The sun was setting behind Wait Chapel on Tuesday, Feb. 4, as roughly 30 rugby players gathered in a semicircle on Water Tower Field. Head of Program Jonathan Diaz stood before them, explaining the footwork drill they were about to run.
“We’re not going to cheat. We’re going to do it right,” Diaz called out. “And we’re going to have fu**ing fun.”
The students laughed as they began the drill, weaving between cones and passing the oval rugby ball — player to player, woman to man. It has been nine years since Club Rugby had female players on the pitch alongside the men, and the team is eager to expand the program.
A group of female students is reviving Women’s Club Rugby at Wake Forest University, nearly a decade after its dissolution in 2015. Under the guidance of Diaz, General Manager David Morris, Assistant Coach Chris Quigley and Women’s Head Coach David Stiffler, the team has been practicing alongside the men’s squad, learning the fundamentals of the sport. Many players had never touched a rugby ball before President Ojasvi Deep formed the team.
Freshman Maribel Johnson is one of the six founding members, along with President Deep, Vice President Grace Fettig, Treasurer Mia Knoll and Maya Chavis. Johnson also serves as the club’s social media manager.
“At the club fair, I looked around and realized we didn’t have a women’s rugby team,” Johnson said. “So when I finally saw a flyer for it probably two weeks later, I was so excited. I immediately emailed and came to the first practice. We’ve grown a little bit each day, and we’ve had so much fun.”
Growing the Game
Women’s rugby has seen a surge in global popularity, fueled by World Rugby’s Women’s Plan 2021-25 and the “Try and Stop Us” campaign. Female participation levels are at an all-time high, with 2.7 million women and girls playing worldwide — making up a quarter of all rugby players. Olympians such as Ilona Maher have inspired young women to embrace the historically male-dominated, full-contact sport.
“It is certainly empowering, especially with the 2024 Olympics,” Deep said. “We saw Ilona Maher and the U.S. women’s team place third, and now we’re starting our own team. With North Carolina’s growing rugby community, it’s great to be a part of that movement.”
The young team is composed primarily of freshmen, many of whom are former high school athletes applying their skills to a new sport. The women’s squad has been fully embraced by the long-standing men’s program and practices alongside them, learning the rules of the game, how to properly tackle opponents and how to run plays.
Coach Stiffler said is impressed by the team’s ability to grasp concepts quickly and ask insightful questions, crediting their intelligence both in the classroom and on the field. He said their determination and “unflappability” help them embrace rugby’s physical nature.
“There aren’t a lot of opportunities for full-contact sports for women,” Stiffler said. “I hear that flag football has been adopted as the version of football for girls, which seems like a cop-out to me. There’s no reason women can’t hit each other just as hard as men can.”
“The things that have made rugby popular throughout the centuries — its reliance on close teamwork and the ability to muster physical and mental toughness to overcome adversity — I don’t see anything unfeminine about that.”
Building a Community
The team has fostered a community of women who feel empowered to play rugby while growing as athletes.
“It feels like reclaiming power in a space that traditionally hasn’t been open to women,” Chavis said. “It’s so different from any sport I’ve played. I think a big part of femininity that isn’t talked about enough is power, and rugby is the perfect place to embody that.”
With the addition of the Women’s Club Rugby Team and the continued development of the Men’s Club Rugby Team, the sport is flourishing at Wake Forest thanks to the dedication of coaches and players.
“I like to emphasize to my athletes that it’s not just about the rugby,” Diez said. “It’s about having fun and enjoying it. The brotherhood and sisterhood we’re building — it’s about being a community.
The women’s team, which now has 12 players, competed in its first 7’s match at the Triad Cup Tournament at Guilford College on April 5 where they won.
Both teams practice Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and welcome players of all experience levels. Follow @wakewomensrugby and @wakerugby on Instagram for more information.
