NEW YORK, NY – The United States Rugby Foundation, which has invested in youth and grassroots rugby in the US for over 60 years, named Shane Young, the founder of Memphis Inner City Rugby as its new Chief Executive Officer. After graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University with a degree in Political Science, Young arrived in Memphis with Teach for America. A youth rugby player himself, he co-founded the non-profit Memphis Inner City Rugby (MICR) as a way to keep kids in school and teach them valuable lessons for life. Over the next 12 years under his leadership, MICR raised millions, which enabled them to serve 3,800 students and hire over 120 alums of the program to help coach and mentor students in the program.
“It is the privilege of a lifetime to serve as USRF’s CEO during such a critical chapter in the American rugby story,” Young said. “With just 5 years until the USA hosts the Rugby World Cup, we have no time to waste in expanding opportunities in our game.”
The New Jersey native also co-founded Urban Rugby America to spread the success of MICR across the country, using grassroots and youth rugby to teach skills to inner-city and impoverished students and put them on the high-school graduation and college track.
“America deserves to know rugby. Our best athletes deserve to play the game. Philanthropists and
corporate enterprises deserve to invest in our amazing game,” Young said.
Young has garnered many awards for his non-profit work with youth through rugby. They include:
–Tennessee Department of Health’s Visionary Award
–Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40; Leadership Memphis’s Change Maker Award
-Athletes in Excellence Award from Foundation for Global Sports Development.
“We are thrilled that Shane will join us this year,” said Anne Barry, Chairman of the US Rugby
Foundation. “Shane has clearly demonstrated his ability and passion for developing the game for all youth across the country.”
Young, who played scrumhalf for the USA under-19s team on a tour to England, began playing rugby in
New Jersey when he was 12. After the family relocated to Naples, Florida, 3 years later, he, his father and his brother started the Naples Bears Rugby Club at his high school, because there was no youth rugby in the town. In math class, Young recruited future USA Eagle Cam Dolan to join the Naples Bears.
(Here’s Mr. Young in a previous episode of MLR Weekly)
The US Rugby Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization, which has for over six decades
supported the growth and development of youth rugby in the United States. The Foundation
accomplishes this by funding and promoting grassroots programs, college scholarships, coach & referee development, and health & safety.
For more information on the US Rugby Foundation or to interview CEO Shane Young, please email
hello@usrugbyfoundation.com