (Grand Rapids, Mich.)

http://www.rugby365.com/all_news/1784000.htm

Another positive step toward ultimately becoming a competitive international force. Next Year USA Rugby will establish the College Super League. Their is talk of the the competition consisting of 16 programs. Along with the Ivy League schools establishing their on elite comp big things happenings in the US for Rugby. College games regularly get 2-3 thousand to their games, which comfortably beats the Superleague. For the Sport to grow USA Rugby need to fuocus on making this Collegiate Championship a real success and grow it into nationwide division.

The college thing is interesting, in that it is a long established tradition. As I understand it, it normally culminates in an All-American team - wonder if they'd be interested in playing some of the top U-20 teams?

I think this bodes well for the global code, were the US go dollars follow.
Even if they can achieve a doubling of player numbers and viewers that is still a huge increase and that will come on the back of competitive teams and approachable stars.
I predict that within the decade the US will have moved into the top ten.

I'd love to see them getting involved with the PIs too, maybe through the Hawaii link...

Whatever they do - it will be wonderful news for our game to have the US on a competitive footing with the rest of the world - that and the inclusion of 7's in the Olympics will really lift the game.

All sounding good so far hopefully Eddie will have learnt his lessons and treat all the players equally - i.e. not let the best become to isolated from the rest of the team.

I take it ex :force: man Gavin De Bartollo is still doing good stuff for the US

I had missed that about Gavin TQ1, thanks for mentioning it :thumbsup:
Will put an update in his player thread.

:offtopic:

Wow, the US really seem to be interested in putting some real money into promoting rugby....great! the more exposure our game gets over there, the more money will be generated for it around the globe!

Sevens for the olympics, US pushing hard for improvement in the rankings, things are looking massive ATM

According to the IRB site the are a little over 67,000 players in the US but its outdated. There are actually more than 82,000 with it expected to grow another 15% to around 96,000 next year. The good news is the more than half of those players will be under the age of 18, running around in high school Rugby. Add in the USA Rugby iniative to get more kids playing the game at younger ages in partnership with PlayRugbyUSA.

The College Super League appears to be a means of harnessing the future talent that will rise from the high school ranks and getting them into elite Rugby Programs thus ensuring their U20's and future Eagles teams far more competitive. The Eagles will be in the Top 10 within the next 5 years mark my words.

Back when many Rugby League supporters were crowing over the prospect of the now failed attempt in establishing a pro RL Comp in the US I questioned what it had as a back up to the comp. The answer. Nothing no real junior set up, no college set up nothing. Rugby has ambitions of going pro in the US in the next 5 -10 year. But they are doing the American way. The School system in the US in one great talent identification system. As the kids progress through school the best are identified and pitted against the best. In College only the best of the best progress.

this combined with the possibility of Rugby gaining acceptance into the olympics will throw a rocket behind the sport in the US.

Rugby will be open to all sorts of extra funding if accepted into the Olympics, will do wonders world wide for the game.

The College Super League and The Ivy League Championship are the first tentative steps toward full Rugby programs at the Collegiate level in the US. And if Rugby 7's is accepted into the Olympics there will be many more in the future. And the talent they identify will filter up to the RSL hopefully. Though I believe the RSL should be re organised into a City based Championship. Played in Stadiums and some sort of TV deal.