Norwich University women's rugby coaching position is made full time
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By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff - Published: June 13, 2007
NORTHFIELD – The rewards for the most successful season in the history of Norwich women's rugby continue to roll in for coach Austin Hall.
Not only will four of his players be attending the Northeast Rugby Union select-side camp in Albany, N.Y. this August – the most representation by a Division II school – Hall's status as a part-time coach has been elevated to full-time, allowing the coach who has brought Norwich women's rugby into the national spotlight to focus all of his time into making his already powerful team better.
"I think Austin has done a tremendous job since he's been at Norwich," Norwich athletic director Tony Mariano said. "He's a great addition to our program, University and our department, and we're looking forward to having him here."
The elevation in status would have happened regardless of the team's success in 2006-2007, according to Mariano, and is just one step the University has made in promoting women's athletics at the Northfield campus. Women's lacrosse, which earned a spot in the NCAA playoffs in its first varsity season this past season, and women's volleyball were recently added to the Cadets cast, and women's ice hockey will debut as a varsity sport this winter.
"We recognize the importance of rugby on our campus and we felt that to not only promote rugby but also women's athletics, this position would certainly do that and add to the number of women participating in women's rugby," Mariano said.
Hall's promotion will not directly impact Norwich's ability to make rugby a varsity sport, however. Both men's and women's rugby are treated as varsity sports at Norwich, but because the NCAA does not yet recognize rugby as a varsity sport, the Cadets will remain, technically, at the club level.
"The only difference between, say, hockey, and rugby, is hockey is recognized as a varsity sport by the NCAA," Mariano said. "Here, they are treated as varsity programs. They receive institutional funding, but the status outside of the institution" doesn't allow for full varsity status.
In order to become a varsity sport that is recognized by the NCAA, women's rugby is undergoing an emerging process, which lasts roughly 10 years. According to Mariano, rugby has been emerging for three or four years.
"Our hope is that other universities will declare it a sport," he said. "They'd need to get about 42-45 schools to do that in order to have enough for a national championship."The Norwich women's team went 6-2 this spring season, competing primarily against much larger Division I programs. The Cadets were ousted from the national tournament on May 2 in Sanford, Fla. in a 20-19 semifinal loss to Iowa State, a school with a student population of about 25,000. Norwich, on the other hand, is home to just under 2,000 students.
The men's rugby team has had a full-time coach, Robert Weggler, since 2001 and had several part-time coaches prior, as has the women's team before Hall's arrival three years ago.
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