Our Club's Values

The Mission of Oshkosh Youth Rugby is to promote the growth of all forms of Rugby at all levels of competition for the Oshkosh and Winnebago County community. The development and promotion of sportsmanship, teamwork, honesty, courage, respect for authority, academics, discipline, leadership and physical fitness in the area youth are the corporation’s main priorities.

In order to accomplish this mission, we seek to attain the following objectives:
  • To govern the program in a manner that puts the development of our participants, as both athletes and persons, above other considerations.
  • To provide our participants with volunteer coaches who work with participants of all ability levels and who remember that development of exceptional athletic skills and winning games is secondary to the development of participants and to providing our participants with positive examples and a positive Rugby experience.
  • To provide our participants with volunteer coaches who seek to teach those participants the rules of the game along with proper Rugby fundamentals.
  • To provide quality equipment for the use of our participants.
As such our club upholds and teaches the following values to all our players.

Respect

Mutual respect is the basis of rugby. This includes respect for your teammates, opponents, match officials and supporters. Our coaches enforce mutual respect at all practices and games.

Teamwork

There is no I in team. We welcome players of all levels and skill sets and teach our youth to work together as a team. We teach selfless play: working for the team, not ourselves. We encourage this off and on the field and teach our youth to take pride in their team, win or lose.

Growth

We encourage growth and development in all areas. We set goals as a team and push our youth to set individual goals. This is essential for building confidence and attaining success later in life. Our coaches support and help our players attain their goals, on or off the field.

Enjoyment

Enjoyment and fun is the reason we all play rugby. Our coaches work hard to make practices and games enjoyable while playing and learning. Rugby is a great sport for teaching our youth how to have a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Sportsmanship

Respect and camaraderie is what rugby was built on. We teach our youth fair play and dignity both on and off the field. We play to win but teach them how to praise the achievements of opponents.

BUILDING CHARACTER OUT OF A CULTURE OF COMMUNITY

The most important thing our club teaches is to love and respect the game of rugby. Although rugby is an extremely physical and competitive sport, the premise of the sports culture has always been that:
  • Two teams come together,
  • Play as hard as they can,
  • Then come together to honor and celebrate the match, and the sport itself
After each match, the home team provides hospitality to all of the visiting teams. This is a chance for all the teams to hang out and socialize and is usually accompanied by food. In higher levels of play, the hospitality can extend past the post-match gathering and the home team sometimes provides assistance with sleeping accommodations to traveling teams. This hospitality and sense of community is what separates rugby from any other sports. The demonstration of mutual respect and camaraderie after every match builds confidence, strength, and integrity in our youth.