AMNRL Hawaii On The Move

AMNRL Hawaii is holding regular sessions introducing youth to Rugby League and planning for the 2012 season in Hawaii is moving ahead at a feverish pace.

 

The AMNRL recently announced that the USA Tomahawks will play Tonga in Hawaii on May 12 and then Japan on June 9. Add to that the fact that the Tomahawks host Ireland on March 17 and Hawaii hopes to have some of its athletes selected for that game by conducting CATs (combines and trials) in Hawaii and you get an idea of the action going on off the field in the islands.

 

The AMNRL Hawaii domestic season will kick off with teams playing a curtain-raiser to the USA v Japan game and will run through July 28. The competition will expand from teams on Oahu and Maui in 2011 by adding teams from the Big Island, and from having five teams competing in official games to as many as 10 teams getting in at least one match this year.

 

University and High School Rugby League and High Performance initiatives are also the focus of attention in Hawaii with the AMNRL naming national and regional leaders in each of these areas of development. Sean Strickland, who began the formation of AMNRL Hawaii before being called up for active military duty in 2011, has returned and will help lead the university efforts on Oahu.

 

The success of AMNRL Hawaii in 2011 is now serving as the model for the League’s expansion conferences in the Midwest and West.

 

The pattern developed is: form multiple teams in a region close enough for all of them to schedule their own games in a conference season without having to travel great distances to play teams in the other regions of the AMNRL thousands of miles away on a regular basis; host AMNRL clinics for referees, coaches and players in the region along with a CAT (combine and trial) before each of the international games staged by the AMNRL so players from the conference have an opportunity to compete locally for selection to the USA Tomahawks; hold a Grand Final and select an All Conference team so competitions between regions can be organized with a few key events instead of exhausting resources by having individual clubs trying to compete nationally.

 

“Hawaii is part of the USA, but it is also part of Polynesia and the broader Pacific region, where Rugby League is far more popular than it is in North America,” says AMNRL Hawaii’s Jack Breen. “This combination has put Hawaii in a very good position to grow Rugby League more rapidly than in the rest of the USA.”