Rugby Video Monday: Women’s NCAA Rugby

As promised last week here is the USA Rugby NCAA Video that was presented during the NASCs (ITTs) in PA this year. The video was shown during a few of the games at NASCs, and was awesome! So here it is and a few other highly recommended videos are listed as well:

USA Rugby’s, Girls’ Varsity Rugby OPPORTUNITY VIDEO (could not be embedded)

Women’s NCAA Rugby

USA Rugby Women’s Rugby Trailer

Other Rugby Video Mondays:
6/17/2008: USA Rugby Youth Promotional Trailer
6/9/2008: West All Star Senior Rugby Fun in the Pool!
6/2/2008: Rugby is Beauty
5/27/2008: Rugby in Dresses!
5/19/2005: AMAZING try in Rugby league
5/12/2008: Sharks vs Minnows
5/5/2008: Trent University Women’s Rugby Highlight Reel

Read below for the latest news on the NCAA front:

U.S. Rugby Athletes Called Upon to Tackle Opportunity

Although rugby has been on the Emerging Sports List since 2002, it remained relatively unknown to athletic officials and administrators until last year when USA Rugby was granted a full-time staff member and budget for the initiative. As a result, USA Rugby has rapidly gained exposure and visibility to athletic administrations at a number of institutions, but needs the support of rugby athletes to spur faster progress and embrace this opportunity.

Currently, there are approximately 300 women’s collegiate club teams participating within USA Rugby with nearly 7,500 women playing rugby in the United States at the collegiate club level. Although these numbers are much greater than other emerging sports, there has been surprisingly little movement by women’s collegiate rugby clubs to petition their universities for varsity status.

In order to gain more opportunity for female athletes in rugby within the NCAA, these numbers represent a critical factor known as “interest”. There are thousands of comments circulating today on blogs, websites, articles and e-mails on the topic of rugby’s increasing popularity at the college level and how much the community strives to help it grow. Yet, one of the most prevalent questions posed to USA Rugby staff remains, “Why do we only have 4 NCAA women’s teams with all the interest at the club level in college AND why aren’t more programs petitioning for varsity status?”

While the USA Rugby staff is the critical driver of the campaign to NCAA officials and athletic departments, the power truly lies with the students currently playing rugby.

Big 12 Universities Onboard

Some institutions housing successful club teams, including Texas A &M, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Texas Tech have all been part of the process since day one with several other Big 12 schools taking part in the process. Head Coach Will Riddle of the Texas A & M Women’s Club program is among those convinced that NCAA varsity status would be a positive move for the institution in adding women’s rugby.

“The involvement of the NCAA is vital to the continued growth of rugby in the United States. If Texas A&M and the other Big 12 institutions don’t take advantage of this opportunity now, it will pass us by,” Riddle stated. “There’s far too much potential here to let that happen.”

Teams like Texas A & M and the University of Colorado both tout nearly 40 player squads consistently, which speaks volumes in terms of gender equity and demand for women’s rugby not only in conferences like the Big 12, but in the U.S.

Click here for the rest of this article.

Click here for the latest NCAA Newsletter from USA Rugby.

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