During 40 Hours for the Forty Acres, the Texas Women’s Rugby team aims to raise money for the growth of a sport that allows young women to realize their full potential mentally and physically.
The University of Texas Women's Rugby Club is a student-run club team affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin. Founded in 2005, Texas Women's Rugby has quickly made a name for itself. In the past 2 years, we have attended national-level tournaments in both 7s and 15s.
Texas Women’s Rugby is the organization on campus for women to embrace their physicality, feed their competitive spirit, challenge their limitations, and become part of a family by playing the country’s fastest growing sport: rugby.
Last year, we brought on a new head coach and assistant coach. Both are University of Texas alumni who are generously volunteering their time to share their passion for rugby. Additionally, we have added many rookie players. These new players are going to be the next generation of our team, and our focus for fundraising this year is to build opportunities and structure for them going forward.
Our goal is to raise money for equipment, travel expenses, athletic trainers, and potentially new jerseys. All of these things will allow for better opportunities for our players and will help grow our team and empower young women.
Equipment - Going forward, we will be sharing our equipment with the Men’s Rugby team at our club’s new location at the renovated Wright Whitaker Sports Complex. We practice three days a week, and with that level of use our balls get worn out pretty quickly. We need to be able to replace this equipment as it wears to continue to improve our skills.
Travel – When we travel to our matches, we have to pay for van rentals and hotel stays. In the past, the cost of travel has either been a burden on our players or been so high that it prevented us from being as competitive as our team could be. If we have more funds available to cover these expenses, we will be able to accept invitations to more competitive matches without overburdening our student athletes.
Trainers – Most of the women who join our team have never played a full contact sport, so the health of our players is critical. The personal trainer is present at every practice and game to aid in injury prevention and answer players’ health-related questions.
Jerseys – During nationals in spring of 2014, we were told the numbers on our current jerseys are difficult to see. We would like to upgrade our uniforms so players have the chance to be scouted for college and professional teams.
