USA Rugby photo
LAFAYETTE, CO – USA Rugby today announces 2020 assembly dates with an annual infrastructure for women’s age-grades across High School All-American, Under-20 and Collegiate All-American programs in 7s and XVs.
In 2020, programs will operate under year-round programming — instead of developing only around one-off events — and will be led by the same Head Coaches appointed in 2019. Each level will select an annual High Performance Squad and participate in regional training events in between centralized assemblies.
Players in the Performance Squad receive strength & conditioning regimen, monitoring by staff during the year, as well as advanced notification of events and early selection opportunities.
Performance squads will add players throughout the year in order to keep 2020 programming accessible to any athlete. Nominations will also be accepted across all levels at hiperforms.com/member/login.
Regional training camps will focus primarily on the development of talent where High School All-Americans host their own regional days while Collegiates and Under-20s participate in Regional Training Camps with the senior Women’s National Team XVs.
Opportunity days will again continue at the Collegiate All-American level focused on the identification of new talent. These events were hugely successful in 2019 with over 200 athletes participating and more than 17 colleges represented at the Collegiate All-American 15s competition in August.
Performance squads and annual programming are two primary pieces in the 2020 goals and critical success factors identified for all age-grade programs. Crucial within them is an increase in communication between coaches and players as well as more opportunities for players to be tracked, verified and retained with age-grade programs.
VIEW CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS »
Alongside these areas for improvement are expanded descriptions of each program and their purpose within the structure of Women’s High Performance.
VIEW AGE-GRADE PURPOSE DESCRIPTIONS »
Director of Women’s High Performance, Emilie Bydwell said: “We are excited to enter the second year with our age-grade staff and infrastructure. In 2019, we implemented programming and ran events at each age group but as a program had key learnings around what steps can be made to build a more meaningful and transparent talent development system.
“While talent ID will always exist, our pathway is committed to building more opportunities to develop players both regionally and in a centralized setting over the course of a year, not just in a single-event.
“As these systems fortify, we want to improve communication and integration between programs — as well as with the community — so we improve our tracking of athletes through their respective journeys and we don’t lose people along the way.”
Members of the community can provide support by hosting Regional Training Events and Opportunity Days in their area. To host a High School All-American Regional Training Camp, contact Martha Daines at mdaines@usa.rugby. To host a Collegiate All-American Opportunity Day, contact Katie Dowty at kdowty@usa.rugby.
2020 AGE-GRADE SCHEDULE
HIGH SCHOOL ALL-AMERICANS
Regional Training Camps *
January 26 – Portland, OR
February 9 – West Chester, PA
February 14-15 – Kahuku, HI
February 15 – Washington, D.C.
February 23 – San Francisco, CA
March 7 – Denver, CO
March 29 – San Diego, CA
April 9 – Orlando, FL
April 19 – Chicago, IL
*Each regional training camp incorporates development across 7s and XVs.
Competition Assemblies
April 28 – May 4: NextGen Tournament, Langford, Canada
July: Top 25 camp with international match @ TBA
August: East vs West Development camp @ TBA
December 5-13: World School Sevens, Auckland, NZL (pending fundraising)
December 27-31: Winter Camp
UNDER-20s
Regional Training Camps
Under-20s participate in the same Regional Training Camps as either High School All-Americans or senior Women’s National Team XVs
Competition Assemblies *
February 14-17: Selection camp, Life University, Marietta, GA
June 25-July 9: Four Nations Competition @ TBA
*U20s are currently XVs specific program
COLLEGIATE ALL-AMERICANS
Regional Training Camps
Collegiate All-Americans participate in Regional Training Camps with the senior USA Women’s National Team XVs.
Opportunity Days
February 23 – Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
March 8 – Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO
March 15 – Queens University, Charlotte, NC
More dates coming soon
Competition Assemblies
February 5-9: Sevens Development Camp, Chula Vista, CA
July: Sevens Development Camp, Chula Vista, CA
July: XVs Competition, July 12-17
2020 AGE-GRADE STAFF
HEAD COACHES
Martha Daines
Director of U18 Girls High School All-Americans
Ricardo Ramirez
Under-20s
Dave Clancy
Collegiate All-American 7s
Katie Dowty
Collegiate All-American XVs
GHSAA #CAA AllAmericans