Did you know that Rugby is one of the most popular sports, globally?
UTSA Men’s and Women’s Rugby is a club sport organization on campus that brings joy and camaraderie of rugby to the students and campus of UTSA. Our Men's team finished 6th in the nation in San Jose for the National 7's Championships. Men’s team has been able to achieve high levels of success by making it to the National Playoffs in past years. Additionally, we are one of the Top Teams in the Lone Star Conference and have had multiple players qualify for the All-Star Team, which tours all around the world! Our Women’s team has competed at the highest levels in state and national competitions, placing 4th in the state last fall with multiple players involved in the All-Stars teams for the State of Texas.
In addition to teaching rugby, our club also helps to give students the life skills they need through the network of older players, alumni and coaching staff. Currently, our coaching staff is 100% volunteers who dedicate 3 nights a week to practice and countless weekends traveling to games. Much of this time and money comes out of the coach's free time and pockets. In many ways, we play ourselves out of our budget. We qualify for certain nationals or playoffs every year, then scramble to fundraise because of just how expensive the trip will be. It is hard to compete with schools that have full funding and huge support from years of alumni and their schools. To continue to provide this opportunity to our students and players, we have to operate and give them resources similar to other sports teams. Although we have made due in the past, we are looking forward to having a solid financial foundation so that the burden of many of our travel and equipment costs is no longer a worry.
Through this Giving Day fundraiser we hope to raise money for:
1. Team-building activities
2. Support for students in crisis situations.
3. Equipment for practice
4. Travel to and from out-of-town games.
5. Recruiting and marketing the team on and around campus
6. Club Camaraderie
All of this is to recognize the sheer effort that our players and coaches have put into this sport and organization. We, as a club, would benefit greatly from some financial security going into these next years. We would no longer have the added stress of wondering how we’ll get places along with actually winning to get there. UTSA Men’s and Women’s Rugby seeks financial support to consistently grow our reputation nationally. Thank you in advance for any contributions made, or even if you would like to support the club in other ways this upcoming semester, we greatly appreciate it.
Peter and Annette Lewis are matching all donations up to $500 total for the UTSA Men’s and Women’s Rugby Team.
