Kathy Flores instructing Brown. /// Photo courtesy Brown Athletics •
The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) is home to the country’s NCAA varsity programs. There are 15 teams in the league, which will hopefully become home to the requisite 40 teams needed to graduate from the NCAA Emerging Sports list. In the meantime, individual programs are weathering some tricky transitioning – especially those existing club teams evolving into varsity programs.
Take Brown, for example. Prior to becoming a varsity program in fall 2014, the Bears had advanced to the DI college national semifinals four times between 2008-12, among many other accolades over three decades. When coach Kerri Heffernan stepped down (she still serves as an assistant coach), the Bears hired former USA Women’s National Team coach Kathy Flores in 2013. In fall 2014, the Brown women’s rugby program was elevated to varsity status.
But it was no magic wand. “You are varsity and thus awash in resources and recruits.” Since Ivy League schools don’t offer scholarships, admission spots are valuable recruiting assets for coaches to endorse well rounded applicants who would also help their athletics teams. The rugby team was given no admission spots, making it very difficult to recruit players. So the previous two years, the Bears had to rely on the student population to refill the ranks. That need was especially dire this fall after graduating 13 seniors.
Clubs around the country are thinking: And? The majority of collegiate programs recruit on-campus. True, but there is nothing simple about joining a varsity program.
“If we were a club sport, I see a girl today: Come out to the sport tonight. She comes out, practices with us, she likes it, she plays on Saturday,” Flores captured the beginning of many collegiate rugby players’ careers. “With a varsity sport … there’s a lot you have to do for this sport first [before you can play]. There is a medical checklist to go through, and then you’re cleared medically to possibly come out to the field. You have a week to run around with us, and then you have to join the NCAA. You can practice while joining the NCAA, but sometimes it’s taken two months [to get cleared.]”
Students have to meet NCAA academic standards and that involves procuring transcripts from high school or previous schools, and those delays affect player retention. But even when the on-campus recruits do make it pass the quagmire of paperwork, there’s still threat of a parent weighing the financial commitment against the potential of concussion – a hot topic in the Ivies. Flores has lost four players to parents who threatened to cut off financial support to their children playing a collision sport.
Brown had a thin roster this fall that resulted in a forfeited match to Princeton and another game played with 14 players. Brown ended its season with the Ivy championships and withdrew from the NIRA post-season. Flores credited the four seniors – captains Oksana Goretaya and Joanna Chatham, Sophia Rudin and Gwynedd Kiefer – with keeping the team united and motivated. They were models of tireless hard work around which the younger players could rally.
Brown’s situation will change, however, as Flores has negotiated admission spots beginning in fall 2017. The coaching staff can build a real recruiting plan (Las Vegas Invitational and high school national championships are high on the list) because now they have something to offer to prospective student-athletes: admissions sway. Incoming recruits finish the NCAA clearance process before the season begins, and presumably, have parents in support of their children’s sport of choice.
It hasn’t been an easy transition for Brown, but for Flores and Heffernan, it was important to start the varsity portion of the program’s existence in the right way. From day one, the staff has followed the NCAA regulations to the letter of the law and has remained in constant contact with its compliance officer. There are very strict guidelines on player eligibility, for example. Notre Dame College withdrew itself from post-season consideration when it was informed that two transfer students would be ineligible for the fall. The Falcons played NIRA teams but will now compete in USA Rugby’s DI spring playoffs instead.
It’s the athletic directors’ group that determines whether a program is allowed to compete, and there is some tension with the coaches’ group regarding how strictly and evenly the NCAA guidelines are being applied to all of its members. On the one hand, NIRA and its teams are young and adjusting to the NCAA life, and could benefit from flexibility that doesn’t stifle growth. On the other hand, if NIRA and its championship are supposed to serve as a model, then it should be legitimate.
“I would say, ‘Yes,’ even though this season was tough,” Flores responded to whether the NCAA movement is worth the present-day anguish. “Generally in this country … we think better of something that is an NCAA sport. For the vision of women’s rugby and helping our national teams grow and be better, I think it’s great for women’s rugby. Everything needs to move along in its time.”
For Flores, and similar programs like Harvard, the coach will focus energies internally and get Brown in the best position possible to be a competitive varsity program. The trickle-down will hopefully be felt in the grassroots efforts led by by parents who also see rugby as an attractive means to play an NCAA sport and access elite education.
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