Rugby Academy Plan Unveiled in Santa Barbara

Wednesday May 27, 2009 in Amateur Competitions Division I Colleges

May 27, 2009 – University of California Santa Barbara director of rugby Kevin Battle (pictured) has unveiled plans to set up a rugby academy at Santa Barbara City College starting this fall.

SBCC is a junior college that shares some resources with UCSB – many students at SBCC transfer into the four-year institution, and SBCC students are allowed to participate in intramural and club sports at UCSB because the junior college has no such activities available.

Battle, as part of his job with the university as director of rugby, formulated the academy plan to use rugby as a way to motivate kids to plan their transfer to a four-year college with more success.

“The players will be taken care of as if they were varsity athletes,” said Battle. Students will train in rugby four days a week, and play as a team on occasion, or at other times play in club or UCSB C-side games. But more important than that will be the study hall, access to tutors, academic counseling, and ongoing academic tracking.

“The central aspect of this is preparing the students to transfer on to a four-year school,” said Battle. “Obviously UCSB wants them to transfer to UCSB, but wherever they go, we want to put them in the best position to succeed. We help them in selecting the right classes, and also in what order to take those classes, because that’s just as important.”

The academy will track students’ class attendance and academic performance.

On the field, they will receive coaching from Battle, Jim Love (New Zealand Sports Academy), Damian Hill (Newcastle Knights kicking coach), and Alan Muir (scrum coach, Wellington, NZ).

Battle has 24 students committed for the 30 spots available. This academy is currently for men only, but Battle hopes to expand it to a women’s academy as well. Some of the students will combine their rugby academy experience with playing football at Santa Barbara City College, as well.

“They come from all walks of life,” said Battle. “But they have all played rugby in high school.”

The group does already have a couple of games on their schedule, including the New Zealand Institute of Sport in September.

“What we want is to teach them to play rugby, but also to become students of the game,” Battle said. To that end all students will be required to attain Level I referee certification in the first year of the program, and Level I certification as coaches in their second year.

“This gives them other tools to apply and can give them a greater understanding of both coaching and refereeing, as well as helping them out as players,” Battle said. “It also sets them on a course to give back.”

The Academy will work with students to garner financial aid for tuition, while grants and donations help pay for other aspects of the program. Local families are providing subsidized housing.

“Junior college is really affordable and the barriers to entry are minimal,” said Battle. “Over the last nine years at UCSB we’ve had 120 kids who went to JC and not many of them transferred in.  We seek to change that.”

The benefit for all is that SBCC gets access to a new pool of students, UCSB gets access to properly prepared transfer students, and the UCSB rugby program gets access to well-prepared players.

“Our number 1 goal is to make sure these kids are prepared to go on to a four-year university,” said Battle. “We’d like them to stay here in Santa Barbara but we want to prepare these kids to be in a position to make a choice. We will give them the rugby skills on top of that. We have been working on this plan for years. Time will tell, we’ll see how it goes but I am confident it will be a successful model.”

Battle said he is also willing to discuss how he put together this plan for any other college coaches or program directors who are interested.

Information on the Santa Barbara Rugby Academy van be found at: http://www.sbrugbyacademy.blogspot.com/


- Alex Goff  © www.erugbynews.com