TEAM HISTORY

The idea of starting a youth rugby program in Morris County first struck Tom Feury at the 1998 Can-Am Rugby tournament in Saranac Lake. With the future of the Morris Old Boys in doubt and A side play beginning to take its toll on Feury's aging body, youth rugby appeared to be a new potential career extender.

Tom spent the next several months securing the permission to run a summer youth rugby program in his hometown of Denville NJ. It was an uphill battle gaining access to fields and becoming an accepted town recreation program, but the battle was won and plans were put in place to start the first Morris Youth Rugby Program in Denville in the summer of 1999.

In the fall of 1999, John Sutherland (Big Toe) organized a great tour to Ireland for the World Cup. John, who also helped coach the youth program in the summer, wound up bunking with a relative newcomer to Morris Rugby, Craig Chapman (Chappy). Ten days, four rugby games, and plenty of great Irish stout provided a perfect opportunity for Feury and Sutherland to sell the youth rugby idea to Chappy and by the end of the trip, Craig had pledged to start a second program up in Montville.

Chappy used the same template Feury used to secure fields and players for his new program and managed to attract close to 30 kids for Montville's first season in the summer of 2000. The Denville program expanded to 50 players, which enabled Morris Youth to add a third division, thus making things more competitive. The season ended in what can be considered the first "Junior Jersey Cup" when Montville hosted Denville to a fun day of rugby and camaraderie.

Since Montville's first summer in 2000, Long Valley (2001), Parsippany (2002), Black River (2005) all added programs to the Morris family of youth programs.

In 2006 it was Jane & Mike Stumpf's turn. The Stumpf's coordinated the first summer of youth rugby in Morristown. The program has experianced steady grown ever since.

Morristown Youth rugby provides a low pressure environment where kids are expected to come and go as family vacations allow. There is no experience is necessary. For the convenience of all involved all age groups practice and play matches at the same time & same place. Matches are played in various towns in Morris County on Saturday mornings from 9:00am- 12:00pm.