Olympic Status No Windfall For US Rugby
Source: (IRB.COM) By Al Caravelli
From US Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California
In his latest column for irbsevens.com, USA Sevens coach Al Caravelli looks ahead to the new HSBC Sevens World Series talking players and pre-season, sets the record straight on USOC funding and faces up to a foe he and his side have never beaten before..
As I write this article we are less than two weeks away from the start of the new HSBC Sevens World Series and the excitement is building.
Our team has traditionally not done too well in Dubai, the first tournament of the season, since we haven’t been able to attend any warm-up tournaments, but that doesn’t dampen our spirits or affect our planning. Not having the benefit of a hit-out in a warm-up event puts a little pressure on the players and staff to go beyond what we’ve achieved before and that is the only way we can really be competitive since all of our competition are able to play tournaments before arriving in Dubai.
That gets us to our camp and its participants. While we may not have had the tune-up tournaments, we do have one similarity with many of the other teams - Sevens continues to provide players with a direct route into the full Eagles team, and full time professional contracts overseas.
The Eagles are currently in Europe and recently they played and defeated Portugal. In that side there were six backs and one back row forward who had all come through the Sevens ranks, plus three more on the bench.
We are fortunate that we will have two of those players joining our team in Dubai after they conclude their European tour. The remaining 10 players have been selected from this week's camp. Of the 20 there, only three were in our selection camp for Dubai last year so to say the least we have a lot of new players coming in.
The very good news is that we are anchored by Matt Hawkins and Mark Bokhoven, both injury-free and healthy and two of the best forwards on the entire circuit. Also returning from injury is winger Justin Boyd and Ata Malifa.
We have been very busy this summer during our domestic Sevens season. We had a selection camp in September and those that performed well will be here this week. We have several players that were in our national club championships and three ‘cross-over’ athletes from college (American) football, two of whom were in the Miami Dolphins' training camp this summer.
Everyone outside the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) and its sports members seems to think that there is an abundance of cash for all athletes and sports that are in the Olympics. Once Rugby became an Olympic sport everyone was expecting a windfall of money to hit USA Rugby, but the reality is that everything works on quadrennial cycles.
As you all know, rugby won’t be in the Olympics until 2016 and since we are not in the current quad cycle, priority has to go towards funding sports that are in medal contention for 2012.
Another fact that people don’t know is that the USOC is the only NOC that gets no government funding. It raises money from donations. While that is the reality, we have some intelligent and visionary leaders at the USOC who know that for us to be able to medal in the Pan American Games (October 2011) and qualify for the Olympics they need to start investing in the team today.
Some of that investment may not come in direct monetary funds, but in resources, which of course cost money. This summer the USOC voted USA Rugby in as a Sports Member and the result of that membership is increased resources in the High Performance area.
The team now has a sports nutritionist working with us. She has reviewed everyone’s training program and has given them menu suggestions for pre-camp, pre-tournament, during tournament play and post recovery. It’s a real change. Even in the area of travel: what to eat when we are travelling to help us overcome jet lag.
We now also have a sports physiologist who has worked with the athletes on their first workshop focusing on communication and concentration. We will continue that at the next camp in a series of workshops.
Finally there’s also a sport psychologist. He is working with our staff as well as the athletes on all aspects, from becoming a better athlete to strength work, speed, hand-eye co-ordination, cognitive thinking - to name just a few things.
So, while you don’t actually see dollars, these services are not cheap and we are working with top professionals who have several Olympic Games under their belts. That experience is invaluable and we hope to leverage that in the long run.
There is always a first time..
Looking at Dubai, one of the teams we have never beaten is New Zealand. We face them first up.
On paper they are the lead dog: Dubai defending champions, recent Commonwealth Games gold medalists, second in the World Series last year. We, on the other hand, have a lot of new players but we don’t mind the underdog tag. There is always a first time and we would like it to be this time around. Our goal is to be in the quarter finals after day one.
Also in our pool is Argentina, who we have been fortunate enough to get the better of the last two times we played. On the other hand, we’ve never beaten Zimbabwe so, as my Dad used to say: “learn from the past, prepare for the future and perform in the present.”
That is what we expect to do.