Growing interest in women's rugby is helping make push from club status to NCAA championship sport
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jara Emtage-Cave started playing rugby as a 13-year-old in Barbados, never really imagining how the sport might shape her world. She graduated from the flag program to full contact at age 16, continued her career as an undergrad on Stanford's club team and this weekend played on one of more than two dozen teams competing in Indianapolis at the College Rugby Association of America championship. But for Emtage-Cave and the others, there's a potentially bigger prize in Indy than merely winning a title.
They could help turn women's rugby into a full-fledged NCAA championship sport. “I like the physicality because I think it's one of the few contact sports and full contact sports for women,” said Emtage-Cave, now a 24-year-old grad student at Stanford. “So the physicality is something I find you just don't get anywhere else.
" Certainly, things are changing rapidly in the sport with the addition of an American professional league and the Olympic-level success. And having a popular personality like Ilona Maher , an Olympic bronze medalist, “Dancing with the Stars” runner-up and social media celebrity, helps give rugby a larger platform, too. But at the grassroots level, those tracking interest in rugby such as NCAA executive Gretchen Miron and USA Rugby CEO Bill Goren readily acknowledge that more youth and prep programs have helped fuel a surging interest that has veteran players and even relative newcomers expressing similar sentiments to those of Emtage-Cave.
“People are intrigued by that (physicality) and want to play that way at the college level,” said Miron, director of education and external engagement in the NCAA's Office of Inclusion. “We do see some recruits who have played rugby in high school or the youth space, but we also have a lot of interest from people who are on campus and try rugby for the first time. Rugby has a history of having people that are newer to the game compete in college and really fall in love with it.
” American rugby Rugby, like soccer, has been popular internationally for centuries. But in the U. S.
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