Founded in 2001, the Los Angeles Cougars Rugby Team is a high school age based rugby club. The Cougars field both a High School, under age 19 side and an under age 16 side. Chartered under the Cougar Youth Rugby Foundation, the club has been comprised of student athletes from schools in L.A. and San Gabriel Valley areas including Loyola, Pasadena Polytechnic, St. Francis, Flintridge Prep, South Pasadena, La Canada, and San Marino. The Cougars compete in the Southern California Rugby Football Union league. Additionally the Cougars travel to Northern California and host International touring sides.

SUCCESS ON THE FIELD
The Cougars have won the Southern California Rugby Football Union Championship title (SCRFU) five times, 2002 - 2005 and 2007 and earned the opportunity to represent SCRFU at the National Championships in four years, finishing 13th, 12th, 11th and 10th in the U.S. in '03, '04, '05 and '07 respectively.

Several club members have gone on to earn significant national recognition. Six Cougars play Varsity rugby for National Champions Cal Berkeley. Chase Brogan earned All-American honors and served as Captain of Cal's 2007 National Champion team. Dartmouth alum, Joe Killefer earned Collegiate All-American and All-Ivy League honors in '05 and was selected for the USA 7s team in ‘06-07. Evan Algorri and Brian Rey started for Santa Monica Rugby Club, U. S. Division I National Champions in '05-06. Eric Strack and Dave Rutkowski made the USA U19 side in '06. Logan Howard and Brian Rey were U.S. trialist.

ATHLETIC APPEAL
The Cougars have enjoyed success in part due to the level of student athlete the club seems to attract. Since the club's inception, twenty players have gone on to play Varsity sports in college including Football (11), Rugby (8), and Volleyball (1). Dartmouth football sophomore, Ian Wilson received All Ivy Honors in '05 & '06.

ACADEMIC APPEAL
The Cougars have also benefited from attracting top students. Rugby has influenced college selection by students. In some cases, it has influenced college admissions. Cougar alumni can be found continuing to develop as rugby players and student-athletes at colleges across the country including Bucknell, Cornell, Claremont, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Washington University, Harvard, Loyola Marymount, Michigan, Notre Dame, U of Penn, Princeton, San Diego State, Stanford, SMU, Texas Christian, Tulane, USC, Yale and the campuses of the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara.

LEADERSHIP
The Cougars have attracted a very experienced coaching staff including former Canadian International Scott Stewart, head coach UCLA & Cougars, two former US. players in Chip Howard & Dr. James Grant. Rounding out the staff are Dr. Ed O'Connor, Al Clark, Wade Killefer, Howard Brown, Geoff Joy and Mike Greig and Colin Stone from New Zealand. All are Certified Coaches and several are certified referees