American Rugby Pro Training Center (ARPTC) was already positioned to adapt to pandemic conditions. Every summer since 2015, the National Development Program (NDP) has created a bubble training environment for its full-time residents. To boot, ARPTC founder Jules McCoy is a doctor and has good support in the local health services community. With a stellar staff on the ground and the promise of competition, the players have returned to Little Rock, Ark., this fall.
“Nothing’s really changed that much for us; in fact, we’ve been very busy,” McCoy said. “My philosophy about how to manage the academy during Covid is unique in that we always tried to provide a protective environment for our players, staff and coaches. The only thing we don’t do [today] is travel, of course, because that’s a high-risk thing.”
ARPTC welcomed 22 athletes and several staffers to the in-person summer session from June 14 to mid-August. Participants adhered to the rules of engagement, visitors were screened, and there were no Covid-19 cases during the summer.
“It’s not like the girls were going to bars or poorly ventilated areas anyway,” McCoy said. “The players wanted to be here and were grateful to have something to do.
“It was an experiment of whether we could do it and do it right,” the coach continued. “Evidence points to the fact that our policy is right and it’s about building trust with players and staff. ‘I don’t want to put someone in harm’s way and I don’t want to be the one to mess up the bubble and disturb the cool things that are happening here.’ Individual choices, using free will, learning personal responsibility – these are important lessons.”
The successful summer encouraged a follow-up session. With workplaces and schools offering remote options, McCoy gauged her core players’ interest in a fall residency. On Sept. 27, ARPTC reset with 22 athletes who will remain in the direct-training environment until Dec. 5. As of last week, there are still no positive tests, infections or illnesses within the bubble.
There’s a nice mix of residents in Arkansas, from 17-year-olds and first-time collegians, to senior club players, to USA pool players who are taking opportunities in Glendale, Colo., and Chula Vista, Calif.
“We have several Life University kids who decided to do their school online,” McCoy said. “At the beginning of the fall [Life] wasn’t sure what it was going to do about Covid so a few kids thought they’d come here and go to school online, so long as that worked with [Life University head coach] Ros [Chou]. There were no guarantees of what they could do at the time, so Ros was happy that her players could go somewhere and do rugby. Hopefully she’ll have a season in the spring, and in the meantime, she’ll have 4-5 kids who will be ready for her.”
High-level crossovers like Next Olympic Hopeful winners Lindsey Mayo and Kelli Smith are also back in Arkansas, and their return is representative of its relationship with the USA 7s program. ARPTC is one of eight NDPs, but its status as an Eagle incubator had already been well established.
“It’s an opportunity,” McCoy said of NDPs. “Every leadership change wants to change the rules. Call it one thing and have different parameters and involvement. When we started out we were a National Development Academy, [a designation] given to us when Alex Magleby was in charge in 2015. Now the new guy in charge, Brendan Keene, is actually organizing that and trying to assess standards to make sure that players know which academies [USA Rugby] feels comfortable with as part of the pathway. There are so many entities that call themselves ‘academies’ and the kids and parents don’t really know what that means. We’re in favor of the standardization because its idea is to reward good work. Fortunately, we have been rewarded for our good work.
“And since we’re a girls- and women-only academy, we work really closely with Emilie [Bydwell] and her team of development for their USA 7s,” McCoy said of the USA Rugby Women’s High Performance General Manager. “It’s a collaborative thing. The academy team and coaches are able to provide players with a direct-training environment and then just hand them off when [USA 7s] is in session.”
McCoy pointed to players like Salote Tausinga and Summer Harris Jones, both of whom were in residency and are now readying for USA 7s camp in Chula Vista. Same goes for Harvard University freshman PK Vincze, who was picked up for the Stars & Stripes matches this week, and ARPTC veteran Hallie Taufoou, who has spent eight weeks in Glendale, Colo., for the 15s assembly.
“If they are here for eight weeks and they get an opportunity with the USA 7s for four weeks, that’s a total of 12 weeks for a direct training environment,” McCoy said. “If this didn’t happen it would be four weeks of direct training environment. Then it starts looking like a campity camp camp thing. And I say that lovingly. We did camps for years because that’s all we could do. But now there can be some consistent learning [in the pathway] and they can assimilate the things they learn now. It will work better because it will be a true partnership and a real hand-off of athletes.”
With that said, McCoy asserted that ARPTC is not solely focused on readying players for national teams. Anyone who wants to be in the full-time training environment is welcome.
“We don’t turn anyone away, and we never did,” McCoy said. “Someone might come here and be like, ‘Wow, I thought I was ready for this and I’m not. I play 15s and 7s isn’t my game. I don’t think I want to do this.’ But we don’t cut anyone.”
McCoy indicated that high schoolers are vulnerable to those realizations, and so it’s important to interview younger players before they arrive in Little Rock. Otherwise, McCoy has seen the fish-pond scenario play out, where a star from a local league is humbled by the talent and expertise that ARPTC attracts. The high schooler then reconsiders priorities – which is fine by McCoy, so long as that player stays in the sport in some capacity.
“My philosophy is that we need to grow the game and if we start this cut-mentality thing, I really think it stunts growth at that age,” McCoy said. “You want everyone to play rugby and let everyone feel like they’re getting better, because if we create an environment of girls trying to make it or not, then they’ll quit. Don’t we want them to stay in the game? Play the club or WPL game, or maybe they become the next coach, manager, referee or administrator? But if the minute they come in, it’s, ‘This is a tryout,’ then we’re really not growing anything that supports the national team. That’s just cherry-picking and rugby doesn’t really grow or win the hearts and minds of Americans that way. The majority of the women here are club players and they’re good and getting better, and they’ll go back to their clubs and say, ‘How can I recreate this here?’”
When the fall session began, there was still hope that the Barbados World 7s tournament would occur in December but it has since been canceled. ARPTC won the 2019 title, fielding a squad that included alumnae, USA 7s Eagles and pool players. To replace this year’s competition, the NDP has invited alumnae to Little Rock for the week after Thanksgiving. They will live and train in the bubble all week and then compete against the residents on Dec. 5.
The visitors will be able to work with ARPTC’s stellar staff, including:
Ryszard Chadwick – Lead Coach
Hannah Stolba – Assistant Coach
Jill Potter – Guest Coach
Jules McCoy – Coach Consultant
Tristan Lewis – HP Manager
Jocelyn Scheurmann – Business Manager
Anna Albrecht – Player Manager
Bo Renshaw – Physiotherapist
Lance Turner – Athletic Trainer
Sean Ross – Strength & Conditioning Coach
Laura Cabrera – Core Strength Coach
AC LaRocque – Mental Skills Coach
Christina Swift – Nutrition Coach
Heather Fisher – Player Mentor
Hannah McNeill – Media
McCoy is considering a winter, not a spring, bubble but isn’t stressing the staff with that prospect until the fall residency ends. With the 2021 rugby calendar still in flux, the NDP doesn’t want to complicate any seasons that haven’t been outright canceled yet.
“WPL is looking to start in April and I’m on that working group and know they’re trying to figure out dates,” McCoy said of the traditionally fall-based Women’s Premier League. “They want to assemble, so assuming WPL goes forward in the spring and assuming the kids get back to college and have championships in the spring, we probably won’t do a spring session because we would be competing with those things, and you don’t want to do that. We might say, ‘If you’ve been on the couch for six months and want to get ready for the WPL, then maybe come here and get your body and mind ready – IF you can work remotely.’”
McCoy indicated that the center can handle 28-30 players without compromising the quality of the experience. As those opportunities develop, ARPTC has local initiatives on which to focus. The organization is ramping up its outreach to inner-city high schools in Arkansas and plans to offer summer programming for that age group.
“Covid is a terrible thing,” McCoy closed, “but there are a lot of silver linings: learning self reliance, empathy, self care, placing attention to where it needs to go. What’s important? What’s not? That’s the blessing of the curse.”
For more information, visit ARPTC’s website.