Founded in 2011, the University of Central Missouri Women’s Rugby team plays year-round, practicing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6-8 p.m. at various athletic complexes throughout campus. The team is always accepting new players, regardless of their experience.
“You can even come and just do conditioning with us, or run through some drills,” freshman Gib Fessenden said. “You don’t have to play games. You don’t have to tackle or do anything you’re not comfortable with. There’s really no pressure.”
According to Assistant Coach Lilah Bane, the team plays fifteens in the fall, a version of rugby involving fifteen players and a longer game duration. In the spring, they play sevens, a version of rugby involving seven players and a shorter game duration. The team plays against other colleges in their division. This year, the team had a good season but did not make it to regionals.
Head Coach Aspen Moore and Bane were both former UCM Women’s Rugby players who decided to return to the team as coaches due to their love of the sport and desire to aid the program at UCM.
“Women’s rugby got me through some pretty dark times in college and really just brought me out of that funk that nothing else could… and I just wanted to give all of these girls that same opportunity,” said Moore.
According to Bane, recruitment and retention is a challenge for the team, as rugby isn’t well-known in the Midwest and not everyone is drawn to contact sports. However, attention towards women’s sports and female athletes, such as United States Women’s Rugby player Ilona Maher, has recently increased in the United States. Sophomore Morgan Draper believes that this newfound interest has affected their team.
“Honestly, I think that when Ilona Maher started coming more into the spotlight, I noticed that’s when we started to gain a lot more players on a team. So I was like, ‘yeah, that’s probably why,’ and I was very happy about that,” Draper said.
Many players expressed that a feeling of community connected them to the team.
“After meeting everyone on the team, everyone’s just super nice,” senior Sabreen Aban said. “And it’s not something I feel like I could just walk away from. I’m not gonna lie, I feel like I’ve made that connection. And it’s like another family.”
Many team members also expressed the importance of giving women the opportunity to play contact sports.
“I think, like some of my players said earlier, it’s just proving that women can do anything that the men’s team can do, sometimes even better. It doesn’t matter what you look like – height, weight, anything – rugby has no body type. Anybody can play. And I just think it’s important for women to feel like they can do anything,” Moore said.
