US Rugby Foundation Launches Strive Rugby: A National Fellowship to Build Youth Rugby Leadership

Three-city pilot in 2027 targets $3M to recruit, train, and deploy talented full-time leaders across America's youth rugby landscape.

The US Rugby Foundation today announced Strive Rugby, a national fellowship program designed to address the defining constraint limiting rugby's growth in America: the absence of full-time, professional leadership developing youth at the local level.

Modeled on proven fellowship programs like Building Excellent Schools, Teach for America and Echoing Green, Strive Rugby will recruit high-potential leaders from any industry, train them intensively within the country's best rugby programs, and deploy them to launch sustainable youth rugby nonprofits in three pilot cities beginning in 2027.

The inaugural cohort will target 3 to 6 fellows and $500,000 per market, with the goal of creating three new Tier 1 youth rugby programs serving thousands of student-athletes each, totaling 10,000+ new participants across the three cities. The Phase One capital raise goal is $3 million.

"American youth rugby deserves catalytic investments in infrastructure," said Shane Young, CEO of the US Rugby Foundation. "There are proven programs in places like Memphis, Dallas, LA and New York that show what's possible when youth rugby grows through professionalized strategic plans and full-time leadership. Strive Rugby doesn't start from scratch, it scales what already works. We're asking communities to believe in something battle-tested. We're deploying leaders who will run youth rugby professionally and sustainably."

Over three years, each fellow will complete an intensive curriculum spanning organizational leadership, fundraising, coaching excellence, executive awareness, school partnerships and community building. The training leans on existing best practices nationally: eight weeks learning from best-in-class programs, eight weeks embedded in their launch city, then two years of full-time deployment with continuous training and support. By year three, each market will have a self-sustaining nonprofit with its own permanent leadership, positioned to scale.

This is not an experiment. Strive Rugby builds on a decade of Tier 1 program outcomes: 96% of athletes report increased academic performance, 91% of parents report improved mental health outcomes, and 100% of program graduates access post-secondary pathways. Young athletes gain access to excellent coaching, year-round programming, and support systems that turn rugby into a genuine gateway, to college, to community, to expanded opportunity.

"With the right leaders, operating with full capacity and support, we can engineer rugby as a legitimate entity in the lives of American youth," Young continued. "Three cities in 2027 is the start. The vision is every American city with a thriving, professionally-led youth rugby infrastructure. We're building the pipeline to make that real."

The fellowship launches recruitment in January. Strive Rugby is funded and managed through the US Rugby Foundation, a 501(c)(3) operating since 1963, ensuring all capital is restricted to designated markets, fully tax-deductible, and deployed with quarterly accountability to investors and community partners.

Learn more at strive.rugby

About Strive Rugby

Strive Rugby trains and deploys full-time leaders to launch and sustain Tier 1 youth rugby programs in cities where the sport has never reached scale. Backed by the US Rugby Foundation and modeled on TFA and Echoing Green, the three-year Executive Fellowship combines intensive training within proven programs with direct deployment to build sustainable youth rugby nonprofits. Learn more at strive.rugby

About the US Rugby Foundation

The US Rugby Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating since 1963, harnesses the power of rugby to build character and opportunity in American youth. The Foundation finances, manages, and deploys capital to establish and sustain world-class rugby programs in underinvested communities, ensuring that every young person, regardless of zip code, has access to world-class coaching, year-round programming, and the support systems that turn rugby into a genuine gateway to college, community, and expanded opportunity. The Foundation's Tier 1 programs have become national models for youth development, with demonstrated outcomes in academic performance, mental health, and post-secondary success. The Foundation is restricted to deploying capital according to each community's needs, with full tax deductibility and quarterly accountability reporting. Learn more at usrugbyfoundation.org