Board / Officers / Advisors

Mr. Neubauer serves as the President and is a Founding Board Member for the Texas Interscholastic Rugby Association (TIRA).  He brings over forty-years of rugby experience as a player, coach, referee, and administrator.  Mr. Neubauer is a USA Rugby Level-300 Certified Coach and Level-1 Certified Referee. 

A 1987 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Mr. Neubauer began his rugby experience playing as a Prop, Lock, Flanker and 8-man on the university’s team.  He was recognized by USA Rugby to play on the Collegiate All-American Team for three years.  After college, Mr. Neubauer played senior-level (adult) rugby for seven years while establishing a career in computer software and technologies.  As a senior-level player he was chosen for the Florida Rugby Football Union, the Texas RFU and the Western Territorial RFU select-side (elite) teams.  Outside of the United States, Mr. Neubauer has played in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland.

Mr. Neubauer took on the role of coach with the Miami Trident, a senior-level men’s rugby club, in 1988.  He moved them from multiple losing seasons to nearly a perfect season in league play.  He also coached the Florida Collegiate All-Stars to a successful season reaching the finals in the Deep South Collegiate All-Star Tournament in 1989.  Later as a coach for the Dallas Rugby Football Club in the mid-1990s, Mr. Neubauer helped their 15-a-side team reach the Texas Rugby Union playoffs twice and their 7-a-side team reach the final eight in the USA Rugby National Championship Series.

In 2003, Mr. Neubauer moved his focus to youth rugby starting with u12 and u15 teams for the newly established Alliance Rugby Club.  Progressing up with his players, he became head coach of the u19 boys’ team.  During his tenure, the team advanced to the Rugby Texas u19/HS State Championship five times and became champions for three of them: 2007, 2009, and 2011.  Mr. Neubauer was recognized by Rugby Texas as the Texas High School Coach of the Year in 2010.  He also served as a High Performance (all-star) Coach for Rugby Texas as well as being on that governing body’s competitions committee.

In 2014, Mr. Neubauer was appointed head coach of the Dallas Rugby Football Club, leading the men’s 15s team to the Final Four in the USA Rugby National Championship Series.  From there, Mr. Neubauer returned to his alma mater to become head coach of the University of Oklahoma Men’s Rugby Program from 2015 through 2019.  Under his direction, OU achieved top 25 ranking as a USA Rugby Collegiate D1A Program (2017) and Red River Rugby Conference Champions (2019).

Initiating his role as a rugby administrator, in 1989 Mr. Neubauer helped organize and start the Florida International University Rugby Club.  In 2003, Mr. Neubauer founded the Alliance Rugby Club, an early member organization of Rugby Texas.  The next year, Alliance Rugby was already hosting the 2004 USA Rugby u19/HS Boys’ National Championship for Division I and II at the Birdville ISD Fine Arts / Athletic Complex.  The 2-day event brought in 16 boys’ 15-a-side teams from around the country. The club would go on to support youth and girls’ rugby as well as a dominant u19/HS boys’ team.

As the Men’s Rugby Head Coach at the University of Oklahoma from 2015 through 2019, Mr. Neubauer worked with the Women’s Rugby Head Coach to expand the OU High School Winter Skills Camp to include female players, bring in guest male and female players from the USA Rugby National Teams, and offer USA Rugby Coach Education/Certification Courses.  This college program was also one of the first to open its annual senior-side summer 7s tournament, “Tornado Alley'', to male and female u19/HS club teams.  These changes in programming have helped solidify OU Rugby as a leader in the South-Central Region of the United States.

Mr. McCulloch serves as the Secretary and is a Founding Board Member for the Texas Interscholastic Rugby Association (TIRA).  He also serves as the Executive Director to execute the mission, vision, and agenda set by the Board.

Mr. McCulloch has over fifteen-years of experience as a secondary school educator, currently serving as Chair of the Health Science / Medical Program at Trimble Technical High School in Fort Worth ISD.  Mr. McCulloch is a USA Rugby Level-300 Certified Coach and Level-1 Certified Referee.  He is also a Texas Licensed Athletic Trainer. 

His involvement with rugby began as the athletic trainer for the Fort Worth Rugby Club (FWRC), a men's rugby team, from 1997 to 2007.  In 2000, FWRC advanced to become USA Rugby Men’s Division II 15s National Champions.  They returned the next year to compete in the Division II Men's Club National Finals.  During his time with FWRC, Mr. McCulloch served as their Secretary (2000-01) then President (2001-02).  As an officer, he initiated the club’s first youth outreach efforts.  He has also served twice as the tournament director for FWRC's Annual 15s Cowtown Rugby Tournament. 

In 2003, Mr. McCulloch became involved with Panther City Youth Rugby, one of a handful of u19 boys’ teams to compete under the newly formed Rugby Texas (USA Rugby’s state-based governing body for youth and HS-aged club rugby).  In 2007, Panther City Youth Rugby was incorporated as Panther City Rugby with expanded programming spearheaded by Mr. McCulloch.  This included a Scholastic Rugby Program that created school-based teams and a competition structure in the Greater Fort Worth area for boys’ and girls’ teams.  He was recognized in 2012 by Rugby Texas as Volunteer of the Year for his efforts to further the sport in Texas.  He has also served as Chair of the Youth Competitions Committee for Rugby Texas, 2013-2015, which produced the policies & guidelines on player eligibility, progression of play, and code of conduct for all competition tiers involving players under the age of 15.  In 2013, Mr. McCulloch initiated the TXO7s Tournament Series and became its Ad hoc Commissioner for four years.  The tournament series offered coordinated u19/HS-aged 7-a-side competitions not offered by Rugby Texas.  Under his stewardship, these events were integrated into the TOLA (Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana) 7s Tournament Series governed by the Texas Rugby Union, the governing body for adult rugby clubs.  Since 2015, Mr. McCulloch has led advocacy efforts to make rugby a girls' varsity sport in Texas, with a particular focus on Fort Worth ISD and surrounding districts.  He served as a panelist on the subject matter for the Women’s Rugby Coaches and Referee Association (WRCRA) annual conference in 2020 and 2024.   Ten (10) of Mr. McCulloch’s female-players/students were recognized by WRCRA in 2021 with their “15 under 30” Award for the girls’ efforts to get rugby included as an interscholastic varsity sport in FWISD.

In addition to serving as the athletic trainer for FWRC and Panther City Rugby, Mr. McCulloch has served as medical director/coordinator for multiple Senior-side (adult) Championship Tournaments for USA Rugby, Western Rugby Union (territorial), and Texas Rugby Union (state) between 1998 and 2001.  He also served as the medical coordinator and head athletic trainer for the 2004 USA Rugby U19 National Championship Tournament hosted by Alliance Rugby Club in North Richland Hills, Texas.  Further, Mr. McCulloch twice served as the athletic trainer for the Texas Rugby Union's "All-Star" men's and women's teams tours to the Aspen Rugby Festival in the early 2000s.

Mr. Burge serves as the Treasurer and is a Founding Board Member for the Texas Interscholastic Rugby Association (TIRA).  He has over seven years as an educator in both private and public schools and is currently completing a Master’s of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration.  At present, Mr. Burge serves as a dual language social studies teacher at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep. There he established the school’s varsity rugby program which supports both male and female teams.

Mr. Burge is a graduate of the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas where he played rugby for the school’s nationally ranked program.   He went on to play rugby at The University of Texas at Austin while attaining his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Government.  Mr. Burge is a USA Rugby Level-200 Certified Coach and Level-1 Certified Referee.  He has been an active member of Rugby Texas, involved in the organization’s competitions committee for high school aged teams.  In addition to competing in Rugby Texas, his school teams have played in NTX Scholastic Rugby Tournaments coordinated through the Panther City Scholastic Rugby Program.

Through his service in education and athletics, Mr. Burge has worked and continues to work to create equitable opportunities for students regardless of their economic, racial, and/or gender demographic.