Old game catching on

An article in the Ventura County Star discusses rugby and how the sport is attracting new players. This is a good read for anybody who is not familiar with the sport and how much rugby has grown in the past few years. A couple of key points from the article about rugby's growth:

• "According to USA Rugby, the sport has grown 15 percent annually the past four years, with the biggest and most rapid increase in the youth sector."
• "The number of high school teams registered with USA Rugby has increased from 150 to more than 500 in the last six years, and there were 679 men's and women's college teams registered last year. "

This means that if rugby continues to grow at its current rate, there will be approximately 1,500 high school teams within the next five years or so. This increase in high school activity will lead to a higher interest in collegiate rugby, and this cycle would hopefully lead to enough interest to eventually fund a professional rugby league. In my opinion, a professional rugby league could serve as another conduit to increase awareness and grow the sport at a youth level even more quickly.

Again, if you're not a rugby fan and are simply stumbling into this blog, I do recommend you read this article as it provides a decent background into why some people are motivated to play rugby.