Covid-19 has shut down high-contact team sports in Southern California, but rugby is still making moves in The Golden State. Southern California Youth Rugby (SCYR) CEO Giovanni Vaglietti has been positioning the country’s largest youth and high school region for more growth, an effort that requires balance, nimbleness, collaboration and vision.
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SoCal has a tentative spring schedule for its youth and high school members, but that could all change on Jan. 25, a deadline that will hopefully bring a new update from the governor’s office. Vaglietti isn’t optimistic considering the state’s Covid-19 statistics and rugby’s classification as high-transmission, but he is happy that sports are now part of the regular conversation. He helped form The Youth Sports Alliance last summer, as rugby and other outdoor sports clamored for some kind of guidance on Return to Play. The alliance’s work with the governor’s office helped produced the tiered reopening plan, which debuted in mid-December.
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In a non-pandemic season, the SoCal girls’ high school season (7s and 15s) would already be underway, and then the high school club season would follow in March. Today, the plan is to go live on March 26 and combine the single-school and club teams into a single competition. But for that plan to go forward, would need to move through two more levels of safety tiers.
“That will be a challenge for that to happen before March,” Vaglietti said.
Other leagues in other states have been able to take the pitch by playing a lower-contact version of the sport – like 7s or touch. And while Vaglietti believes that the membership is hungry enough to accept any rugby competition, he explains that adaptability is not the main issue for the rugby community.
SoCal’s South Bay at 2020 LAI 7s / Photo: Jackie Finlan / TRB
“There isn’t resistance to other formats,” Vaglietti said of the membership. “We just don’t have the ability to get on the field. That’s just where we are [with Covid-19]. … Cities aren’t granting permission to use fields, and authorities are policing them. It’s a big problem in LA and certain areas of Orange County and San Diego. Permits are tough. If you have a private patch of land, then OK, maybe you can do some socially distant things and follow guidelines. But many don’t have their own field, and every spot has a different challenge. So it’s less about what the competition structure looks like and more that we’re not able to do anything at all.”
SCYR has been publishing updates on its website, so expect more information after Jan. 25. If it turns out that a spring season isn’t feasible, then attention will turn to the summer. The organization is already considering what that format would like – 7s, 15s, tournaments? – but will collaborate with the clubs in the decision-making process.
Vaglietti explained that the previous year has been more than reacting to Covid-19 and that several projects require on-going attention. For example, SCYR introduced max weight limits during the Youngers (U8-U14) summer season.
“There was a big desire for it to be incorporated; the problem was execution,” Vaglietti said. “You need balance. New Zealand does weight limits, but they also have X amount of kids and can have competition at all these different categories and levels. We’re not there, so we had to get the structure right.”
SCYR put out Request for Proposals (RFPs) to all the clubs, integrated that feedback, and then considered participation numbers at each age level. The Co-ed U10s were capped at 120 lbs, the co-ed U12s at 145 lbs., and the boys’ U14s were divided into Light (up to 180 lbs) and Open divisions.
Belmont Shore @ 2020 LAI 7s / Photo: Jackie Finlan / TRB
“Those limits hit about 95% of all players, but we also created a Max Capacity Waiver,” Vaglietti said. “So a kid who was over the limit for their age group still had the ability to play, but just had to apply for a waiver. Maybe they had an extenuating circumstance, like a medical condition or had never played before and it was tackle. That would be accounted for.”
SCYR tracked injury data and incidents fell 35% at those ages.
“When we presented that to the clubs, it was: We did the right thing,” the CEO said. “Even the detractors came around that ultimately this has been successful.
“It took years to get to the right place, because it’s such a complex question and problem to solve,” Vaglietti continued. “It needed refinement after year one, so again we went through the process of RFPs being put out, big calls with all the clubs and coaches invited, and a forum to express the things that went well and that needed work.”
Going forward, there will be a cap on how many weight waivers will be granted per team. Also, players can only be 10% above the max weight limit to be eligible for a waiver, and a certain amount of waivered players can be on the field at the same time.
The next step is replicating the Open and Light divisions that the boys’ U14s have, and that’s all about numbers.
“We want to get there. So, first, we make sure U8 is fun and attracting kids – and that’s also why moving from touch to flag was a good move,” Vaglietti said of another competition adjustment that was implemented in 2020. “Parents are more used to it in terms of flag football, so there’s a comfort level with rugby that wasn’t there before. Plus, we can demonstrate that rugby is not as injury prone as it may be perceived, since it’s usually put in the same bucket as football.”
After U8 flag and weight-sensitive divisions from U10-U14, high school follows, and the big objective there is getting rugby into the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). That designation will add the sport to high school athletics departments, and varsity status brings exposure, support and legitimacy.
Fallbrook @ 2020 LAI 7s / Photo: Jackie Finlan / TRB
“Getting the sport to be CIF has been a project that we’ve been working on and we’ll try to accelerate that right now to get that happening,” Vaglietti said. “The difficulty is a lot of these districts in CIF sections are so focused on what they have at the moment, so it’s a balancing act.”
Vaglietti acknowledged that the Covid-19 era has added a wrinkle to the CIF effort, but nothing has changed in terms of the positivity that high school varsity rugby brings.
“There are more than 70 high school programs in play at the moment and that’s significant. Big football programs and schools have put their weight into rugby,” he said. “And it will grow from the ground up, not the top down.
“The growth over the years in [SoCal] high school has been tremendous,” Vaglietti continued. “Not even in NorCal – and I love Jason [Divine], I mention him for contrasting purposes – can separate out club and high school [competitions], and we’ve been able. That’s a really positive step for us and it shows that desire is at the high school level.”
Vaglietti referenced the SoCal competition structure that separates single-school teams from high school clubs, but allows players to compete in both seasons since they do not run concurrently.
“There’s so much momentum that they have to look at it and realize its potential,” Vaglietti said of CIF. “And that has already happened. This first quarter has been making sure that relationships with key stakeholders, with administrators in LA and San Diego and Orange County, are going well and that we continue to work with them. We want [athletic directors] where rugby is being played to be the spokespeople for the sport, to the schools around them and at the district meetings, so rugby is always at the forefront.”
Vaglietti indicated that there are some behind-the-scene pieces moving and that updates and a game plan for 2021 are forthcoming.
In terms of new projects, Vaglietti has spent this first quarter building a collegiate network for SCYR members to access.
“It’s about the recruitment process and just letting kids know what’s out there,” he said. “Before it’s been about coaches’ connections with colleges but we’re looking to make that more formal this year. Every program is different, so we need to look at what those partnerships would look like. But ideally I’d like to mirror what they do on the soccer side, with I.D. camps in Southern California.”
SoCal is also home to two Major League Rugby teams: founding member San Diego Legion and 2021 addition LA Giltinis. The franchises provide professional opportunities for men, but San Diego’s USA Rugby-sanctioned National Development Program will talk to the age grades. Details are TBA but could fill the vacancy left by the dissolution of the SoCal Griffins all-star program.
“I have a very good relationship with the San Diego Legion. We are discussing how the academy side of things comes into play with SoCal,” Vaglietti said. “A couple of years ago the Griffins program had its own issues … but [its demise] was especially detrimental – that’s not the right word – to the girls’ side of things. They relied on it more because some academies in the area didn’t have the girls’ element to it unfortunately.
“With the establishment of the San Diego academy, I do believe they will incorporate girls moving forward,” he added. “We are currently working on getting an MOU of how we work together on the academy side of things. Same thing with the LA team. They’re just getting off the ground so they’re in a less advanced stage of how they work in the region.”
For Vaglietti, all of these pursuits are angled toward continued growth of SoCal rugby, and the path is visible. Kids are introduced to the sport at the U8 level, and parents find familiarity in the flag version of the game. Players advance through weight-sensitive age grades, and ideally someday soon, join a CIF team at their high school, while still able to play club ball with SCYR. In high school, there are elite opportunities at MLR academies, and SCYR’s collegiate network keeps kids looking forward. And if they stay in the area, the USA 7s team resides nearby and the San Diego Surfers hold several WPL national championships and continue to develop Eagles.
“It’s all a balancing act,” Vaglietti surveys his many objectives. “There’s been a lot to get sorted as an organization that’s operating with such a diverse repertoire of rugby, from U8 to high school. We’re always on are toes.”