Students are getting excited about rugby—and the Utah Warriors rugby team’s core values of community, family, tradition and respect. Players from Utah's major league rugby club run an assembly in which they demonstrate rugby skills and invite students to participate with them in drills and activities.

“We just randomly select students to come and learn how to pass a rugby ball,” Warriors Community and Events Manager Patrice Nautu said. “We do some small competitions and relay races. And then we also, we have Koa our mascot come out and he just adds just the most excitement for our young kids, especially our elementary kids.”

The Warriors hold assemblies to generate interest and enthusiasm for the sport of rugby, which is fairly new to Utah. However, many Utahns remember the excitement surrounding the Herriman High School graduate Alex "Spiff" Sedrick, who helped win a bronze medal for the U.S. women’s rugby team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“There's still this buzz and this excitement around rugby that we just want to share with the youth,” Nautu said. “And so that's our goal, just getting to more schools, introducing this awesome game of rugby and then sharing our values of community, family, tradition and respect.”

“Many of our students were already familiar and excited to see professional athletes, and others were exposed to a new game and culture,” West Jordan Middle School Assistant Principal Ethan Walsh said.

West Jordan Middle School invited the Warriors to hold an assembly for their students.

“We chose to partner with the Utah Warriors because of their strong emphasis on values that align closely with our school's focus on creating a safe, responsible and respectful environment,” Walsh said. “The team's dedication to promoting these principles through sports was a natural fit with our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program.”

The team values, which they call the four Warriors stripes, are the basis of the assembly, but they also incorporate any other messaging a school administration requests.

Athlos Academy, which emphasizes the values of Prepared Mind, Healthy Body and Performance Character, has hosted the Warriors assembly many times.

“The last few years we've invited them back, because they're just very energetic, very positive. They really get the kids engaged—we love their assembly program,” Athlos Academy Assistant Principal Stacy Tonozzi said.

The Warriors leave the schools they visit with warrior tokens to reward students for living the team’s values. They also provide tickets to students to attend a home game, with a portion of that night’s ticket sales donated back to the school. Nautu said it’s an affordable and family friendly event and that it’s fun to see students cheering with a section full of their classmates and families. She said they get pretty excited, especially when students are called to the field during half-time to represent their school and to greet the players with a high-five line.

“Just seeing the joy with these students on the field with professional athletes, it makes everything worth it,” Nautu said. “The experiences and the impact that rugby can have on these young students, on the youth, is truly impactful.”λ