Executive Director Update

Are we over halfway through the year already?! It’s amazing how time flies when you’re having fun and the last few months have been a whirlwind with season wrap ups, Gala entertainment and our biggest tournaments of the year.  

To begin, as always with the programs. It was inspiring to see so many kids expressing themselves on the rugby field at the New York Rugby Cup and PSAL 7’s Tournaments. Across two successive weekends, Play Rugby hosted over a thousand kids ranging from 8-18yrs old. It’s great to provide these platforms and most importantly to drive the Go Forward environment of competition with focus on teamwork, confidence and always respect, integrity and fun! It’s amazing to see both players and coaches embracing these values.

We are also incredibly proud of our Boys and Girls Academy teams, both of whom qualified and represented Play Rugby at the Rugby NY State Championship. The Boys finished fourth and the Girls, who this season combined with New York Rugby Club, won! It was great to partner with NYRC and give the girls a unique experience and new friendships. 

We’re still buzzing from the Play Rugby USA Gala. To bring together the rugby community and celebrate our students is the highlight of our fundraising calendar and I truly cannot express how much we appreciate the support we get back. It was amazing to have Bryan Habana with us. A true great of the game on the field, he worked tirelessly with us all week to visit programs, do interviews, engage with partners, driven by his desire to be a source of inspiration to the kids and an ambassador for the values of the game and the opportunities it provides.  

There’s a great energy in the Play Rugby world right now and we’re looking to build on this momentum. We’ve reviewed our film and game planned around our end of year efforts and we will soon appoint a new Senior Director of Programs and are focusing growing our impact in our afterschool and Academy programming.  Lots of great opportunities ahead and we appreciate you and being part of this powerful community as we all go forward together and make a difference to the kids we serve.