David Niu

American career In 1991, Niu met his future wife Donna Camac while on a St. George team retreat in Hawaii. He gained a release from the final years of his contract with the Dragons and relocated to her hometown of Philadelphia, where he took a job as a teacher at the Glen Mills Schools, a reform school for court-referred youth with an aptitude for sports. He worked to introduce rugby league at the school, drawing the attention of American rugby league enthusiast Mike Mayer. Niu and Mayer organized a U.S. national rugby league team for a trip to the 1992 Rugby League World Sevens in Sydney. After Mayer departed Niu continued developing the national team, bringing them to international competitions such as the 1995 Emerging Nations Tournament and a short tour of Australia in 1997.

During this time, Niu also played rugby union in the U.S. He was named in the United States national rugby union team, making eleven international appearances, including at the 1999 Rugby World Cup. In 2000 he became head coach of Philadelphia Whitemarsh RFC in the Rugby Super League, the highest level of rugby union in the United States. The organization managed the national team and launched a six-club domestic competition. On top of serving as head of Super League America, Niu was also player-coach for the Glen Mills Bulls (now the Aston Bulls), the most dominant team in the league. In 2000 Super League America reorganized as the United States Rugby League, and the following year it became the American National Rugby League.

In 2009 Niu was involved in a proposed American professional rugby league competition, the National Rugby League USA (NRLUS), though this failed to get off the ground. Niu was also heavily involved in planning the Atlantic Cup tournament, beginning in 2009, and in the United States being awarded the qualifying tournament for the final berth in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.

Niu has served as head coach for the USA Tomahawks on three separate occasions.

AFL Global In February 2013, Niu resigned from the AMNRL to take a position as president of AFL Global. The organization is an independent business venture that hopes to work with the Arena Football League to expand arena football to China and abroad.