The new year will bring a new set of challenges for Patrick Calow, the Bermuda Rugby Football Union’s youth development officer.

Already heading up a burgeoning schools rugby sevens programme, he will be bringing the 15-a-side game to the Island’s youth in the next couple of weeks.

Six middle schools and five high schools are involved in the Digicel-sponsored league, which will run until March and culminate in a day of championship matches at the National Sports Centre.

Calow is looking forward to the competition and said that the students involved had really “got the bug” for rugby.

“We played some sporadic sevens tournaments from October just as a way to get the ball rolling,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, especially at high school level, they’ve kind of got the bug for it now. I’m looking forward to getting it going.”

Of the Island’s middle schools, only Clearwater, who have not really embraced the game, will not be involved in the five-round league.

In all, Calow estimates that there are some 300 children, from under-six through to under-17, playing the sport at school, on a Sunday with the national youth teams and with the hugely successful Beyond Rugby programme that the BRFU runs in conjunction with Family Centre.

Not all of those involved now will continue to play the game once they leave school, but Calow sees any participation as a sign of progress.

“What’s been great is that a lot of the PE teachers have been open to me coming into schools and doing more sessions,” Calow said. “Even if more people are exposed to the sport and leave feeling it was good fun, I see that as progress.”

That progress has extended to the national teams, where Calow estimates that the percentage of Bermudians involved has climbed from about 40 per cent to almost double that. And while enjoyment of the game certainly plays its part, Calow believes that it is rugby’s values of discipline, respect and teamwork that have also proved popular.

“What I’m very proud of is that when we talk about rugby values, and what we’re trying to do, it’s not something we just say as a sales pitch,” Calow said. “We talk about creating good people as well as good athletes, and hopefully we’ve started to earn a reputation for doing that.”

Of course an increase in participation means there are tangible benefits for the Island’s national teams on the pitch as well as off it. The more players, the more competition there is for places and, hopefully, the better Bermuda becomes on the world stage.

Calow wants that competition to start in schools, extend to the national set-up and ultimately to create a ripple effect where a match between Berkeley and Bermuda Institute becomes a “big deal” for those involved.

A competitive system where children “earn the right to play” is just one of the BRFU official’s goals for the coming year. He also wants to use the work that the governing body does on and off the pitch as a springboard for helping students to win scholarships to schools and universities overseas.

There will also be a number of tours for the various youth teams to negotiate with high school sides heading to Las Vegas in February for a sevens tournament and a 25-man under-17 squad heading to England over the Easter break for games against several top school sides near London.

“We want to open our guys’ eyes up to proper rugby,” Calow said. “It will be a totally different experience and another lesson in discipline. In Bermuda, it can be hard to get that fear before you play, where you have no idea who that person is opposite you. This will take them outside their comfort zone.”

Not that the players involved have not already been extended, the training schedule has been a demanding one and the commitment required to make the tour is more than was necessarily needed in the past.

A squad of 30 will be cut to 25 and the old approach of taking people because they worked hard and because the BRFU wanted everyone to feel included has been ditched. The new approach has been driven by the memory of Devrae Noel-Simmons, who coached at TN Tatem and made a big impression on rugby in Bermuda.

“Devrae was such a passionate Bermudian, he didn’t accept anything by halves,” Calow said. “While we have a squad of 30, we’re only going to take 25; we can’t afford to take passengers. That’s both on the pitch, doing the training, the fitness testing, all that sort of stuff, but also on the fundraising side. We can’t have it where there are a lot people doing the work and a lot of people are just getting carried along.”