Withrow Rugby, now in our tenth year since our founding, has reached a point of great need and great opportunity. Year after year, the financial needs have increased as our roster sizes have increased and as we have built more and more connections for next level opportunities.

First, our great need. Each of the last three years, we have been invited to participate in the Urban Rugby Championship, which has required travel to, respectively; Washington DC, New Orleans, and Dallas. Each year, we have followed up on our competitive expectations, finishing 2nd last year in New Orleans, and in 3rd this year in Dallas. Each trip has brought the costs of travel, food, hotel stays, and supportive details to make sure our young men are at their best. This year, for the first time, we needed to travel via airplane because of the greater distance of Dallas, which brought added costs. The total cost for the tournament ran about $7k, which we needed to frontload in anticipation of raising funds for reimbursal. We also are averaging about 30 athletes per season now, which brings an additional cost burden to the team when some families are not able to pay for the cost of season registration and beyond.

Second, our great opportunity. We need to leverage our resources for the next ten years of the program. Rucking pads, balls, food supplementation, tackle pads, cones, practice jerseys, and more are staring us in the face. Through care and resourcefulness, we have made what we have work far longer than expected, but we are limping our way forward at this point with much held together with duct tape.

In our ten short years, in our high-performance and positive coaching/mentoring system, we have a number of athletes who have fallen in love with the game and the culture of rugby. In addition, we have prepared and sent 32 student-athletes to the collegiate and club ranks, where many have been selected for leadership positions. The current captain of the University of Cincinnati RFC, Ja'mez Early, is a rising junior and was a state championship winner at Withrow in 2023. We also have had an alum, Le'donn Mathis, drafted into pro rugby when he was selected by Anthem RFC in the Major League Rugby (MLR) Draft in 2024.

Each year, our most focused ruggers often develop quickly, and are increasingly invited to select side tryouts and high-performance camps and tournaments. We would like to supplement finances for their families to make these opportunities and tournaments more accessible to them. This June alone, we had 11 ruggers try out for the Aviators All-State U-19 and U-15 teams, with 10 of them selected for inclusion in the Academy. The cost to participate in all three tournaments with Aviators is $900 per athlete, which is cost-prohibitive to many families. There are opportunities with the Midwest Thunderbirds Regional Select Side as well. As with many sports in this country, the biggest barrier to select sides and national teams being more competitive is NOT the quality of athletes in the system, it IS the money the athlete and their family has to be in front of selectors.

There are currently zero overhead costs in our organization when it comes to donations. 100% of all monies that you donate go straight to the program: to registrations, select-side inclusion, to equipment, and to food for the team that is provided on a daily basis to ensure they are healthy, energetic, and moving forward. Thank you for your time and your generosity to our program!!!

Follow our program social media accounts to stay looped in as we move forward!

Instagram: @withrowrugby

Twitter: @WithrowRugby

Facebook Group: Friends of Withrow Rugby

Withrow Rugby Tenth Anniversary Fundraiser

Major program Ten Year Refresh and Sustaining Funds