In the world of sports, there are teams that go beyond winning games. The team also embodies camaraderie, resilience and empowerment. One example of this is the University of Northern Colorado's Women's Club Rugby team.
Women’s rugby made a comeback on the field during the fall semester after being absent from UNC for four years. The new team is full of first-year players as there’s only one player on the team that has experience.
Genevieve Hankins is a seasoned rugby player having played since freshman year in high school. She had to go through obstacles in order to bring women’s rugby back to club sports at UNC. Hankins noted a few things that needed to be done in order to return to the field.
“There’s a couple criteria you have to meet in order to make a club sport viable,” Hankins said.
New players emerged to play in past fall as they were ready to learn. One of the newest faces to rugby is Lilia Moritz, the club vice president. She hopes that with the comeback of the club sport, more people are interested to tune in or play.
“I do wish people knew more about our women’s rugby team because it is really fun to join,” Moritz said.
The women’s club rugby is not alone as they’ve received help from Coach Mark Chauncey. Chauncey is the current men’s rugby club team coach at UNC. He offered to help coach the women starting this past fall semester.
He wasn’t shy in wanting the team to do more drills in order to improve themselves for the future as a young team.
“We try to add more different drills to learn more about the game,” Chauncey said.
Growth is most important for the team as they look to build on each game and practice in order to get better as a team and increase chemistry between each other. Chauncey sees potential for growth in two aspects of the game.
“To see them get more used to the game, more physical and mental in the aspects of the game,” Chauncey said.
With one game behind them, the team looks to create the first building blocks to ensure a stronger bond between each other.
