Nigel Melville Direct

• Combating Childhood Obesity through Rookie Rugby (Mark Van Trees, Florida)
• Creating State-Based Organizations (Jeff Arker (Oregon) / Eddie Abel (Indiana)
• Scrum Safety (Bill LeClerc)
• Varsity High School (Kristin Richeimer)
• Developing Athletes (Dave Williams)
• Referees recruitment (Ed Todd/Jen Gray)
• Administering Leagues (JR La Pierre)
• National Guard Opportunities (Kyle Judah)

This past weekend was the USA Youth Conference held at the impressive Infinity Park Event Center in Glendale, Colorado, a weekend when youth leaders from around the USA gather together to share best practice, learn about new initiatives and network with colleagues. In short, it was a great event (more later).

On Saturday night, the World Rugby Shop Award for Community Service was presented to Ernie Vargas, whose Hawaiian Gardens Rugby program was featured on ABC's "Nightline" News earlier this year and created tremendous interest in the power of rugby amongst some of the toughest neighborhoods in the USA.

Hawaiian Gardens is a small neighborhood near Los Angeles that sounds like an attractive holiday resort, but is probably one of the last places on earth you should be thinking about spending your summer vacation!

The rugby program comprised of area middle and high school students was started by a local gang prevention coordinator, Ernie Vargas, a 5’11”, slender, mild mannered man, immaculately groomed and quietly spoken. Of Mexican descent but living in Hawaiian Gardens since the age of 16, Ernie is ideally placed to bring together the local community. After all, he was brought up with most of the parents whose children now attend the school where Ernie works.

Whilst the story of his program is well documented, I was interested in the man himself, what on earth brought him to this point in his life and why rugby?

I caught up with Ernie on Sunday morning and over breakfast he told me about his life, training to be a minister, his amazement that the church sent him to work in Texas – and the reason he chose to take another path, returning to his family home in Hawaiian Gardens and working with the local community. In fact the role of neighborhood and gang prevention coordinator was a role he created, recognizing the need to bring people together and try to reduce the violence and gang warfare responsible for the loss of so many young lives.

His path to rugby started as a teenager, when the local Mexican community created “car clubs.” When not admiring and racing their cars, they would play football against other car clubs, the prize being a case of beer - Ernie is still amused by the fact that the winners never offered to share their beer with their losing opponents!

Then one day he saw rugby for the first time on TV and wondered what it was all about; when he found the opportunity to have a go himself, he joined a local team.

Years later, the problems at the local school were getting out of hand: gangs, racial tension, violence and the principal threatening to exclude another group of youngsters from the educational process, an all too common occurrence in Hawaiian Gardens.

Ernie met with a group of these young men.

“Their flag football season was over, they were bored,” he explained. “They wanted to play tackle football, but weren’t allowed, so I asked them if they’d ever heard of rugby.”

Since then, the program has grown, Ernie now has boys’ and girls’ teams, and thanks to the recent publicity, team uniforms and equipment. As a coach (and former winger), forward play has remained a bit of a mystery, but the success of his program suggests that the mild mannered Ernie Vargas knows more than he is letting on!

This weekend, Ernie was excited about a potential partnership between Rookie Rugby and the local Hawaiian Gardens Peace Builders program, which brings together elementary school students from different communities and teaches young people from many different backgrounds to live in peace with each other.

Rugby is a remarkable game, it achieves results both on and off the field of play that few other sports can compete with. From a glitzy Rugby Legends dinner in New York last week, to the Youth Conference in Glendale and finally breakfast with Ernie Vargas from Hawaiian Gardens, the last few days have strengthened my belief in the potential of Rugby in the USA.