Notre Dame College is now NIRA compliant. / Photo: Ken Klemencic
This weekend, the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) begins its third season, which is already a hallmark year. The league hired its first commissioner in Katie Boldvich, and the veteran NCAA conference administrator has been working behind the scenes since July.
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Boldvich’s experience across various sports and her familiarity with several NIRA-aligned athletic directors made her an ideal candidate for the new position. Current University of New England Athletic Director Jack McDonald, who is also a former AD at Quinnipiac University, stoked Boldvich’s interest, and her administrative background with other NCAA leagues made her an attractive choice.
“I’m still trying to figure it out, and depending on who you ask, they’ll say something different, which is challenging,” Boldvich said to the league’s goals. “The cohesive, basic goal is to expand the association and inform other club programs and institutions what it’s like to sponsor rugby at the varsity level, and what it means to bring it under the athletic department.”
Women’s rugby becomes a full NCAA championship sport when there are 40 varsity teams (there are currently 17), and NIRA has many steps to take before it can drive that momentum. Creating a constitution and by-laws and committees – these time-consuming objectives will aid cohesion and get current members operating on the same page. But the aforementioned won’t be up for discussion until January 2018, when the group meets face-to-face at the NCAA Convention in Indianapolis.
“I’ll be disappointed if there isn’t a constitution and bylaws verified this time next year,” Boldvich said. “There’s a lot of chicken-before-the-egg stuff. We have to have a lot of stuff ready for when schools are looking at budgets and funding and what liability coverage looks like when you add a contact sport to the athletic department – we need to have that information on hand. On the flip side, many institutions don’t know that we exist. … Our web site needs to be a lot better, but we’re picking and choosing what we focus on right now.”
To that extent, Boldvich explained that many of the near-future changes will be admin and communication based.
“There won’t be a lot of external stuff that the average rugby fan would notice,” the commissioner said. “I would like to get the Player of the Week or score reporting going, some kind of conference stats – that’s what I want to get to eventually. But everything needs admin backing right now.”
Quinnipiac’s Ilona Maher earned the MA Sorenson Award / Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
That administrative structure will help Boldvich, the athletic directors and coaches navigate the relatively untested waters of an emerging sports conference. New members will be transitioning from club status or starting anew, and they’ll hail from NCAA divisions I, II and III, and may or may not award athletic scholarships. They’ll have to pass a series of minimum requirements before they’re even considered for membership, and then the league will act as enforcer if there are reports of policy violations.
Although Boldvich has not worked with an emerging sports conference, she can draw useful parallels from men’s rowing. For the past five years, she has worked closely with a sport that is treated as varsity – that is, administered by the athletic department and not, say, Club Sports – at many institutions but is not on course to become an NCAA sport. Men’s rowing is governed by its own organization, hosts its own championship, and has enjoyed longevity.
Univ New England returns for varsity season number 2 / Photo courtesy UNE Athletics
“Each conference can do their own thing but most conferences have coaches involved at some level, but ultimately it’s the administrators that are making the decisions,” Boldvich explained the future relationship between herself, the coaches and the administrators. “The bigger picture is how we approve legislation, or how things change, or budgets for the league – that comes directly from administrators.”
Boldvich has spent her two months on the job familiarizing herself with the sport and is cultivating a relationship with USA Rugby. She’s been working with the coaching group and college directors Rich Cortez and Johnathan Atkeison, and those positive interactions have garnered some support from the national office. For example, USA Rugby is contributing funds to the national championship in November, and will potentially contribute signage or pay for officials during the two-day event.
#3 Army meets #1 Quinnipiac in Friday’s league opener. / Photo courtesy Army West Point Athletics
That’s just one advantage of having a league administrator: Boldvich isn’t associated with a particular institution and is advocating for league-wide growth. She is a one-stop shop for information both in and outside of the league, streamlining varsity rugby’s message, and she’s intimately familiar with what makes NCAA conferences thrive. Boldvich’s perspective will be invaluable moving forward.
“On the one hand we want to grow and get to 40 teams so bad so we can be folded into the NCAA,” Boldvich said. “On the flip side, we’re aware that teams need to be added for the right reasons … and we have to do our due diligence first if we want to grow rugby.”
NIRA’s third season begins today and sees the following league-openers through the weekend:
Army vs. Quinnipiac
Castleton vs. Sacred Heart
Univ New England vs. Norwich
Molloy vs. LIU Post
New member Mount St. Mary’s will play Notre Dame College, and fall 2018 inductee Queens University of Charlotte plays Elon in a friendly. Dartmouth plays DI Elite champion Penn State in a friendly, and Central Washington heads to Canada for games against university sides Alberta and Lethbridge.
