NY Catholic HS Athletics Association Adds Rugby
NY Catholic HS Athletics Association Adds Rugby
The Catholic High School Athletics Association in New York has approved rugby as an official sport.
The CHSAA oversees competition among Catholic schools in a variety of sports, and the move to add rugby is a key step toward wider support of the game within the Empire State. The move is also the culmination of a long period of work by Rugby NY and those involved in the high school game in New York. The CHSAA runs competitions usually divided up by archdiocese (regions), and in this case the New York City and Long Island archdiocese are involved to start with because there are already Catholic schools playing rugby in those regions.
There are also Catholic schools in Western New York that will be a part of it.
Currently in the New York and Long Island areas Fordham Prep, St Anthony's, and Xavier HS have rugby teams. Chaminade HS is adding a program. St. Francis HS in Queens used to have a rugby team and the understanding within Rugby NY is that they would return with a program if rugby became an official CHSAA sport. In addition, McQuaid Jesuit in Rochester and Canisius HS in Buffalo have teams.
The teams will compete in their own leagues (the four NYC-area teams in their own league, and the WNY teams playing a seeding game) and will compete for a Catholic State Championship.
Andrew Gheraldi, the Xavier Athletic Director, was instrumental in helping to get this approved.
"I am very happy to see the sport of rugby continue to grow," said Gheraldi. "The acceptance of Rugby into the CHSAA further legitimizes the sport and continues to allow for the natural rivalries that already exist."
"The acceptance of rugby into the CHSAA is fantastic news for the sport," added Rugby NY President Matt Persanis. "The CHSAA is a very competitive league with natural rivalries all over. The addition of Chaminade HS has made this possible along with the hard work of Andrew Gheraldi—it's fantastic to have an athletic director with the energy and vision to champion the fastest growing sport in America. This coming season we will be adding several new teams, Chaminade HS, Port Chester HS, and New York Rugby Club. This is one very important step in our quest to have the New York State Public HS Athletics Association approve rugby as a sport in public high schools."
News of the CHSAA acceptance is spreading already, and Persanis added that Iona Prep in New Rochelle, NY has already reached out to him to ask how they can start a rugby team. The Catholic School sports leagues in the New York area are extremely competitive and a key way that these schools attract students. The Catholic High School MetNY football league, for example, has 21 teams in three divisions. The top team in the AAA league is St. Anthony's, with Iona 2nd and Chaminade 4th. Xavier sits atop the AAII League.
Certainly schools that already have rugby will find it a little easier to recruit football and soccer players for the spring rugby season. And it is anticipated that the league could grow relatively quickly as understanding of how popular high school rugby is among Catholic HS students grows.
