Chicago Blaze Rugby to Form High School Program in Spring of '15

Building on the foundation of our roots in Lemont, since purchasing our land in 1984 two years after becoming the Chicago Blaze, we are not only building our new facility, but are planning to grow the club from local talent.   As an organization looking forward to the future of rugby in the USA, we are growing a mecca of rugby in Chicago in Lemont.   I was the event Director for the Illinois Youth Rugby State Championships held in Lemont from '06-'13, we had to let it go else where for a couple years as we planned on breaking ground early fall '14.

Now the timing is right, with our new administration our top goal is let the Chicago Blaze Building Corp., take us into the 21st century with new facility, the club wants to grow with the youth of Lemont.  We plan to play a competitive boys High School season, next spring in Illinois Youth Rugby's Division 3.  

We will be getting out in community in the next few months inviting interested people to watch our fall matches.  For more information please reference our website chicagoblazerugby.com

With You, 
Norm Smyth

 Here is a word from Graeme Jackson, whom I took over the alumni duties as he could pursue his youth programs 6 years ago, along with other Blaze Alumni growing the game:

One day out of the blue my oldest son West who was going into 8th grade told me he wanted to play rugby. I told him he would have to wait until high school as there was no rugby for his age group close by. He didn't want to wait a whole year so he asked, “can't you start a team?” I called Dave Rosenberg to help me. In 2009, we started Naperville Youth Rugby for jr high boys........or so I thought. Next I get a call from Brammy asking if girls could play. So along comes Lillie and her little brother Keegan. We played that first season with 16 boys and 1 girl and called ourselves the Naperville Crusaders. We were one of six new Jr high teams that year and joined the two existing teams, Arlington and St Charles. 2009 turned out to be a big year for development of youth rugby in Chicagoland.

At the end of the 2009 season West asks me where he's going to play at high school. I tell him he can go and play for Bob McNeel’s team at Waubonsie who was doing a great job with the high school boys along with Mike Kanzler and Mark Flores at Naperville Central/North. He says, "I want to play for Neuqua”. I say, "they don't have a team yet". He again asks, "can't you start one?“ I say, "I just started a Jr high team“. His response, "yeah, well Quinton still plays for them.“

So in 2010 with the help of Dave we started Neuqua Wildcats Rugby with a bunch of freshman, for a total of 27 high school boys in Tier 3. That same year we saw our numbers double on the Crusaders team and we were now fielding two sides. That was the first year the IYRA had an official state championship for the jr high division. We had a policy of rotating our team at half time-forwards to backs and backs to forwards. It turned out to be a winning policy as we made the final and won.

In 2011 both programs continued to grow and expand. Neuqua was playing T2, with more than 50 players registered. We were struggling to find games for everyone.

In 2012, the Crusaders expanded to 5-8th grade as younger boys wanted to get involved and we were still fielding two sides. We also started to experiment as a league with one game every weekend for 5th and 6th grade kids. 2012 was a strong year for Neuqua as we had over 70 boys registered with three competitive sides, T2, T3, and a newly created Freshman/Sophomore division. Our T2 and F/S teams both made the state final unfortunately to lose both games. The Crusaders continued to be a great way to introduce and develop young boys and girls and as a league we added a 5/6th division.

In 2013 Neuqua played for the state championship in the top division- T1 finishing as runners up.  We fielded a varsity and Jr varsity team. We will also play in T3 and F/S.

The Chicago Blaze is fueling the hotbed of youth rugby in the SW suburbs. Plainfield is coached by Steve Krause. Waubonsie coached by Bryce Elliot. Naperville with Mike Kansler. St. Charles with Jay Crawford. At the Jr high level, Warrenville Warthogs has Rob Hammer and Mike Dalan. The Osprey's a new Jr high level team in Aurora/Oswego has Jeffrey Lapka, David and Michael Zdenovec.

In the short time I have been involved in youth rugby I have seen dramatic growth in all areas and I don't see it slowing down. None of this would've been possible without all of the volunteer help of ex-players and parents. It can be very time consuming but the positive effects of rugby on our young men and women are too numerous to describe. I see it everyday in my family. I have three sons playing, two for Neuqua and one for the Crusaders.

-Graeme Jackson (CBRC Fossil & Coach)