The focus of our U11 program, like our U9 is fun with rugby (as it is with all of our rugby sides) and we start to bring in additional fundamental rugby skills from what the players learned in U9 (no worries for “new-to-rugby” players; our coaching staff will ensure they are taught all of the skills up to and including the U11 skill sets). We also start to introduce tactical thinking to our U11 players along with demanding a bit more discipline from the players. Fitness, speed, strength, and agility training will also be a part of practice sessions but because of our limited practice time, the coaching staff will remind players of the importance of working on their personal fitness improvement outside of practice times.
USA Rugby is also a proud member of the Positive Coaching Alliance. Positive Coaching Alliance focuses on coaching youth sports student athletes to learn valuable life lessons. USA Rugby provides the Positive coaching alliance online courses to all certified coaches. We at Alliance Rugby are committed to promote a ‘win-win’ attitude, winning on the field and off it and where “winning” is defined as a player giving their very best effort and measuring success in terms of personal improvement.
Leadership opportunities for the U11 players will be available leading warm ups during practice and before matches and we will have rotating team captains each match, allowing every player to perform as team captain. In addition, we will look for U11 players who would like to support the U13/15 sides by helping with “shagging” rugby balls after warm-ups and during the match and carrying water to the players during breaks in the match.
The schedule starts in January with practices every Tuesday
and Thursday evenings from 6:00-7:30 PM.
Matches will be held nearly every Saturday starting in February and
running through middle April. During
that time we will have a statewide tournament in the mid state region (last
year it was in Waco) and a second statewide tournament on the Texas A&M
rugby grounds in early April. Both of
these will offer us the opportunity to play teams we do not normally get to
play. For these tournaments, we
coordinate parents driving and the times are set so that the tournament does
not require overnighting. Starting in
May, we transition to 7’s rugby for the summer with a more relaxed practice
schedule and 2-3 tournaments during the course of the summer and then close up
the program in late June/early July, depending on the available tournaments. For details on practices and matches, please
see the ARC calendar.
So, I’m guessing you’re ready to “hit the pitch” and you wonder what’s next. Take a look at the ARC Youth Welcome Packet and the other pages in this section of our web site. Please give us a shout if you have any questions. This packet has “all things ARC” to include dues and equipment questions that are often asked. Welcome to Alliance U11 Rugby and see you out on the pitch!
Note: normal cutoff for the qualifying age group is 1 Sep (ie. a player that turns 9 on 2 Sep is eligible to play U9; a player that turns 9 on 1 Sep would normally play U11, however we want all of our kids to play where they are comfortable and so if there is a player who is not quite ready to move up to U11 contact, they are more than welcome to continue playing U9 non contact). See ARC Youth Registration for more registration information.
ARC Coaches’,
Parents’, and Players’ Code of Ethics
We play U11’s as 10 players-a-side. For details on U11 match guidelines, see Youth Match Restrictions. The positions played are:
10 Players-a-side
Prop (2 x )
Hooker
Scrumhalf
Flyhalf
Wing (2 x)
Inside center
Outside center
Fullback
While we play with some variations from the USA Rugby “Rookie Rugby", the information Rookie Rugby puts out is a very good source of information for the ARC’s U9 program (http://www.rookierugbyclub.com/home).
Leadership opportunities for the U11 players will be available leading warm ups during practice and before matches and we will have rotating team captains each match, allowing every player to perform as team captain. In addition, we will look for U11 players who would like to support the U13/15 sides by helping with “shagging” rugby balls after warm-ups and during the match and carrying water to the players during breaks in the match.
To access other topics, return to www.alliancerugby.org