Rebels Rugby Club

Rugby Is the Sport Nobody Told Your Kid About. That's the Problem.

Ask a Roswell parent to name a fall sport and you'll hear football, soccer, maybe cross country. Rugby comes up last, if it comes up at all. That gap costs Georgia kids more than most people realize.

Rebels Rugby GA has run out of Roswell Area Park since 2013. We're a volunteer club, K through 12, and the thing that keeps families coming back is not the sport itself. It's what the sport does to the roster.

Everyone plays

Rugby has no bench culture. Fifteen positions on the pitch demand fifteen different body types, and the kid who never got picked in other sports finds out the game was built for her. Short or tall, big or small, fast or steady. There is a spot on the field that needs exactly what she has.

That is not a marketing line. It is the structural reality of the sport, and it is why rugby converts kids who quit everything else.

Free is the front door

Cost keeps kids out of youth sports more than interest does. So we built the entry points to cost nothing.

Touch Tuesdays run free at Roswell Area Park through the summer. No registration, no gear, no commitment. Show up, learn to pass, go home. Try Rugby clinics work the same way. A family can find out whether their kid loves this before anyone asks them for a dollar.

Most of our roster started at one of those two doors.

The crossover no one expects

Our U12 group fills with football, soccer, and wrestling kids whose parents wanted something in the offseason. They stay because rugby teaches the things those sports assume: tackling technique, spatial awareness, decision-making under pressure without a coach calling every play.

High schoolers borrow us in their offseason and a lot of them stop calling it that.

What safety actually looks like

Parents ask about contact first. Fair question, and the answer is procedural rather than reassuring.

Recognize and remove. If in doubt, sit them out. Minimum 14-day rest for youth after a suspected concussion. USA Rugby SafeSport governs our adult-to-minor communication. Our youngest group plays touch only, hands on the ball, no contact at all, and progression to tackle is taught before it is permitted.

The clubs that skip these steps are not the sport. They are a failure to run it properly.

What we need from Georgia's business community

Youth rugby in Georgia runs on volunteers and parent donations. Cooler-based concessions. Gear exchanges where families hand down boots. Coaches who took time off work to get certified.

That model works, and it caps how many kids we can reach. Local businesses that back field and kit costs are not buying a banner. They are buying a season for a kid whose family could not otherwise say yes.

Our Open House is October 10 at Roswell Area Park, with a FREE gear exchange running alongside it (bring what you have, take what you need). Come see what a sport looks like when nobody sits out.

Kim Siler serves on the Rebels Rugby GA board. Reach the club at info@rebelsrugbyga.com.