Brother Rice Director of Rugby David Fee has confirmed that the Chicago-based rugby program will move to single-school varsity status for this season.

Despite carrying the name of Brother Rice HS, the Brother Rice team has accepted players from other area schools that do not have rugby teams As a result, Brother Rice has competed as a High School club. 

But that has changed.

“The school came to us,” Fee told Goff Rugby Report. “They asked us how we were approaching it, and said from a liability perspective they wanted us to go single-school.”

Fee said “a good handful” of strong players on the Brother Rice team came from outside the school. But those players now will have to find other rugby outlets. The hope is they start a team at their own school.

It’s possible this will hurt Brother Rice’s record for this season, but with the Brother Rice football enjoying a 7-5 season and their sophomore football team going 7-2, there’s reason to believe they will attract some solid athletes (although it’s quite possible it’s the success of the rugby team that has contributed to the improvement of the football team).

Either way, “we expect to be good,” said Fee.

Right after the adminstrative decision was made to be single-school, Fee applied through Rugby Illinois for USA Rugby's Varsity dues program, whereby the team uses their own school's insurance policies and pays USA Rugby a flat fee of $250 for its entire roster. Brother Rice was accepted.

"It was strictly a financial decision on my part," said Fee. "I figured, if the kids already have their own insurance and insurance through the school, and they have a program where they don't have to pay more, then that saves the kids money." 

As a HS club, Brother Rice has done fairly well on the national stage. They won the Tier II bracket in the 2013 Boys National Invitational Championship, and came second in that tier in 2014, losing by a single point to Jesuit B. 

If they want to get into Tier I, however, as a single-school team it will be a tough road.