Next Phase Rugby Player of the Month: Amy Rolinc

Highland entered the 2025-26 season expecting a year of adapting to change (read more). The Rugby Ohio board of directors and the Buzzards’ coaching staff swapped out, but there was a solid group of players who had been with the program and playing together since 6th grade. Chief among them was junior Amy Rolinc, one of the team’s most prolific personas, and she earned Next Phase Rugby High School Player of the Month by adapting to what the team needed when it needed it and leading the squad to an Ohio 15s state championship.

“Amy is a competitor — not just during games but also during practice,” Highland head coach Chris Wheaton praised the flyhalf. “She leads by example, and when surrounded by other competitive teammates, her high work rate elevates them as well.

“If she can’t beat you with physicality, she will find a way to beat you with smarts,” he continued. “She is one of those kids that make you excited to see what she will do at the next level. When she graduates, Highland will have big shoes to fill, but the college that gets her will get a tenured player, with room still to grow and ready to add value out of the gate.”

Rolinc moved to Highland in 4th grade and until then had focused athletic pursuits to dance. Family friends recommended trying rugby and so she joined the Highland Rugby Club’s youth programming in 6th grade.

“I had never really thought about playing a contact sport,” she said. “It just kind of showed up in my life.”

It wasn’t necessarily “love at first practice,” as Rolinc battled with some nerves, but as she made friends, the addiction to rugby soon bloomed. By 7th grade, she got comfortable with the tackling piece and realized she could actually hit people pretty hard. And then she got a taste of rugby outside of the state, representing the Cleveland Rugby Academy at youth nationals.

Middle school is tackle 7s and the fast Rolinc developed her game at scrumhalf and center. Come high school, she started on the varsity team at wing.

“Being able to start right away as a freshman, I kind of knew I was playing on the better side of rugby,” Rolinc said of pursing next-level rugby.

Rolinc continued to develop her game with the Celtic Elite the summer after freshman year and then joined up with Ohio Aviators, her select side of choice for the previous two-and-a-half years. Most recently, she represented the Aviators at the Buckeye Invitational, which featured 15s select sides from Indy Speed and Atlantis.

Sophomore year Rolinc moved to fullback and got a better understanding of how the back line operated as a whole. Those insights helped junior year, when the high-scorer moved up to flyhalf.

“Our original flyhalf, Vivien [Bogdanski], got a concussion, so I moved into that position this year,” Rolinc said of Class of 2027 teammate. “We’ve been playing together for the past six years and we both know what we want to do on the rugby field. And honestly, we’re just great friends out of rugby too.”

Bogdanski was able to rejoin the squad midway through the season, but Rolinc remained at 10 and Bogdanski (who is also a Next Phase Rugby user) bumped out to outside center, which ended up being a great fit.

“I’ve always been a player that can be moved around easily,” she dismissed the notion of any frustration. “And coming into flyhalf was easier, because when I played fullback, I learned how important the flyhalf’s job is and that they kind of control what’s happening on the field.

“So I honestly really liked it,” Rolinc continued. “I’ve kind of been a bossy player my entire career. So being able to tell people what needs to be done, or seeing the defensive line and being able to make calls for that – it’s just been a great position for me. And plus, my team works so well together. Everyone just knows what’s going on and what to do.”

The coaching staff had introduced a new attack plan, one that prioritized speed and ball movement. It meant moving some players around to find the right positional fits and combinations, and it took some time for the squad to really sync. The Buzzards opened the Ohio 15s regular season with a close loss to Brunswick.

“We just needed to work on a couple things,” Rolinc was unfazed by the Valkyries loss. “We’ve always had a slower game, but this past season, we moved the ball and passed it out quickly. Back when I played wing as a freshman, I never really got the ball, but at flyhalf, knowing that I can pass that ball out quickly or assist somebody to go get that try – it was a good feeling for me.”

Highland started banking wins, but as Wheaton recalled, they weren’t pretty wins per se. The turning point came against Medina.

“We had been losing to them for years,” Rolinc set the stage. “When we won that game [70-12], it clicked. We knew that we had a very good chance at winning the state title. And then watching Medina beat Brunswick [in the regular season], it was, ‘We have this. We can definitely win the whole thing.'”

Highland ended up taking the top seed in the Ohio 15s playoffs, earning a bye through the quarterfinals before knocking off Watkins in the semifinals. Brunswick enacted revenge on Medina during the state semifinals and earned a spot in the championship final against Highland.

The Buzzards built a plan for the Valkyries and stuck to it for the first half, building a two-try lead into halftime. Brunswick then responded in the second half while Highland strayed from its pattern. The team regrouped and the leadership righted Highland’s game, finishing strongly for a 46-21 state title win.

“It was definitely a great feeling,” Rolinc said. “In 8th grade, we [Highland youth] won the state middle school championship, so it was kind cool to replay that win again for Highland.”

The team graduated just four seniors this year, and so there is a large group of returners who will inject that championship experience into the 2026-27 squad.

“We’re definitely going to have a mark on our back,” Rolinc looked toward senior year. “People are going to want to beat us and will bring it to us. “It’s a little nerve-racking, but it also motivates us to play better rugby and get better at what we’ve been doing. We’re only losing four seniors so we’re going to have another great chance at winning another state title.”

There’s plenty of chatter about the upcoming season from the Highland players, and it’s an important year for all of the rising seniors.

“I want to help the team get better as we move on, and I also want to get a rugby scholarship for college,” Rolinc said of goals. “I’m hoping for DII, but maybe DI. I haven’t narrowed down my options yet. I still have to get into that.”

Rolinc has been talking to a couple of coaches, and that’s where Next Phase Rugby can really aid the versatile, athletic and academically driven student-athlete. She wants to pursue a degree in business, as she’s already working toward her cosmetology license and wants to open her salon someday.

To learn more about Rolinc and fellow high schoolers nationwide looking to play rugby in college, download the Next Phase Rugby app on the Apple App Store or Google Play and search “Next Phase Rugby.” For more information, visit nextphaserugby.com or e-mail greg@nextphaserugby.com.