Rugby Ohio, Membership, USAYHS Finalize Agreement
Rugby Ohio, Membership, USAYHS Finalize Agreement
An agreement has been reached with the existing Rugby Ohio Board of Directors and USA Youth & High School to open elections for the Board and start a process to change the by-laws to be in compliance with World Rugby’s Regulation 6e.
State HS Organizations Under Pressure to be Election Compliant
Agreement Apparently Reached for Rugby Ohio Changes
Foot-Dragging at Rugby Ohio Could Be Their Undoing
Following is the official combined statement from Rugby Ohio, the faction driving change within the state, and USA Youth and High School:
Rugby Ohio (RO) and USA Youth and High School Rugby (YHS) are pleased to jointly announce amendments to the RO Bylaws and Articles to enable Rugby Clubs/ Programs to be the voting members of RO and for democratic elections to be held immediately. The process will be undertaken by RO and overseen by YHS. The time frame for the election is:
Nominations to stand for Director’s elections: 1/17-1/24 Submission of Designated Elector Names: 1/17-1/24 Certification of Nominees and Electors: 1/24-1/27 Election: 1/27-1/29
The board will be a total of 9 members, 3 elected Regional Reps (North, Central, South), 3 At Large Age Group Reps (HS, MS, Youth) and 3 existing Board members for continuity to be replaced by 3 elected regional community reps at the end of the current term on August 31, 2025.
Chris Northup, President of RO commented “I want to thank my existing Board for the hard work over the past month in reaching a conclusion that I believe meets the needs expressed by our Rugby programs. We have appreciated working with YHS who have helped with their experience in governance both as an organization and with other State Based Youth Organizations across the USA.”
“This is a solution that works, and I believe will provide the governance structure that the membership was seeking” said David Pool, President of YHS. “Credit has to be given to the RO Board for putting the membership ahead of any self interest in achieving this goal. I believe this meets the needs that were expressed to YHS from the RO membership – now it’s in all of our hands to stand for election and drive the growth of rugby in Ohio going forward.”
With the changes RO is compliant with the Bylaw requirements of YHS and as contained in the YHS Bylaws. Rugby Ohio is the sole SYRO in Ohio that is a member of YHS and USA Rugby. As the sole sanctioned SYRO, rugby players, coaches and administrators registered through RO get the benefit of accident and liability insurance provided by YHS and USA Rugby.
Chris Northrup
President Rugby Ohio
David Pool
President, USA Youth and High School Rugby
World Rugby Reg 6e says this:
(e) Member Unions must ensure that elections to their governing body(ies) take place pursuant to a free and independent democratic process which conforms with applicable national legislation and the requirements of the Common Association Constitution
In this case, the Member Union is USA Rugby. One of the governing bodies answering to USA Rugby is USA Youth & High School, and one of the USAYHS member governing bodies is Rugby Ohio.
What this whole episode spells out is that the member teams and clubs of a State Rugby Organization (SRO) should have a say in how their game is run. And it also shows that if SROs do not open up their process, USA Youth & High School leadership is willing to take action—that was actually a concern among the wider membership, because they hadn’t really done anything like this in the open before.
USA Youth & High School President David Pool and Executive Director Giovanni Vagiletti were certainly the power behind this development, but the membership pushing for this change—led by St. Xavier HS Head Coach Mark Weidner—were instrumental.
Instrumental also was USAYHS boardmember (NE Regional Rep) Matt Persanis. Along with being a coach and President of Rugby New York, Persanis is a lawyer and an experienced negotiator, and is was his ability to keep emotion out of it and get to the crux of the matter that helped make this happen.
The final message is that other SROs that don’t want to comply with what is—remember—a World Rugby requirement—will find the response won’t just be a wink and a nod. Now everyone involved needs to move forward to grow the sport and ensure youth and high school players in Ohio enjoy what they do.