BOULDER, Colo. – USA Rugby announced Friday an initiative to streamline high performance rugby in the United States.

Alex Magleby, whose role as national director of sevens for USA Rugby has been expanded to director of performance, will lead the initiative of the national team programs into a unified group. He will have overall responsibility for the men’s and women’s national teams, age-grade programs, and the management of an integrated high performance system within the development, emerging, and elite levels of the game in the United States.

Hired to his previous role in the spring of 2014, Magleby has already overseen multiple aspects of the growth of the Men’s and Women’s Eagles Sevens teams, including the creation and expansion of the Olympic Development Academy, the construction of the Elite City Sevens competition, and the first-ever National Team Recruitment Camp at the Olympic Training Center.

In his role overseeing sevens player development more than 60 national pool athletes have had a chance to compete in a high-performance camp for a roster spot on the men’s national sevens team over the last six months, more than 30 rep-level tours have been completed, and the World Class Physical Performance Standards for the sevens teams have been established and disseminated.

“These are exciting times for our elite athletes and national teams with World Cup, Olympic, and Pan-American competitions in sevens and 15s formats for men and women being played for annually,” USA Rugby Chief Executive Officer Nigel Melville said. “The growth of the game across our youth, high school, college, and club pathways has created a new generation of rugby players whose goal it is to represent the Eagles.

“Our new director of performance, Alex Magleby, will embrace this talent with the goal of providing our national coaches with a broader pool of quality elite players from which to select their squads. Our national team coaches are tasked with developing sustained competitive excellence for the Eagles while Alex will be focusing on talent identification, development, and competition at each level. As an Eagle and former Eagles coach, Alex knows what is required.”

As director of performance, Magleby will manage the pipelines of all four of the senior Eagles teams beginning at the age-grade level and will work with USA Rugby Academy, the Olympic Development Academy programs, and the scholastic pipeline to help produce international-caliber athletes and coaches in both XVs and sevens.

“Lot of work ahead,” Magleby said. “The game is growing so fast in the U.S. We need to very quickly connect the various pillars of tremendous growth and opportunity in the U.S. to a cohesive American model, our own model, in order for expanded and sustained successes in the coming months and years.

“There is a lot of good work happening across the country. Connecting the parts is our challenge, knowing when to stay out of the way, and knowing what to resource amongst the noise, is our challenge. It is an honor to be a part of it. It is a tremendous time for rugby in the U.S. sporting landscape.”

Magleby’s storied history with USA Rugby began as a selection to the Men’s Eagles Sevens back in 2000 and included the captain’s role during Rugby World Cup Sevens 2005. The Dartmouth College alumnus also holds four test caps as a member of the XVs Eagles.

Following his playing career, Magleby coached the AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans from 2009 to 2011 before taking on the head coaching role of the Men’s Eagles Sevens at the tail end of the 2011-12 World Rugby HSBC Sevens World Series. He stepped down from the position at the culmination of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Russia, after leading the Eagles Sevens to their best ever run of performances on the Series.

Magleby, an engineering graduate of perennial Ivy League powerhouse Dartmouth College was a standout loose forward at Highland High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, winning three national high school championships. As a player, captain, and coach, Magleby has won 18 Ivy League Championships and five national titles. He has helped develop and progress numerous internationals, most recently Eagles Sevens captain Madison Hughes.