City youth programs will face off this weekend in the Los Angeles area for the 2023 Urban Rugby Championships.
The tournament was born out of a meeting between ICEF Rugby founder Stuart Krohn (LA), and Memphis Inner City Rugby founder Shane Young. The two realized they were of like purposes and decided to work together as part of an Urban Rugby Initiative.
In 2022, MICR hosted the inaugural Urban Rugby Championship—the first time in American rugby history that young people of color from under-resourced communities were united and embraced by something exclusively for their benefit. The tournament featured faced-paced 7s rugby with an injection of culture. It was a huge success.
ATLAS USA stepped in for support, funding travel, nutrition, and gear, and more have come in—US Rugby Foundation, AEG, the Todd Clever Foundation, and more.