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| Helping young people grow in a safe, fun, & disciplined way by growing Rugby on Maui. That's what Maui Rugby Org is all about.
   Co-ed U13 at Kiehi Youth Center U19 Girls at Lahaina Field U17 Boys at the Lahaina Field
   U19 Boys in Waikiki Women in Kahului Men at Kahului Community Center Field We are an all volunteer non-profit that uses 100% of donations for Maui youngsters.We sponsor Rugby 7s, full 15 a side Rugby Union, Rugby League, and "Tag Rugby" programs for youth, teens, university students, and adults of both genders. We teach players of all ages and abilities to play for the fun of it. We also support opportunities for elite players to advance their careers and partner with other non-profits to provide activities and to create season abroad opportunities. Hosting visiting teams for matches and post match beach picnics is another of our main activities, as is hosting camps for player, coach and referee development. News Flash USA Rugby Football Foundation accepting applications for Kevin Higgins $1,000 scholarships for high school rugby players intending to play rugby in college. Here is the link to the application http://www.usrugbyfoundation.org/atf/cf/%7B79EC039B-D7DF-4D22-80E3-35791A0EB31F%7D/2010KEVINHIGGINSSCHOLARSHIPFORM.PDF   USA National Teams Age/Grade Development Camp Maui The last 2 USA U19 Teams have Included Maui Players  
Elite players are assisted in finding placements around the globe. This season Andrew Telu Malafu and Sione Pila Taufa helped Bracknell RFC win the Berkshire Cup Final in England and are heading back for another seaon this July. What is Rugby? It is the world's most popular tackle football sport, and one of the two most popular team sports in the word. To see a simple Rugby 101 animated intro, click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEQyCcageGg Here is a Video of our U17s in action
Many
of the children we serve are underprivileged and at risk teens. We have
never requested tax dollars and instead rely on voluntary charitable
contributions. We use 100% of the donations we receive to pay for direct
costs for the underprivileged children among the youth we serve. Donations of
money or sporting goods useful in rugby may be sent to Maui
Rugby Org, 449 Kuikahi Drive, Wailuku, HI 96793.
The cost of athletic shoes is a limiting factor for some of the families we serve, so we remembered the famous international sides from Fiji during our own youth and introduced "Lightfoot Rugby" our barefoot variations of Rookie Rugby for 7,8 and 9 year olds, Mini Rugby for 10, 11 and 12 year olds, Modi Rugby for players age 13 and 14, and recreational rugby for U17 and U19 boys and girls and male and female adults. We also sponsor competitive rugby sides in the U17, U19, U23 and open adult divisions.
Our U23 Men Playing at the Lahaina Field at the foot of the Beautiful West Maui Mountains
Because our home is a world class vacation destination we have had the opportunity to have prominent trainers, coaches, and referees from around the world join us for training sessions and expose our players to the most up to date and successful training and rugby strategies and tactics. We provide home stays for those trainers and coaches to promote their ability and willingness to come help our young players pursue their rugby goals. This has helped us to help advance our players goals of playing at the university, select, international, and professional levels. We also encourage our players to spend a season at top rugby programs across the globe and help them obtain opportunities to do that. We welcome ruggers from around the world visiting our island to join us for practices and matches, and host touring sides in the youth, high school and adult divisions. We also welcome visiting coaches to join us at practice, and visiting referees to officiate our matches, while on Maui. If you would like to join us for a practice, match, or tour, or have an interest in a player exchange program, please click "Contact US" in the list to the left and drop us a note.  
Maui's first team U19 Hold up their Aloha 7s Trophy Referee Mr. Kausiga Tukana flashes the Peace Sign
 
Some of our playes get their start at the Lahaina Recreation Field, others at our summer program at the Maui
 
Kahului men show of some of the Maui Warrior Trophies. Coach Hilmy Dole with a snack for the players at Lahana Field Players on our Open U17, U19. Men and Women's 7s and Rugby Union (15s) programs compete with top athletes from around the world and are working toward earning spots on National Teams and the 2016 Olympics. We also have players working toward professional contracts and playing for universities overseas. Since starting in 2007, 4 players Maui Rugby has help to develop have been identified by USA Rugby as Elite Players invited to participate in National Team Development Camps, U17 Lopua Hafoka and U19 Paula Toa, both of Lahainaluna High School, U19, who we hope to get to their first National Team Camp in 2010, Simione Vehikite (now playing football for USC) who made the USA U19 National Team for 2009, and Pila Taufa who played for the USA U19 National Team in 2008 and is now playing rugby in England. We expect more Elite Players from Maui will be identified this season. Selectors for the USA Olympic Development Program are sure to watch the Grizzlies v. Maui U17 match as it is virtually certain there will be some future Olympians on the ptich that night. The Grizzlies are made up of the top All State players from California, Utah, Arizona and Washington.
Women's Rugby is growing in Hawaii and at Universites across the USA, where it is now an NCAA sport. We are the Maui affiliate of USA Rugby, and have grown our programs by partnering with other organizations serving the youth of Maui, including the National Guard, Kihei Youth Center, Maui Commuinty Y, and multiple church youth groups in Lahaina, Napili, Kihei, Wailuku , and Kahului and are seeking to spread to Upcountry Maui, Hana, and the Islands of Molokai and Lanai. We regurlarly compete with teams from Oahu and the Big Island and have hosted teams from the US Mainland and as far away as Australia. If you or your business would like to sponsor a recreational team ($500 puts your name on the jersey and covers the team costs for a dozen players, including mouthpieces, sports accidental medical insurance, and USA Rugby registration for an entire season) or if you are a player, parent, volunteer or would like to be a player sponsor ($50 provides a player with athletic shoes and a ball), or just to find out more, please send us an e-mail, click Contact Us. Click Rugby News for updates. Please also check out and patronize the donors on our Donor Mahalos page. 
We are able to field quality sides of school aged, university aged, and open adult aged players for matches with touring sides. If your school, university, or club wants to play on Maui (Click contact us). To see photos of our players in action scroll down or click Rugby News. We have set as one of our goals developing future rugby Olympians through an Olympic Development Program (ODP) we have set in place here on Maui. As part of our ODP we have helped our players train with top coaches and compete against some of the finest competion in the world, both at home, by hosting touring sides, and overseas by taking our players on tour and aiding our players in joining sides all over the globe for a season or more. Players from our club who have joined university, military and club teams all around the world bring what they have learned back home to the other members of Maui Rugby, so we are always incorporating new techiquies into our skill sets to keep improving our play. We also welcome vactioning coaches and players visiting Maui to our Tuesday and Thrusday evening practices so we can learn from them and share our Aloha in return. We currently have members playing in Australia, and New Zealand as well as on the US mainland and in the South Pacific Islands, where many of our members have roots and family. We also have two of our players leaving later this month to join a club in England for a season.  
Scrum on the Big Island at HYR Tournament 2007, Line Out from same U19 Maui v. Big Island Match
Scrum during Maui v. Waimea U17s in Waikiki at 2009 HYR, Maui break away against the Big Island g   More runs by Maui Maui players in Wikiki, another against Big Island and more against Kahuku of Oahu U17 completes run in Waikiki in 2009, U19 side from Pennsylavania v. North Shore, Oahu First Aloha 7s 2005 Mana O Maui Rugby, first day at Aloha U19 Rugby 7s Tournament March 2007, Kahuku, Oahu, Hawaii Players interested in joining Maui Rugby need no experience Lack of financial ability to contribute to the costs of the season will not prevent playing.
Lack of ability will not keep those willing from playing, no cuts and no bench warming. If you practice, you play. Recreational events as well as competitive ones scheduled.
2010 Registration begins Friday, November 27, 209 at the Kihei Youth Center at 6:00 pm. See Registration Forms to read the forms to be signed. Rugby has many unique traditions. Two of the best appear on the video clip linked below which shows the national team of Tonga doing the sipitau in response to the haka of the national team of New Zealand just before their 2007 Rugby World Cup match. Notice the size of the crowd in the background after you click on Rugby is played in 116 countries and has long standing traditions of hosting, touring, and combining players from opposing teams in one georgraphic area to form representative teams to play against similar combined teams from another geographical area, from the smallest municipality to the national teams that compete every four years for the Rugby World Cup. Visting teams are typically hosted by the families of the home clubs, usually in the home of their opposite number or at a sponsoring church or club. Thus, Rugby can open up the whole world to its participants by offering travel opportunites that can be funded for much less than those that involve hotel stays, which are typical when multiple teams converge in one venue for a rugby tournament. Even participants who never get the chance to travel are exposed to numerous cultures through interaction with one another. Rugby players and volutneers in Hawaii include, for example, people who have lived all across North America, the continents of Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, and South America as well as many from island nations as spread out on the globe as Tonga, Ireland, Samoa, Scotland, Fiji, England, Japan, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. People of both genders play versions of rugby from the age of 5 to over the age of 80. There is a version of our sport played at the Olympic level by people who use wheelchairs to locomote. Rugby is truly an inclusive sport. We don't have bench warmers. When a rugby club has more players than needed for one team in any division we form more teams. Educational institutions around the globe have also seen the benefits of Rugby in developing the whole person. In the USA alone some 428 universities have rugby programs. Some of those programs provide admission assistance to young people seeking a higher educaiton and some even offer rugby scholarships. Maui Rugby helps our young players tap into those resources. Click Rugby Universities to learn more.
Maui Rugby grew from the 10 players and 3 coaches shown in the above photo from March of 2007 to more than 125 teens & preteens & more than 60 young adults playing by the end of 2007. The number of adult volunteers coaching and mentoring grew from 3 to more than 20 during the same period. This past year we have increased that number to over 200 youngsters playing rugby on Maui. . Click Meet the Teams to see our rosters & more photos of our players and coaches. Tackle rugby programs for U13, U17, U19, U23, Open Men and Open Women Recreational Flag Rugby programs for U10 and 50+ Click Schedule/Results to see past match results and future matches scheduled. Facts at a Glance regarding Rugby Union Football:
• Played by high school students since 1823 and is the forerunner of gridiron football • Currently the fastest growing team sport in the USA among high school aged student athle • Big Island and Oahu boys clubs formed 2004-2010, Mana O Maui formed 2007
118 Countries play rugby, the best team is crowned world cup champion every 4 years As of 2006 there were:
• 386 US programs for high school boys, average more than 37 boys each
• 112 US programs for high school girls, average more than 29 girls each
• 428 universities and colleges in the USA play rugby, some offer rugby scholarships
Rugby is an inexpensive way to bring the many benefits of team sports to students. USA Rugby clubs are organized for a safe and fun experience for the players and fans, and provide protection with liability insurance for sponsors, schools, field owners, and the volunteers who coach, referee and administer. Adult volunteers are screened with criminal background checks at the expense of USA Rugby. USA Rugby training and certification programs are available for those willing to referee and/or coach.
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| You or your business can be a sponsor. Any contribution, no matter what size, will help youngsters stay out of trouble and gain the benefits of team sport. | | For more information about playing rugby this year, becoming a volunteer, sponsor or contributor, please contact Jack Breen at coach-jack@maui-rugby.org, or at jackbreen@hawaii.rr.com | |
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