The Mid-Atlantic Women’s Rugby Showcase (MAWRS) held its first-ever event in early June in New Jersey, and college rugby recruiters returned rave reviews. Teams got to play 15s – which was in shorter supply this spring due to Covid-19 implications – and scouts saw college-aspiring players compete with their home clubs and in an all-star setting.
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Teams from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania attended the June 5-6 event, and each squad played three games, not including the all-recruits match on Sunday.
“First of all, the standard of rugby on show at the MAWRS event was very good,” Bowdoin College assistant coach James Read enthused. “All the teams were clearly well coached and well-rounded with both rugby and sportsmanship. The way all players kept playing for each other in the heat was a joy to watch and the love of the sport was shown in abundance.”
Read was one of several NIRA coaches on site. NCAA varsity programs were well represented as scouts from DI Army West Point, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Long Island University, Mount St. Mary’s University and Sacred Heart University; DII American International College; and DIII Bowdoin and Manhattanville College all attended. But the showcase wasn’t limited to NIRA. But the event wasn’t limited to collegiate varsity programs. Coaches from Drew University, Fairfield University, St. Bonaventure University, St. Michael’s College, Siena College and more were also evaluating from the sidelines.
While Read was impressed with the quality of play on the pitch, he was equally grateful for all of the near-field coordination that made scouting days easier.
“As a college coach, updated rosters are really important,” Read, a seasoned recruiter, explained. “Sometimes this is difficult to provide due to the changing of personnel and everything else that comes with coaching a team of young adults. Coaches of these high school teams already have a tough job and we don’t want to be hinderances bugging them for updated rosters. The staff at the tournament took this out of our hands and did a fantastic job of ensuring all the college coaches in attendance had updated rosters for each individual game. This is something I haven’t experienced before and just provided a great amount of clarity for us.”
The showcase also provided a portal for players who were interested in college rugby to upload details about themselves – position, grade, GPA. The portal was also “live,” meaning players could add to their profiles throughout the tournament.
“As college coaches, we were then able to see this information, which again provided clarity and gave us a clear picture of who was potentially interested in pursuing rugby in college and the different factors that we look for depending on what school we were representing,” Read added. “The most unique feature of this data base was college coaches’ ability to ‘request a meeting’. This is something I have not seen at other events. Once a meeting had been requested and after that player had completed their competitions for that day, a representative of MAWRS would then initiate a ‘meet’ between the student-athlete and coach. This completely eradicated the confusion that sometimes happens at events, which ultimately hinders the high school coaches and takes away their attention from their players. I believe this feature could really change the game in terms of college recruiting at events.”
The showcase ended with an all-recruits game, meaning those players who were interested in collegiate rugby were pooled into one group, divided in two, and a 15s game followed. Updated rosters and information were also supplied to in-person coaches.
“[I]t was fantastic to see the players play without their usual ‘system,'” Read enthused. “Once the game was over, we got the chance to introduce ourselves to the group, which then formatted into a ‘college fair’ type event. This was awesome, as it allowed me to have thoughtful conversations with student-athletes and explain to them the value of attending Bowdoin. World-class academics, financial aid and of course top quality rugby.”
Not all of the coaches who wanted to attend were able to do, and Eisenhart and staff accounted for those recruiters as well. North Carolina State University head coach Jeff Sommer had been fielding inquiries from New Jersey players and gave campus tours when they visited in person. A Morris parent-daughter duo invited him the showcase, but he was unable attend and thus grateful for the live-stream.
“I haven’t seen too much rugby lately so it fun was just watching,” Sommer said. “The live-stream was on time, and the camera work was good. There were no commentators, but that was fine. It was well done overall.”
Sommer had concentrated recruiting efforts to in-state teams, traveling to high school events in Raleigh and Clayton.
“It was good to virtually recruit, and all of the games are on [MAWRS’s] YouTube,” Sommer said of expanding horizons. “That last game was an all-seniors game, which was really fun because some of the teams I watched weren’t as strong as others, but you could tell they had good players.”
Sommer only suggestion for the virtual component in the future is the sharing of updated rosters for games.
“I’ll be there next year,” Sommer asserted.
For more information, visit the MAWRS homepage.
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