Comment from Justin Barney....thank you

I undertake to comment on these matters without enthusiasm. Rather than comment indirectly without revealing my name, I feel it is important to state my name along with the facts of which I am aware. Reading the previous blogs has dredged up unpleasant memories of my experiences dealing with rugby eligibility issues in Utah high school rugby. The comments I make today are regarding the 2001 high school rugby season.

In 2001 I was serving as head coach of a high school rugby club. Another local club was trying to get established that year. The coach of this other club contacted me sometime after the beginning of the season to inform me that several foreign players were coming to Salt Lake to play rugby for Highland Rugby. He felt that these players should not be allowed to play for Highland. The eligibility rules in place at the time included the following requirements:
1) Players must be enrolled in high school full time;
2) Players must have been enrolled full time in high school at the beginning of the competitive season; and
3) A player must be enrolled prior to the start of the competitive season.
These rules were part of the eligibility rules for USA Rugby and were not seen as redundant but each emphasized various nuances in the rules.

An investigation revealed the following facts:
1) Highland Rugby played their first match of the season on March 19 against Skyline Rugby.
2) Four foreign players arrived in the USA after that first match on or about March 21.
3) These players enrolled at Highland High School sometime in late March, after the first match and more than two months after the commencement of the school semester.
4) When informed of the circumstances, SLC School District determined that the players did not meet district requirements for enrollment and the players were "unenrolled".
5) The players enrolled at a private school sometime in late April.
6) I spoke with an official of the private school who confirmed that the players were enrolled. When I asked if they attended classes, he responded, "Of course not. The school year is over in a few weeks."

In spite of my appeals and with full knowledge of the situation, USA Rugby allowed these foreign players to participate in the national championships that year. In my opinion, there were clear violations of the eligibility rules in 2001 and it was done with the complicity of USA Rugby. Why have a requirement that players be enrolled full time and wink at enrollment with no intention of attending classes? Why require that the players be enrolled prior to the competitive season and disregard the common meaning of words? Why pretend that rugby players are students when they are not eligible to attend public schools and their enrollment at a private school is mere pretense?

There is a great deal of intense feelings surrounding rugby in Utah. Towards the close of the 2001 season, one of our club players approached me. He asked what I had done to so anger the Highland Rugby Club. He said that a friend of his was student at Cottonwood High School. His friend did not play rugby but knew a Cottonwood High student who was a member of Highland Rugby. The friend said that it was a good thing that our team had already played Highland Rugby that season because otherwise our players were in danger of suffering the repercussions of my actions which had resulted in their teammates being “kicked out of school.”

Highland Rugby has accomplished some amazing things. They raise the level of competition for our local clubs. But their dominance has also stymied the growth of rugby in Utah. Many times I was advised to get in line and follow the example of Highland to build the competitiveness of our club. Unfortunately, when I attempted to do so, I determined that it was impossible to do what Highland was doing while providing full disclosure to our school district and to USA Rugby.

Justin Barney

August 20, 2008 11:56 AM