Throwback Thursday

In honor of the WGR 20th Anniversary Weekend wanted to begin with a shout out to Erin Voelz DSHA 1998

She holds a special place in WGR history, having been the first Wisconsin High School rugby player to play for a collegiate varsity scholarship program when she was recruited to play  at Eastern Illinois University.  EIU was a groundbreaking venture which opened the door to future varsity and NCAA women’s collegiate student athletes.  Sadly EIU phased out their groundbreaking program which produced current collegiate head coaches now at Sacred Heart U and Quinnipiac U.

Erin paved the way early on for talented female student athletes to pursue opportunities in college.  She was a speedy wing who usually led the Dashers in scoring.

She played and started for all four of her years at EIU. She was awarded team freshman of the year in 1999 and the next season was a team MVP award winner in 2000.  She was later joined by two other DSHA greats who went on to play collegiately at EIU, Katie Plant and Allison Urbanski.

She now lives in Oconomowoc with her husband and four wonderful little girls.

While collegiate opportunities for female student athletes continue to improve, these early student athletes helped pave the way.  When DSHA first started there were no local teams to play, so they filled a schedule with college b sides.

When EIU began there wasn’t NIRA either and they played a mix of club teams until other varsity teams slowly emerged a good number of years later. Even as recently as say 2013 there were a fraction of the collegiate opportunities that exist today. This is not to say collegiate rugby is as widespread as other long-established collegiate women’s sports, yet.

Oh, and by the way, Erin’s girls played flag rugby this past summer.  Another opportunity that didn’t exist twenty years ago ....