Help the 1st competitive HBCU women’s rugby team

Howard Women's+ Rugby (HUWRC) is 2nd in the Nation - DII Spring 2023. HUWRC is the only HBCU team to reach a rugby National Championship. We are moving up to DI - requiring more travel to grow and develop our program to the next level. Your money directly supports travel and rugby expenses for our athletes.

Team history:

Our club started in-person activities in the fall of 2021, and in a year, we were able to accomplish a lot, including both a fall and spring competition season, hosting a regional select side try-out, multiple national media appearances, including but not limited to the Washington Post, CBS, and The Root, and successfully recruiting the first two high school rugby recruits to HU. Since then, in our Fall 2022 season, we went undefeated in our matches against Georgetown University, Roanoke University, the University of Mary Washington, VCU, and a few others. We competed in the CRAA 2023 Regional Championships and came out as East Coast Regional Champions. We have now moved up from CRAA DII to CRAA DI and have the ultimate goal of being the first NCAA Division I HBCU women's rugby team and part of the historical NIRA 40.

As we’ve played other teams, we've noticed a big gap in the diversity of rugby as a sport, as it is largely white-dominated. Howard is one of the only HBCUs to offer women’s rugby as a sport, and athletes are looking for an HBCU rugby experience. As a result, our immediate mission is to (1) increase the number of black high school rugby players coming to Howard and (2) increase the number of black college women playing rugby as a whole. Our program uses rugby to help young black women grow into responsible, hardworking, physically fit, and aspirational adults. It is hoped that doing this and showing off our success will encourage other HBCUs and universities to adopt a similar approach. We also want to encourage women's empowerment, mental and physical health, and sports equity for black women.