Warriors Co-Founder Announces Plans to Build School & Rugby Academy

Herriman, Utah — Utah Warriors co-founder and partner Lucas Kjar, founder of the Autosource Dealerships, announced today the purchase of land and a facility to build a privately-funded rugby academy focusing on innovative, tactile, and engaging learning strategies for young men. The school, called Liberty Boys Academy, in Liberty Lake, Washington, will launch grades 4th through 6th in the fall of 2021 and will scale up to grades 4th through 12th in the near future.

The Academy was founded with the purpose to address the evidence that boys in American society have a need for improvement in three key areas: identity, academics, and relationships. As part of that core vision, the school will also use an Academy-style use of sport, particularly rugby, to drive home many of the school’s goals. Sports participation embodies each approach as they integrate into a student’s education: active, explanation, demonstration, problem-solving, visual, co-operative, and collaborative group work.

“Rugby is an amazing tool to teach young men teamwork, leadership, and hard work,” Kjar said, ‘The ethos of rugby is a natural fit to the ethos we want to establish at our academy. We are really excited to support a full spectrum talent pool from our programs and opportunities for rugby players in the Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho areas.”

To assist with the important foundational work of Liberty Boys Academy’s vision Kjar has tapped Chris Nesmith to lead the development of local rugby development initiatives with the Cascade Rugby Union to foster and promote rugby’s growth in the region. Nesmith will also be fundamentally involved in the curriculum of Liberty Boys Academy given his professional work as a school district administrator and education consultant in the region.

“This is a great partnership in achieving our equity mission in the Cascade Rugby Union,” Nesmith said, “There are many kids not involved in youth athletics for a variety of reasons. This partnership will guarantee all kids have access to the best coaching”

In addition to expanding the grassroots reach of rugby to the Northwest, once the academy is opened to its full capacity it will have the facilities and programs to recruit, develop, and train world-class rugby players who desire to be on a path to play professional rugby for the Utah Warriors.

With these initiatives, it’s the goal of Liberty Boys Academy and the Utah Warriors to create the first fully-operational academic and rugby-specific Major League Rugby professional pathway option for players in the USA and from around the world.

“The work that Luke and Chris are doing with Liberty Academy by using rugby as one of their tools for developing young men is aligned with the Warriors community initiatives,” Brandon Sparks, Utah Warriors Director of Rugby said, “Which is to use the game to help make better people. We are excited to support the school and its athletes’ growth!”

With the ambition of building Liberty Boys Academy, Kjar’s vision is to not only impact his partnership in the Warriors but to help provide meaningful deep learning opportunities to young men, something he feels is desperately needed.›

“I couldn’t be more excited to launch our unique and innovative educational methods for young men,” Kjar went on to say, ”And to also spread the amazing sport of rugby for more youth to experience in the Northwest”

For more information on Liberty Boys Academy and the rugby development opportunities please reach out to [email protected] or visit www.libertyboysacademy.com. 

For more information about Cascade Rugby Union please visit www.CascadeRugby.org 

For more information on the Utah Warriors and the Utah Warriors Academy please visit www.WarriorsRugby.com/WarriorsAcademy/. 

The Utah Warriors and Major League Rugby are planning to announce the full 2021 MLR schedule on December 8th. Be the first in line for single-game tickets by signing up today for the Utah Warriors’ ticket list. And for more information on the Utah Warriors 2021 season ticket plans, please visit www.WarriorsRugby.com.