Mountain View Bobcats: A Youth Rugby Club to Call Our Own

Paul Lynch and Scott Miller want to let you in on a secret—Mountain View finally has it’s very own youth Rugby club!

The youth club is called the Mountain View Bobcats (www.ayru.net). So, gone are the days when enthusiastic or curious Mountain View and Los Gatos parents had no choice, but to travel to Palo Alto or San Jose to provide their children with an opportunity to experience rugby. Instead, America’s fastest growing youth team sport is right here on your door step.

Our youth rugby club is now in its third year of existence and growing stronger year to year. More kids and more coaches are joining the ranks and all with one goal—to fill our Sunday afternoons with fun during the winter months, when athletic opportunities are extremely limited. 

When in June 2009, we had a very simple mission—we wanted to make the residents of Mountain View and surrounding cities aware of the wonderful sport of rugby; not only as an excellent athletic pursuit for kids, but as a sport with its unique ethos to transform the lives of their children.

Like other popular youth sports, rugby is physically demanding and there is an ineffable "spirit of camaraderie" between players on the same team, but one of the unique qualities of rugby, is that this spirit extends its reach to the opposition as well. At the Mountain View Bobcats our mantra is “play hard, play fair and always with a keen eye towards safety. Moreover rugby instills in our youth an extraordinary level of respect for authority (Referees and coaches) that is sometimes lacking in the world of youth sports today.      

The last 5 years have witnessed a revolution in the growing popularity and participation in youth rugby across the US. Youth rugby clubs have been popping up all over the place, as America awakens to the true potential of the game - which some say is played in heaven. We think Mountain View is heavenly too, so get in touch with or come along to our practices at Graham Middle School (Sundays 3-5 p.m.) and if you like what you see—join our growing rugby family!