Of the two Major League Rugby teams that field USA Rugby-sanctioned National Development Programs (NDPs), it’s the New England Free Jacks that has outlined and acted on its vision. It’s no surprise, given that CEO Alex Magleby brings a wealth of pathway-building and high performance management from USA Rugby to the organization. Covid-19 has impacted the rollout of the NDP, but the spaces for girls and women have been defined.
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Per Magleby (video above), the Free Jacks want to increase access to the sport and its variations, maximize the experience of participants, and provide an uninterrupted, clear series of playing opportunities that retain and improve players. He called the academy system the “scaffolding” to the local and grassroots rugby communities already in existence.
The Free Jacks network includes Regional Training Groups in 13 locations throughout New England (see map below). Members report for skills clinics, testing and selection to representative squads, which will range from U16s to senior (“Independents”). As participation increases, players will also be named to all-star teams – north, central, south – for competition.
Covid-19 has obviously impacted the full rollout of the RTGs, but the network requires a ton of outreach and education, and so there’s been time to make those local connections and learn about existing structures through New England.
“If there aren’t already long-standing youth programs there, we’d like to help facilitate those so that they’re up and running,” Free Jacks Performance Manager Tom Kindley cited outcomes from RTG community conversations. “Most importantly, we just want to provide an opportunity alongside what they’re doing with their club or school or college program – to develop as a rugby player, coach or even referee or administrator.”
The Free Jacks Academy staff has visited nine of 13 RTGs thus far, but when rugby is free of the global pandemic, locations will receive 3-4 visits per year.
“We don’t have coaching structures at the locations yet at the moment,” Kindley said. “We want to be realistic with what we can do. We’ve got limited resources and coaching staff ourselves. We took 5-10 staff and are holding what we are calling, ‘Tracking Days,’ so we had a Learn To Play element, and a development / identification element.
“We do have relationships with each region now and we want to collaborate and would like to get to a point where we have touch points with those key personalities at those locations so that we can solidify our network with those regions long-term,” he added.
Kindley indicated that the organization and proliferation effort has been met with warm welcomes across the region.
“The first and most important thing is that we are a supportive and collaborative addition to whatever else players are doing,” Kindley addressed potential skepticism from teams and leagues. “We’ll never be taking away or conflicting with pre-existing competitions in regards to school, college or club. So once people wrap their heads around that, they’re definitely very supportive, have open arms, welcomed us. We had to navigate the narrative with some of the locations and clubs with proud traditions and we had to make sure that they understand we’re looking to supplement what you do and not take away at all.”
The Free Jacks Academy provides a clear pathway to the men’s professional sphere, but obviously, there are different opportunities for girls and women.
“The narrative is definitely different,” Kindley said. “One really cool and exciting part of that narrative is that there are [25 NCAA] women’s varsity programs and more popping up around the country now, so we’ve been working really hard to show that we are well networked and we have a lot of relationships with a lot of those coaches. So for the girls that are high school players, we want to link them up with those coaches and get them into those programs.”
The Free Jacks Academy held its first girls-only Learn to Play and Tracking Day in Massachusetts, all managed through Covid-19 precautions, and there are plans for more. Kindley indicated that competitions, most tangible at the U18 level, are being planned alongside the boys.
Beyond college ball, the Women’s Premier League is the highest-level 15s rugby in the country. There have already been collaborations between Beantown and Free Jacks, with pro player Tadhg Leader serving as head coach last season. Kindley also called out DI Boston women for helping coach several high school training sessions. There are professional opportunities overseas, and several Eagles have been contracted to play in the Allianz Premier 15s with Exeter, Harlequins and Richmond. And of course there is the USA 7s, the only pro entity for women in the states.
“We definitely want to show that there is a pathway [for girls and women],” Kindley said. “[We’re] building toward a women’s Independents side playing some curtain-raisers for our games against teams like Toronto or against a New York team, which would be pretty cool. But again we don’t want to take away from what the WPL is doing or local DI are doing. … We’ve got plans to make the game for women more high performance than it has been.”
For more information on the Free Jacks Academy, visit https://freejacks.com/academy.