Northeast Academy Expansion and Union Give-Back Efforts Take Root
Northeast Academy Release: Ryan Trost, September 2, 2016
New York, NY; (Aug. 2, 2016) – The Northeast Academy’s continuing effort to expand its mission and reach in 2016 has gotten off to great success this summer. The High Performance academy’s newest training hub in Buffalo wrapped its first ten week camp along with the New York City and Boston hubs a few short weeks ago. Also training alongside the players’ camps in all three locations were the Academy’s first mentorship graduates in its program designed to enhance the acumen of regional coaches, managers and referees.
Said Northeast Academy Executive Director, Sean Horan, “The first few years of our program have obviously been focused on young athletes. We are now also developing focus for coaches and managers at many levels. The first rollout of this program was a tremendous success, and included participation from Division III National Championship coach, David Lyme of the Fairfield Yankees.”
The structure of the Northeast Academy’s players’ camps is designed to allow the region’s best to train in a strictly elite level environment, while still participating with their home clubs in regional and national Summer 7s series’. Bringing in coaches and managers like newly named Interim Head Coach of AIC Men’s Rugby, Rob Guiry, allows for a greater variety of high performance concepts and practices to feed back into the clubs.
In post-camp interviews, Lyme explained the program’s influence on his future plans. “I found the program very helpful; It was good to watch the main coaches conduct training and talking with the players. There are certainly things… drills and manner, which I will take back to my team.”
The opportunity for referees to get additional reps in scrimmage settings was prevalent, but so too was the opportunity for them to interact with the development of coaching strategies and playing techniques.
Amelia Luciano, USA Rugby’s first Don Morrison Referee Scholarship recipient (2013) said of the program, “The sessions were a good way for me to interact with local coaches outside of the high pressure of a game day and for them to see that we all– coaches ,players, referees– want to grow the game in the best way we can.”
The commitment from USA Rugby members like Luciano – who made a weekly trek from New Haven, CT into NYC – exemplifies the best of our community’s deep passion for rugby. We all are a part of growing the game here in the states and the Northeast Academy is proud to have successfully added more development opportunities for rugby staff and players in 2016. According to Horan, they are now looking to build and expand again on this initial phase of giving back more fully to the northeast community. “This expansion, along with the successful first year of the Buffalo training group under Lex Maccubbin has set up a very positive 2017. There is more news coming, and we look forward to that continued development.”
The Northeast Academy would personally like to thank all of the staff mentorship participants who took part in the 2016 training cycle in New York City, Boston and in Buffalo. Big things are afoot both regionally and nationally as groups like the Academy continue to bolster Rugby’s foundations from grassroots all the way up to Olympic and Professional development.
Northeast Academy
The Northeast Academy, with training squads in New York City, Boston and Buffalo, is a National Development Academy that has been sanctioned by USA Rugby as the official Academy (Men & Women) in the Northeast of America and as a designated pathway to the USA Eagles National Team selection. The purpose of the Academy is to identify, develop and prepare Sevens rugby players with the intention of placing ambitious athletes onto the USA National teams and future USA Olympic teams. The Academy will provide athletes with top level coaching, physical preparation, and playing competition to accelerate their personal development as Sevens players in line with current USA Eagles High Performance criteria.
