The Utah Lions have a long tradition of creating youth high performance players in both 15s and 7s. In 2014, the Lions decided to refocus their efforts on the 7s game in an effort to find the most effective pathway for elite level players in Utah to get quality competition while also getting exposed to national and international selectors and coaches. In an effort to further increase the exposure to high performance training and coaching, the Lions then partnered with Serevi who has helped to polish and expand the skills of both the coaches and players.
The new problem lay with what to do with the players as they head out to universities and colleges all over the U.S. and especially Utah. “Our goal is to create a cradle to grave High Performance Development program that can not only help direct the younger kids about what they need to do to prepare to enter the program but also the next logical step of working with the 19-26 yr olds who are still in the local universities in between seasons,” noted Utah Youth Rugby director Michael Cressler.
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Players will work with the Lions in addition to their duties with their home universities and clubs and get the opportunity to compete in high level competitions when they can be seen by national and international scouts and selectors. “The end goal is to produce an organization with a complete pipeline including academy that will give both players and coaches a route to both national and international teams. We have a huge rugby population and a demographic in Utah that is highly underserved from an Elite Development perspective. With the addition of the Men’s Elite team on the Lions, we are furthering that representation,” added Cressler.
One thing that is needed is the high quality rugby that will consistently challenge the teams and help force the growth by attracting international and domestic HPD organizations to participate. A new vehicle the Utah Lions will be using in the North American Invitational 7s. Originally launched in 2010, it went underground a couple of years until the Lions relaunched it this year. The goal, states Cressler, is elite series for the men, U18 boys and girls, and an open division to round out play. The idea of a U18 and men’s elite series has been being discussed by several of the larger HPD organizations including Glendale, Utah Lions, Serevi, BC, WA Loggers and others with the plan of piloting the series this year. “We have a series and equipment sponsor ready to step up plus 5 venues in which to hold it; The LVI, NAI7s, Victoria 7s, Seattle 7s, and concluding in Glendale at the Serevi RugbyTown 7s.” There will be final discussion among the founding group in Las Vegas with a presentation to USAR shortly thereafter.
The NAI7s also has a new home. The new Regional Athletic Complex in SLC, slated to open this summer, has welcomed the tourney with open arms. One of the goals is to have the first big launch of the complex be a large rugby tournament. With 16 lighted fields and a 3k seat stadium with streaming capabilities, and located less than 15 minutes from the airport, it is a perfect location for a large rugby event. The NAI7s is currently slated for a 1-2 May kickoff but with the desire to better create the series, and coordinating with Salt Lake City, it may be moved into June. “The big desire with the NAI7s is to create a qualification tournament for an elite series for U18s and Men’s elites, to help create a pathway for high performance players to participate in top shelf competition to help feed the national teams, international teams, and, when it arrives, the domestic professional leagues.