Where Championship Teams Come From

     A perusal of USA Rugby’s National Championship records reveals that no Midwest women’s team has ever won a division one collegiate national championship.  Iowa St. won the division 2 championship in 2007 and Illinois had a nice division one run in 2003, almost a decade ago.  Winona St had an impressive run to the D2 final last year.   Yet, the dearth of midwest teams in the collegiate championship record-books is surprising, especially in comparison to the high school championships and number of Midwest teams participating.  

     It’s worth noting that championships don’t tell the full story.  What strikes the WGR staff as more significant than the number of championships is the number of girls teams that have sprung up.  It’s partly the result of the grassroots growth from the decade or two prior to this.  The grassroots story of women playing rugby is a rich and storied journey beyond the scope of the word count imposed by WGR’s editor-in-chief. 

     Women’s rugby really starting growing in the mid 1970’s.  In fact, one of the first and most successful women’s teams is the Wisconsin Women's Rugby Club.  They were founded way back in 1975 and have been playing rugby ever-since.  Technically classified as an adult women’s club, so they could draw players from all over, they played in the first women’s club national championship in 1979.

     It’s also interesting to note that the first collegiate women’s championship was held officially in 1991.  Only nine years later, the first high school girls National Invitational Championship was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Girls high school teams first started up in the mid-to-late 1990’s.  Kent, Washington is generally considered the first girls team in the country.  DSHA started a year or two after.   In large part as a result of holding the first NIT in Milwaukee and the publicity it generated, WGR had grown to a full conference of ten teams within the next decade.

For those interested,  Rugby Magazine publishes a list of past National Champions and USA Rugby also publishes the officially recognized championship records on their website.

Women’s DI College
Year Winners Runners-Up
2011 Army Penn State
2010 Penn State Stanford
2009 Penn State Stanford
2008 Stanford Penn State
2007 Penn State Stanford
2006 Stanford Penn State
2005 Stanford Penn State
2004 Penn State Princeton
2003 Air Force Illinois
2002 Air Force Penn State
2001 Chico State Penn State
2000 Penn State Princeton
1999 Stanford Princeton
1998 Radcliffe Penn State
1997 Penn State Princeton
1996 Princeton Penn State
1995 Princeton Penn State
1994 Air Force Boston College
1993 Connecticut Air Force
1992 Boston College Connecticut
1991 Air Force Boston College

Women's DII College
Year Winners Runners-Up
2011 Radcliffe Notre Dame
2010 Washington State Temple
2009 Shippensburg Stonehill
2008 Shippensburg Minnesota-Duluth
2007 Iowa State UC Santa Cruz
2006 UC Santa Cruz Plymouth State
2005 Providence College Temple
2004 Temple Providence College
2003 Dayton Northern Iowa
2002 Northern Iowa Minnesota
2001 Northern Iowa Nevada
2000 Plymouth State East Stroudsburg