Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

by Katy Rank Lev

I’m not playing rugby this spring for the first time since 1999. Why? Because I am great with child. But, as I cannot bear to be away from the sport, I volunteered to coach the Allegheny Rugby Union’s U23 women’s team. To do this, I needed to re-up my coaching certification, which expired while I was in graduate school, so I headed to Columbus, OH last weekend for the CDP clinic. I was enrolled in the “Developing Rugby Skills” version and looked forward to a great opportunity to network, share knowledge, and just talk about rugby for 2 solid days.

As I settled down in my classroom among the 20 students, many of whom coached women’s teams, I realized something pretty scary: I was the only woman student. There were 19 men and little old me, and boy was I aware of the gender gap. While I was relieved to see one of the facilitators was a woman (former Eagle Nancy Fitz), I couldn’t believe I was the only woman enrolled in the more advanced workshop.

Try as I might to pay attention in class, all I could think about was the lack of female representation in the coaching ranks. In my ten years of playing, I had only one female head coach and one other female assistant coach. If we thought women were under-represented on the pitch in American rugby, I was shaken to be confronted with our small showing behind the whistle. Sure, we’ve got women coaching our national teams, but what about the salt of the earth rugby teams, the tiny Midwestern colleges or DII women’s teams peppered throughout this vast country? If those teams are lucky enough to have a coach, I bet that coach is a dude more often that not.

I think it’s so important for our young female players to know that women are capable strategic masterminds, willing and able to guide teams to greatness not only in the uniform, but also from the sidelines. And I know we are out there doing it, at all levels of the game. But we need more. The future generations of female players need to see more of us large and in charge, holding a clipboard. They need to see themselves in positions of leadership in our sport to solidify their commitment to the lifelong endeavor that is rugby.

I know it’s hard. So many of us give everything we have to our clubs. After a decade or so of missed family functions and constant travel, it’s hard to imagine another commitment in the coaching ranks. But our young female players need us behind the whistle almost as much as (if not more than) they need us beside them on the pitch.

How many of you are considering coaching when your glory days are over? Or even while you’re still playing? I hope the answer is all of you, even for one season, even for one training here and there as an assistant. You have no idea how big a difference you’ll make.