When the Howard University rugby club embarked on a quest to establish a competitive program in 2020, there were a lot of unknowns. The university had never had a women’s team represent it in the sport. Moreover, the club became the first HBCU team to ever compete. But with motivation and determination, the club no longer was an unknown, establishing itself and advancing to the College Rugby Association of America D2 Women’s national championship, held this past Sunday in Houston, Texas.
The outcome did not fare as well as the team would have hoped for, as it fell to perennial power Claremont College, 47-5, in a rugby national championship match.
The team played eight games during the season to advance to the finals.
Along the way and even up to the nationals, the team faced challenges. First it had to raise $24.000 to fund the trip to Houston. Then on game day, the match was set for 12 pm CST, but was postponed until 1:30 pm CST due to lightning and thunderstorms in the area.
“Today was gritty. It was muddy and grimy,” stated Maya-Janelle Waller, a flank and one of several freshmen on the club. “We learned a lot from this experience. We look at it as a loss, never a failure.”
In playing Claremont, the youthful team fell behind early and never was able to recover.
“I hope for us to improve on today and grow on all that we have learned so far,” noted Kristin Lewis, another freshman. “I hope we come right back to nationals and show everyone who we are as a team. I also hope we inspire a lot of the Black and brown girls who were watching today and put more people like us into the world of rugby.”
