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| Born | John Kurtis Weaver (1979-03-08)March 8, 1979 (age 46) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Kurtis Weaver (born March 8, 1979) is aRugby union match official forWorld Rugby andUSA Rugby competitions. He has refereed men's and women's international matches forWorld Rugby and professional and top-level club matches and National Championships forUSA Rugby.
Weaver, was born inPennsylvania, Pennsylvania, and grew up inPickerington, Ohio. He started swimming and playingassociation football, as well asgolf,wrestling, andbasketball. In school he found a love for music and participated inMarching band and chorus. He began his rugby career in high school at age 17, playing forSaint Charles Preparatory School Cardinals. He attended and played rugby atBowling Green State University,[1] earning a doublebachelor's degree inpolitical science andphilosophy. Between political campaigns, Weaver served as president of BGSU's rugby club for two years, and was part of the 2001 team that advanced to theUSA Rugby National Championship Round of 16.
After college he played for Scioto Valley Rugby Club inColumbus, Ohio, while starting a career in political campaign management and fundraising. His campaign experience included several federal government congressional campaigns, state-wide campaigns throughoutOhio andKentucky, and local state house and senate campaigns.
Moving toCleveland, Ohio, Weaver joined Cleveland Rovers Rugby Club. After sustaining anAnterior cruciate ligament injury, he temporarily hung up his playing boots and began coaching and refereeing. He coached locally in Ohio[1] and eventually served as an assistant coach with theUnited States national under-20 rugby union team. Weaver became a full-time referee following a brief playing return with Scioto Valley Rugby Club.
Receiving his first appointments as a member of Ohio Rugby Referees Society in 2009, Weaver was named to theUSA Rugby National Panel in 2011, the Elite Panel in 2014, and the Pro Panel in 2016. His first international appointment came in aTest match (rugby union) betweenJamaica national rugby union team andBahamas national rugby union team in 2012.
Weaver became aWorld Rugby referee in 2015, receiving multiple appointments to theAfrica Cup,[2]Americas Rugby Championship,[3]World Rugby Under 20 Trophy, andWorld Rugby Nations Cup 2017, in addition to Assistant Referee appointments. He was one of the first contracted referees for the inauguralPRO Rugby season[4] – the first professionalRugby union competition in theUnited States. He refereedCanada against theMaori All Blacks in November 2017.
Weaver founded non-profit Rugby Ohio in 2007, an organisation focused on developing youth through rugby in The Buckeye State. Rugby Ohio helped support the growth of youth rugby to 50 boys high school teams, 16 girls high school teams, and 11 youth teams in setting a precedent and model structure for growing youth rugby in theUnited States.
In 2011 Weaver was hired as Youth & High School director atUSA Rugby,[5] developing 45 functioning State Rugby Organizations and launching the award-winning Rookie Rugby program,[6] as well as Try on Rugby. He developed coaching and refereeing education for the youth levels, and helped systemize the competition structure around the country for high school rugby. Weaver is also a World Rugby educator, delivering certification courses for coaches and referees around the United States.
Weaver also helped his brother found a business in Ohio called The Candle Lab in 2007. The Candle Lab is a community retail chain that sells organic, soy candles in the greater Columbus area. His first career was directing political campaigns from 2005 to 2007 for the LNE Group and was a partner and associate at Sisk & Associates from 2000 to 2005.