Holy Cross Women’s Rugby Club Performs On and Off the Field

Early morning practices. Monday afternoon training runs. Drills after a long day of classes, meetings and work. This is the life of a Holy Cross women’s rugby football club member. But the story is also one of glory, on and off the field.

The women’s rugby football club has been a campus organization since the 1980s and the team’s recent history has been dotted with impressive accomplishments. In the spring of 2007, the team made it to the semi-finals in the national competition. They returned in the fall of 2008 to become conference champions and win the Division IV national championship. In 2009, the team again made it to play-offs for the national title and won the competitive and popular Beast of the East tournament.

This fall season, the team again advanced to the national semi-finals, but lost a nail-biter 28-26 to St. Bonaventure. The team is co-captained by Liz Schroeder ’12 and Tara Greeley ‘12.

The rugby club members do not only commit themselves to excellence on the field, though. The team boasts a high average GPA and Greeley says that everyone on the team is heavily involved in other cocurricular activities. Greeley herself, in addition to being team co-captain and club president, is a co-chair of the a capella group Off the Record, a member of Students for Responsible Choices, a Big Sister in Big Brothers Big Sisters, a dancer in Fusion Hip-Hop, and a greeter at Sunday Mass.

Greeley, a premed biology major, says that “a lot of our members’ additional cocurricular involvement seems to stem from supporting another member. For example, one of our teammates needed more volunteers to work at the site she was directing for Student Programs for Urban Development, so several other teammates signed up to help her.”

Greeley also claims that the women’s academic performance is enhanced by being a member of the team.

“School comes first on our team. The team also can serve as a way for its players to find academic help. The upperclassmen often advise or tutor the underclassmen and sometimes even vice versa. I’ve been tutored in physics by a freshman rugby player!” Greeley said.

Because the team is a club sport instead of a varsity sport, its members and leaders have some unique responsibilities.

“We schedule our own games and practices, book our own field time, and hire our own coaches,” Greeley says.

The team’s culture of camaraderie, acceptance, and support seems to play an instrumental role producing positive outcomes.

“As soon as I joined the team,” Greeley says, “I realized how welcoming and encouraging the women on the team were. Now, these women are my best friends and we always support each other no matter what. I have done sports my entire life and never been on a team like this one before. I don’t know how else to describe the team and the experience of being a member except to say that it’s just absolutely awesome.”