Women's Rugby Club Returns With A Vengeance
After folding in 2001, the women’s rugby club remained nonexistent for seven years. Thankfully, two of the baddest ladies at UNC Charlotte put an end to this unfortunately abysmal era when they started the team back up last fall. Starting with just the two of them, April Simmons and Lisa Parris organized the team. They began to practice with the men’s team, along with Maddy Clark, who also found out about the team and came out to the first practice as well. The three of them continued to recruit a few more exceptionally talented ladies to play. By the end of the year, the team was going strong with eight dedicated players and two fabulous coaches who also happen to be UNCC Women’s Rugby Club Alumni from the ’98-’01 team. Thanks in large part to the nonsensically hard work put in by President April Simmons, the team snagged the Outstanding New Student Organization and the Best New Sports Club awards for the ’08-’09 academic year. The team went out with a bang last year, and we’re coming back even harder this semester. Coach Allie Pickett spent her summer in some intense coach training sessions, and Coach Amber Perry has us working hard outside of practice with her awesome new weight-training program. For our part, all the girls spent the summer doing some hardcore recruiting at SOAR sessions, and it definitely paid off – we’re taking over this year with about thirty girls out to every practice. We’re planning on this year being a lot of hard work, but of course, even more fun! We welcome all new players, beginners or experts, so feel free to contact us at wrugby@uncc.edu or just show up to practice!