The EIRA Mid-Atlantic Regional Academy launches it’s 2017/2018 coaching season on October 15^th at Gonzaga (in DC) with a Training Session for Coaches from 10:00am – 1:00pm followed by a Player Talent ID Clinic from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. 

We are pleased to announce that we are adding Girls rugby to the program this year

The Training Session for Coaches will be in a classroom that Gonzaga have kindly made available and will be open for all coaches in the Mid-Atlantic region (Virginia, Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania and Delaware). The Coaching course will generally deal with stuff that will be coached in the afternoon and will include coaching standards and best practices, catch/pass, contact skills, decision making and defense. 

In order to register for the Coaches sessions please go onto the EIRA website https://www.eirarugby.org/ and register for the course (there is a $60.00 charge for the course) We are doing everything we can to get the word out and would appreciate it if you would you also please pass this on to any coaches in your sphere of influence who may not have received this notification. All coaches are welcome to stay and watch the Player ID Clinic in the afternoon. 

The Player Talent ID Clinic is a training course specifically aimed at identifying players (both Boys and Girls) who are capable at playing rugby at a higher level. Those identified as such at the Player ID Clinic will be invited to join EIRA for the full 2017/2018 EIRA program which continues from the following Sunday. Please could you send us a list of the names of all players (both boys and girls) who you believe may be capable of, or have the passion for rugby necessary to play at a higher level, or simply tell them to go to the EIRA website https://www.eirarugby.org/ and register for the Mid-Atlantic Player ID Clinic (there is a $34.00 charge for the Player ID Clinic). All existing EIRA players from last year have already received invitations to sign up for the full 2017/2018 program which includes the Player ID Clinic.

We are making every attempt to reach as many players as possible and would appreciate it if you could speak to all of your players who you would like to see being involved in EIRA.

The upcoming try outs and coaches clinic on October 15 at Gonzaga which kick off the 2017 fall program are followed by 4 skills sessions and intra-squad games concluding with a match in early December against another EIRA region.

The 2017/2018 Mid-Atlantic training program consists of the following

We founded Eagle Impact Rugby Academy in 2011 with a stated aim of “closing the gap” and since then we have created 9 EIRA Regional Academies which in 2016/2017 provided training in 14 States. EIRA regional teams played in a number of competitions and EIRA National teams competed locally in sevens at the LVI and NAI tournaments and Internationally against Canadian teams in BC and Ontaio and against two Academies in Ireland.

As the Mid-Atlantic EIRA Regional Academy it is our intent to follow the EIRA’s stated policy of co-operation with local rugby throughout the country and we will remain as transparent as possible to all of the clubs and coaches in our region through as much communication as reasonably possible.

2017 was an incredibly successful season for EIRA providing a number of HSAAs, and EIRA teams on the tours below won 31 out of 38 games including 2 out of 3 against top Irish Academies (Ulster and Leinster) and 7 out of 10 against Canadian teams.    

• Ireland                one U17 team, 28 players, 4 coaches and one trainer to Ireland from 15 States
• BC                        One U16 and One U17 team, 52 players, 6 coaches, a manager and 2     trainers from 11 states
• Ontario               55 players,  6 coaches, 2 trainers from 22 Sates
• EIRA Sevens       High School won the elite division in Vegas and North American     Invitational 7s 
• EIRA Sevens       u16s won their Elite Division in at the Las Vegas Invitational 7s

2017 EIRA Stats:

• 17 out of 25 HSAA players against British Columbia were part of EIRA- 68% 
• 16 out of 25 HSAA players on the Ontario tour were part of EIRA- 64% 
• 2 out of every 3 HSAAs are in EIRA 
• EIRA Mid Atlantic started as a core region in 2017 
• EIRA Mid Atlantic produced 4 Ontario tour HSAAs 

While 2017 was spectacular 2018 looks set to be even more exciting. In 2018 we already have the following tours booked

• Ireland                 In 2017 we had one U17 team and played two academies, they have    invited us back in 2018 with 2 teams U16 and U17 to play against 3     academies
• BC                         Two teams U16s and U17s
• Ontario                 Three teams U16, U18, and a Girls team
• Argentina            An open development tour, age group to be finalized 
• Las Vegas 7s        With Elite and U16 Boys and Girls
• NAI7s                     With Elite and U16 Boys and Girls