No. 42: Becoming Harvard's Newest Varsity Sport

The team was divided.

For 32 years, some variation of the same question sparked hundreds of Radcliffe rugby careers.

“You look like a badass, do you want to play rugby?”

It was a mantra that pervaded every aspect of the club, whether it was battling in a scrum or scratching together funds for the next road trip.

In 2011, the Radcliffe Rugby Club risked losing that persona.

Turning the club into a varsity sport would mean money for coaches, equipment, and travel. But it would come at a cost.

With no varsity counterpart, the Radcliffe Rugby Club competed at a national level, but members saw the group more like a family than a team. Transitioning to varsity would mean possibly losing what made the club special in the first place.

Proponents of the change believed they could get all of the benefits of going varsity while maintaining the culture that led them to join the club in the first place. They spoke in several team meetings in the fall of 2010. A Division II National Championship in the spring helped their case.

Eventually there was consensus, and the team wrote a letter in 2011 to the Athletic Department asking for varsity status.

Within a year, it was announced that women’s rugby would become Harvard’s 42nd varsity sport in 2013.

And on Sept. 17, the team took the field for the first time as varsity rugby players, attempting to prove that its new status hadn’t changed its fundamental identity: a team of self-declared badasses on the pitch and a close-knit family off of it.

A RUGGED START

Radcliffe Rugby’s past is the core of the team’s identity in the present.

But when the club was founded in 1982, the activity on the pitch was a far cry from the varsity team it is today. Before the squad took home national championships and practiced on its own fields, the Radcliffe rugby team practiced three times a week and served beer at its matches. In the team’s first game—a 10-6 win over the MIT Engineers—the club’s president missed part of the game to find a tap for the “traditional rugby keg of beer,” according to a Crimson report.

The team quickly became popular among high school athletes looking for another outlet. Its first meeting drew 40 women from all walks of sport, including an All-Ivy lacrosse player and high school All-American swimmer.

The team took home its first national championship in 1998, 16 years after its inception.

The championship team, the first fully female-coached team to win the title, sold raffle tickets and t-shirts to help pay for travel. At a time when the country did not have a single women’s varsity rugby team, the squad drove itself to games and worked without staff medical aid. In a 1998 Crimson feature, a player recalled one injured Dartmouth opponent who was denied access to the ice allocated for varsity teams.

Thirteen years later, when the team celebrated its second national championship in 2011, little had changed. That team, current co-captain Xanni Brown said, still used dues to pay travel fees and referee salaries. Team leaders had to scramble for field space, and nobody had access to a trainer.

“We practiced on the rugby field [with] goose poop all over it,” Brown recalled. “In the winter, [our only practice time] was from 10 to midnight on Wednesdays. Freshman year, when we qualified for nationals in the fall and had our competition in the spring, we got to prepare one night a week.”

A TRANSITION BEGINS

Despite the team’s national success, the transition to varsity was not a simple one. First, the ruggers had to decide amongst themselves whether they really wanted to go varsity.

For many players, the increased time commitment was daunting, and some were concerned with the fact that the team would lose its ability to construct its own schedule and pick its own coach.

“There were definitely people on both sides,” co-captain Ali Haber said. “People were excited, saying that we were a really good team and deserve to get support and continue our tradition of excellence. But then people were worried about losing our autonomy.”

Players also feared that, if the team moved up to the varsity level, the unique Radcliffe culture could potentially lose its centrality to the team identity. This concern drove much of the initial hesitation.

“I think it was more the worry about how the club would change,” said Janelle Lambert ’12, who captained the team beginning in the spring of 2011. “We were a very tight-knit community with a lot of support from alumni, and they all went through it as a club team. So we were a little worried about changing the spirit of the team.”

But when the team won its second national championship that spring, more players began to embrace the possibility of going varsity. The team had always been competitive, but the players wanted to take the next step. The varsity movement picked up traction.

“We spent a lot of time at the gym, we spent a lot of time on the field,” Lambert said. “We just spent a lot more time preparing and became much more competitive. I think we realized how much we wanted to be a seriously competitive team.”

CHANGE IN MOTION

With an emerging consensus among members about going varsity, the team decided to bring the topic up with the Athletic Department. Team leaders sent in a letter expressing Radcliffe Rugby’s commitment to becoming a varsity team and competing at the highest level.

Eight years after Eastern Illinois had become the first varsity women’s rugby team, the Crimson was aiming to become the sixth.

“We were traveling like a varsity team [at that point],” said former team president Marlee Morris ’12. “It was hard when we were at a club level and competitive and winning tournaments and doing well and [sometimes] we didn’t have the balls and the uniforms would go missing.”

A core group of players began to meet with members of the Athletic Department—including Assistant Athletic Director Tim Wheaton and Athletic Director Robert L. “Bob” Scalise.

In the discussions, administrators emphasized the many changes that come with a varsity transition. The team would work under a new coach selected by the Athletic Department and the expected time commitment to the sport would be ramped up.

From the perspective of the Athletic Department, there were more than just a few factors going into a complex decision.

“We wanted to know what this would mean for us,” Wheaton said. “We have a certain amount of fields and teams that need to use [them]. Can we make it work with the teams that we have, or are they at capacity? Same with the athletic room and the training room and sports information. You are going to those people and telling them you have one more thing to do.”

Indeed, both members of the Athletic Department and players on the rugby team methodically weighed different factors in the talks. Discussions proceeded slowly, and from time to time, players involved with discussions were not sure as to where they stood.

“There was almost a transition where they gave us a bit more of what we wanted from varsity status, like a trainer and fields,” Lambert said. “But we still felt going varsity was what we wanted even with those additions to our club privileges. And I think they really realized how serious we were about it after some of those things.”

Discussions became tense in October 2011, when then-captain Megan Verlage ’13 told the Crimson that the possibility of the team being promoted to varsity status was ruled out. According to the captain, the administration told the officers of the rugby club in the spring of 2011 that financial constraints prohibited the department from funding another varsity team.

“During the Athletic Department meeting they said, ‘No, you are not going varsity, and don’t spread rumors that you are,’” Verlage told the Crimson at the time. She continued, “I will [say] right now we have no intention of going varsity.”

There was never a timeline laid out in the discussions—no specific plan existed, at least to the knowledge of the team, concerning if or when the team would achieve varsity status. Eventually, the department and the team restarted talks and, on Aug. 9, 2012, the department announced that in 2013, the Crimson would become the Ivy League’s first varsity rugby team—the school’s 21st female varsity sport and 42nd overall.

Among the many to receive the e-mail alert was Sue Parker, the head coach of Navy at the time, who knew immediately what she wanted her future to hold.

“At that point, I knew I wanted to coach this team,” Parker said. “I wanted to coach these kids and be at the head of this program.”

Parker, who Wheaton said “lives and breathes rugby,” was hired by the team in May to replace then-coach Brian Hamlin. By that time, the team had access to the Murr Center training room and had added weight lifting sessions into its weekly schedule.

After moving up to Division I in the fall of 2012, Radcliffe Rugby finished its final club season ranked 23rd, third in the Ivy League.

The hiring of Parker was the final step. The move to varsity was complete. For the team, the process of examining the significance of the change came next.

TANGIBLE CHANGE...

Of course, the transition to varsity status does not just mean getting assigned more field time and receiving a new coach. While the most notable difference may be that the team’s schedule and roster is posted right next to those of the football, volleyball, and basketball programs on GoCrimson.com, the more significant changes run much deeper—starting at the bottom with the team’s daily routine.

As a club team, practice three times a week was not strictly mandatory and not always a first priority. Getting enough field time was also sometimes a struggle.

But at the varsity level, the time commitment is much more demanding—practices run for two hours each weekday, with an extra hour two times a week for strength and conditioning work. Players are encouraged to arrive at the field early for special skill work and receive treatment from trainers before and after practice. Under Parker’s regime, according to Brown, practices and workouts have become much more structured and more closely supervised.

“One of the things I most look forward to every day is getting out onto the rugby field and seeing my team,” Brown said. “Being able to do that every day and having such high standards for practice, something that [coach Parker] has brought in, is that we use practice time to the fullest. If we are going to be across the river, we are going to get the most out of it.”

In addition to the practices themselves, support from the Athletic Department, along with access to facilities, has skyrocketed. Currently, the rugby program operates out of a trailer across from the Murr Center. Players have access to locker rooms, ice baths, and training facilities—commodities they didn’t have in the past.

Additionally, players no longer have to worry about finances. No longer do yearly applications for grants have to be submitted—all administrative duties are handled by the Athletic Department. And for the first time, travel expenses are provided for. No more e-mails sent out the day before asking players to pitch in for tolls; the administration covers the team’s varsity travel budget.

For the players, perhaps the most appreciated of these amenities is the presence of a trainer at all practices and games. When a player gets hurt, they can receive an immediate status evaluation from an expert, along with treatment. In the past, players tended to their own wounds and made their own judgments about playing hurt.

...BUT IDEOLOGICAL CONTINUITY

With its inaugural campaign underway, such changes have been a source of excitement for members of the team.

“Even before we got onto the field, the enthusiasm was palpable,” Parker said. “[The players] had a balance of excitement and trepidation…. Their attitude and courage was fortifying because I knew these kids would take everything I gave them and ask for more.”

The privileges that come with varsity status, players say, will help the team perform and compete at a higher level. But in their eyes, that may not be what’s most important. Indeed, what alumni remember about their experiences on the team is not the practice time, who played where, or even who won. What always comes to mind is what it means to be a part of Radcliffe Rugby.

“The most amazing part of the team was [always] how much we all looked out for one another,” former captain Evan Hoese ’11 said. “We took care of each other on and off the field, and that was a huge aspect. There was never any real division between starters and non-starters. We were just players on the same team.

As far back as anyone can remember, there has been a unique identity associated with playing on the club rugby squad. Rugby isn’t a sport for everyone—it’s fast moving, loud, and intense. You will get dirty, and you will get banged up. For players, the entire team identity revolves around the feelings of toughness, grit, and resilience. Stepping on the rugby field presents a chance to step away from the daily stresses of Harvard life and enter a completely different world.

This year’s captains have attempted to maintain these themes, while redirecting them to reflect their new status as part of the Athletic Department. The team’s catchphrase of the past now reflects its identity of the present.

“We have built on that same self-image of strength and empowerment,” Brown said. “Now it is, ‘Hey are you a badass and want to play a varsity sport? Do you want to do something you have never done before and do it at the highest level it is played in the US?’”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.