Creation of Women’s Rugby Team: History Made
Jules Goddet | February 23, 2023
As of spring semester 2023, Warren Wilson College (WWC) has contributed to women’s rugby history. Rylee Langdon, WWC student-athlete, and Katie Wurst, WWC assistant athletic director and interim club coach of the WWC women's rugby team, have united to create a rugby team here at WWC.
Rugby is a sport often compared to American football which comes from Europe and has the same objective: place an oval ball behind the score line.
In contrast to American football, the ball has to touch the ground behind the score line to score a try. Moreover, players don’t have any padding; they must only pass the ball backwards and they can’t tackle someone that does not have the ball. If players want to pass the ball forward, they have to kick it.
There are two primary forms of rugby union: fifteen players — which is the World Cup style — or seven players, the Olympic style. Starting from this point, many different types of rugby have derived, such as beach rugby and touch rugby.
Rugby is mostly played in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, and is actually growing more and more popular in the U.S. Langdon and Wurst are important actors in this development, especially concerning women's rugby.
“I've been playing and coaching for over two decades,” Wurst said. “I played in the Women's Premier League, which is the highest level you have in the US. I've also coached and lived internationally in both Ireland and Southeast Asia.
Langdon has been a player for about five years.
“So I played rugby starting September 2018,” Langdon said. “I played with Orchard Park Rugby Club just outside of Buffalo, N.Y. I played all through high school.”
The community is extremely socially tight-knit; everyone who plays rugby seems to know each other. This principle was the starting point for the WWC women's rugby team.
“[Langdon’s] high school coach is someone I've known for a long time, as I had coached at a previous university where I would work with her a lot on recruiting students,” Wurst said. “Their high school coach had reached out to me before I even knew about WWC and said: ‘do you know of anyone that would be a good fit to coach rugby at WWC?’ So that's how I got interested in the campus. As soon as I got the job of assistant athletic director, I contacted [Langdon’s] high school coach, who then put me in touch with them, and we said, ‘hey, this is going to be a great effort now that I'm actually here working to start the team.’”
After they met, they both started to work on the project of creating a rugby team in WWC.
Rugby team gathered.
“I worked with [Wurst], like at the very beginning to kind of start the program,” Langdon said. “We basically worked on getting established as a club first. Then we submitted all of our plans to the board, they voted yes, and we got accepted into the NCAA. So starting fall 2023 we're going to have an NCAA D3 women's team here”
This acceptance from the board was really a team effort, according to Langdon, who explained that she could not do this alone.
“I'm just super grateful to the athletics department, especially Katie Wurst,” Langdon said. “Being as passionate as I am with this project and helping me work on that administrative side of things, pushing it through athletics and getting it approved. Without her I wouldn't have been able to do it.”
To be approved, the project could not be only driven by motivation and passion. It also needed to fit with the spirit of WWC: community and inclusivity. Players and coaches stated feeling that this is what rugby reflects when they are on or off the field.
“Rugby is a unique sport and fits the unique community aspect of the WWC campus.” Wurst said. “It is really based on building community. Something unique about the sport is that you'll play in this physical contact sport, and then afterwards have a social event with the opponents. It is the most inclusive sport there is. It's one of the only sports where all the equipment and gender identification don’t matter, everyone uses the same ball. It kind of fits the inclusive nature of Warren Wilson.”
Langdon shared a similar perspective.
“The main thing that I enjoy about it is the inclusivity,” Langdon said. “Nationally, and globally, rugby tends to be a really open space for LGBT+ people. It's very body inclusive. So whether you're really tall or really small, it doesn't really matter. There's a spot for you on the team, depending on your position.”
Now that the team has been created and the practices have started, the team can set goals for the future, like learning the basics of the sport and trying to reach a win in upcoming games.
The season is divided into two parts: the fall and spring season. In the fall season, the team aims to play the World Cup style, with fifteen players. During the spring season, they will play in the Olympic style with only seven players.
“We're gonna play our first ever tournament on Feb. 25, at Emory and Henry College.” Wurst said. “It's a six team tournament, for teams that are learning the sport. So we just aim to get the chance to participate, play and learn. And then from Mar. 18, that's going to be a much larger tournament, as many as 10 to 12 teams will be here from all different places. And we had one of the teams from the Coast to Coast Conference register for the first time, which is Christopher Newport. We'll work to play the first tournament, build, develop and increase practices and intensity so that we can be prepared for Mar. 18.”
Wurst is excited for students to come and discover Rugby. According to her, this large tournament on Mar. 18 is a great opportunity to learn more about this interesting sport and the community it provides on or off of the field.
“It would be amazing if the campus community comes out for the tournament on Mar. 18,” Wurst said. “We want to really have an exceptionally great time, we're looking at the post match festivities to include karaoke and having a meal together. So it's really going to be about reaching out to the community and embracing rugby.”
Beyond tournaments and practices, Langdon is also trying to connect players so they can be not only teammates or opponents, but friends and family, creating a general cohesion inside WWC.
“There's a lot of passion on the team, people are excited to play,” Langdon said. “I'm definitely expecting some increased excitement for the games and people just learning how fun rugby is and getting to experience that like tournament culture, and meeting new teams and establishing those connections.”
Langdon sees the importance of rugby at WWC as not only creating a new opportunity for playing a sport, but also creating a cohesive, unique team that anyone could join, with or without a sports background.
“I could see rugby becoming as big as basketball, lacrosse and soccer here,” Langdon said. “I think that the community of rugby can appeal to a lot more people who aren't even coming from an athletic background. I could see people who were already playing rugby in high school, looking at their prospective colleges, seeing WWC and being like, oh my gosh, this is a really unique school.”
Lily Walker, who is playing rugby for the first time, has also been convinced by the sport.
“It was more complicated than I thought, but also more fun, and less violent than I was expecting,” Walker said. “When I tell anybody that I play rugby, or that I just joined the rugby team, they're scared for me. But I'm explaining to them that it is not as violent as it seems. Because there's specific ways to tackle and to keep people safe. That's surprising.”
Like Wurst and Langdon, Walker aims to learn and understand rugby in order to create a united and productive team.
“It's a great way to build a community, learning something new and getting active,” Walker said. “Being part of history, like [Wurst] always says. This is the first rugby team at Warren Wilson. It's just a really cool thing to do.”
Practices are happening either on the soccer field or in the gym, depending on the weather, and are open for everyone from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. Also, there is an “extra practice” for available people that want to practice more, in the same place and hours on Mondays.
“There is space for everybody,” Langdon said.