Hi all,
Nick Feakes here, I've been working over the past months to grow our youth programs state-wide. Between the Louisiana Rugby and NOLA Gold organizations we have achieved this despite the challenge that COVID has posed. We have had youth rugby clinics in six locations in 2020, up from three in previous years. On any given week we had upwards of 100 kids playing rugby in Louisiana which is a significant increase!
With the Major League Rugby season approaching, our NOLA Gold coaches are unfortunately not going to be able to continue youth coaching due to Major League Rugby regulations. This unfortunately means that our programs in conjunction with Jefferson Parish Recreation Department have to be suspended until Gold players are able to resume coaching. We hope this is before the 2021 Major League Rugby season ends. We encourage those who attended these programs to instead sign up for our City Park and Gretna programs.
Our Gretna and City Park programs will keep running with experienced local rugby players, parents and other members of the rugby community taking the reins in February. Our program in conjunction with Coquille Recreation Department will continue as normal. Our Baton Rouge program, ran by the wonderful Teresa Nguyen, will also continue as normal.
You can sign up for Gretna, City Park and Baton Rouge at the link below while registration is open.
That being said we have some exciting events coming up in the next couple weeks:
* Youth Rugby Clinic at Harahan Park - Sunday, Jan 24 - 9:00-10:30am (open to the public)
* Safe Rugby Tackling Clinic at Dynamic Performance Training - Saturday, Jan 23 and Wednesday, Jan 27 (members only)
In 2021 we plan to keep growing the sport of rugby through grassroots initiatives and partnerships with community organizations around the state.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns or comments please don't hesitate to contact me at nick@nolagoldrugby.com
Thank you,
Nick