Dan Payne (born September 12, 1972) is an American former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player, coach, and college athletic director. He is chief executive officer for Rugby Americas, both North and South America. Payne was born in

Victor, New York Victor is an incorporated town in Ontario County, New York. The population was 15,969 at the time of the 2020 census. The town is named after Claudius Victor Boughton, an American hero of the War of 1812. The Town of Victor contains a village, ...

. He attended college at Clarion University where he was an All-America wrestler. Payne did not play rugby in his youth, but discovered rugby in 2001 while living in New York. Payne then moved to San Diego where he played for the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC). Payne's position was number eight. He played for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Stat ...

, and played for the U.S. at the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

. Payne coached for several years at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. Payne has been the head coach since 2009 of

Life University Life University is a private university focused on training chiropractors and located in Marietta, Georgia, USA. It was established in 1974 by a chiropractor, Sid E. Williams. History The university was founded in 1974 by Williams as "Life C ...

, which has been one of the strongest teams in

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the ...

since Life's undergraduate rugby program was created in 2009. Payne was promoted in 2014 to Assistant Athletics Director while still retaining his role as Director of Rugby. Payne has also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. national rugby team. Payne was hired as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

for

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

with his tenure beginning August 1, 2016. Payne described his motivation behind the job as increasing the awareness and participation for rugby in the U.S."CHECKING IN WITH USA RUGBY CEO DAN PAYNE"
Rugby Today, Jake Frechette, October 5, 2016. It was announced by World Rugby on April 23, 2018 that Dan had been appointed CEO of Rugby Americas, making him the senior World Rugby official in North and South America. Upon taking this new role, Dan stepped down as CEO of USA Rugby.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Dan 1972 births Living people Rugby union props American rugby union coaches American rugby union players United States international rugby union players People from Victor, New York

See also

References