The weekend of March 31 - April 2, Herd Men's Rugby hosted the HBCU Rugby Classic. The event included welcome brunch, a campus tour, and live entertainment including musical performances and a dorm stroll show. This tournament was the first time the Howard and Morehouse teams met to compete. Howard Rugby was founded post-COVID in Fall 2021 and the meeting on home soil was an opportunity to show great pride in the program. Both teams play an exciting brand of rugby with strong tackling and hard running. Howard put effort into effective tackling and securing the defensive backs inside the wide channels. The forwards set the platform for success. This approach proved successful as Founder and President Daniel Davillier scored the match winning try securing the Phaidra Knight HBCU Classic Trophy. Davillier was also named the Ram Eddings Player of the Match. The Classic included big Championship Competitions: College Men: Howard v. Morehouse - CHAMPION HOWARD MEN High School Boys: Withrow HS v. Cristo Rey HS - CHAMPION WITHROW HS College Women+: Howard v. Maine -Farmington - CHAMPIONSHIP MAINE-FARMINGTON

Howard Men's Rugby played their first tournament of the season on Saturday, March 18. The Men went 4-1 on the day and were crowned the Gettsyburg 7s Champions. The Herd offense was varied, with 12 tries coming from 8 different athletes. Herd traveled with 17 men, showing the continued growth of the program. The team was lead by Captain Daniel Davillier with Herd MVP honors given to Treylin Lewis and Trevaris Morris. Herd continues their path to the CRCs this upcoming week playing at Catholic University on Saturday, March 25.

This Spring Herd Women's+ Rugby is the #1 D2 Seed in the Capital Conference and will represent at the USA Rugby CRAA East Championships. The tournament will take place in Gibsonville, NC, right outside of Greensboro, NC on April 22-23. Howard (#1 Capital) will play the #2 Carolina Conference team in the semi-finals at 11:15am on April 22. the Carolina Conference has yet to determine it's #1 and #2 seeds. The Carolinas Championships to determine the ranks takes place on April 1 between Appalachian State and UNC Charlotte. If Howard wins the semi-final on April 22, we will paly the winner of #1 Carolina and #1 Florida the next day, April 23 at 11:00am to the East Championship. If Howard wins the East Championship, we will play for the National Championship against the West Champion on May 5-7 in Houston, TX. Please contribute to our fundraising for the monumental effort https://www.gofundme.com/f/howardwomensrugby And find more information about the East Championship at https://www.cgru.rugby/2023-college-playoffs and the National Championship at https://usa.rugby/news/craa-championship-weekend-set-for-may-6th-7th-2023-202327

This 2023 spring season, the Herd Women+ kicked off the season with a Return Camp featuring a number of guests. The program solidified partnerships with HighQ Sport & Wellness and Yasuke Yoga bringing them in to work with our team. The day kicked off kicked off with some much needed and appreciated group yoga and breathing work. Alessia McIntosh of HighQ brought her expertise in neuroperfomance and mental skills training to assist our busy student athletes in daily activity accompanying their intensive rugby training. Alessia brought the team through thought processes surrounding nerves, internalized pressure, and moving through adversity. Return Camp also brought in area rugby players Lauran Glover (DC Furies, U.S. Army 7s Rugby, All Armed-Forces Rugby) and Karida Harris (U.S. Coast Guard) to run teambuilding and leadership activities. The program finished the day with a dance session lead by our own Senior athlete Te'Vonya Jeter. The day was a successful way to bring the team back together and reset the competition mindset for a full Spring season.

Established in 2018, the HBCU Rugby Classic and Music Festival is the premier rugby event featuring the best HBCU Rugby teams while showcasing the combination of rugby tradition with the historically black college and university experience. The HBCU Rugby Classic is a cultural entertainment event, for sports fans and families of all ages, that puts a spotlight on community opportunity, empowerment, and positive messaging. Howard University will be the first HBCU Campus location to host the event, taking place March 31 - April 2, 2023. Since 2018, the HBCU Rugby Classic has focused on providing a space for spectators and players to celebrate HBCU and Pan-African culture and recognize opportunities through rugby. The Classic has featured Black excellence in rugby, featuring Elite Senior International teams like ROOTS and Jamaica Rugby; HBCU teams like Howard, Morehouse, and Prairie View A&M; and high school programs Memphis Inner City Rugby, ICEF, and Dallas Youth Rugby. As a new sponsor this year, the HBCU Classic is partnering with Athstat will be its official data management and analytics partner for the 2023 event. Athstat is a leading platform that allows sports analysts, coaches, and players to store all their game-day data in a single place, and analyze it in real-time. The partnership with Athstat will bring a new level of data-driven insights and analysis to the HBCU Rugby Classic, helping teams and players optimize their performance and strategy. To learn more about Athstat, visit www.athstat.com For more information check out HBCURugbyClassic.com or sign up for the newsletter. If you’re interested in being a sponsor or advertising at the HBCU Rugby Classic, contact Gift Egbelu at gegbelu@hbcurugbyclassic.com.

Howard Women's+ Rugby went 9-0 for the Fall 2022 season. Fall 2022 is only the third season the team has been in operation. This accomplishment is especially amazing because the team managed a fall 2022 dedicated rookie class of 15 athletes new to rugby. The team also played numerous formats of the game: 15s, 10s and 7s while outscored opponents 211 - 30 over the course of the season. While Winning is wonderful, the biggest accomplishment is that Howard Women+ fully integrated a rookie class of 15 into our returning team and the rookies got a great deal of play time. FALL 2022 MATCH SCORES 9/24 HU 56 - 3 UMW 10/1 HU 20 - 10 Georgetown 10/15 HU 25 - 0 Roanoke 10/15 HU 20 - 5 Georgetown 10/29 HU 30 - 0 VCU 10/29 HU 32 - 0 Longwood 10/6 HU 28 -12 GMU

After a year of operations, Head Coaches Tito Miranda (Men) and Kat Aversano (Women's+) are featured on The Rugby Swag Show Podcast. In these indepth interviews, the coaches showcase their personal stories, focus, and intelligence surrounding the game of rugby. Both coaches come to Howard with a wealth of knowledge and experience across the rugby sphere. Coach Miranda came from humble first-generation immigrant beginnings. He started his rugby journey as a crossover player playing in a tiny private college in the middle of nowhere Maryland to becoming the head coach of the fourth-ever active historically black college and university rugby men’s program. All of it happened during the pandemic. Tito talked about his immigrant background, balancing work and family with rugby, and how problems with soccer helped him develop in the rugby community. https://gifttimerugby.com/greaux-rugby-show-tito-miranda-head-coach-of-howard-university-rugby-men/ Coach Aversano became connected with Howard University when she attended Howard University Law, but her story in rugby has been long. She is also a former player, and administrator, with a good history of coaching rugby around the east coast, as well as an athletic adventurer. She discusses her knowledge of the world rugby landscape with anticipation of the United States hosting the 2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cups. https://gifttimerugby.com/greaux-rugby-show-katherine-aversano-head-coach-of-howard-university-rugby-women/

Takunda Rusike, the Women's+ Team Founder and Captain discussed her motivations for starting a rugby program at Howard, her goals for the Women's+ team and how important HBCU representation is to her. Takunda's focus and ambition have been impressing folx in rugby and now she shows that she is a force with in the Howard community to get Women's Rugby recognized and supported by the time she graduates in 2024. Her leadership has set the standard of excellence that is Howard Women's+ Rugby on and off the pitch and she has helped created an Executive Board aimed at the same high standards. https://gifttimerugby.com/greaux-rugby-show-takunda-rusike-howard-rugby-womens-captain/

Both the Men and Women's+ Teams are back on the pitch for Fall 2022 and ready to take down the opposition in the DC Metro area. This weekend it's the big battle against Georgetown University. On Saturday, October 1st, he Men will join George Mason to play Georgetown in a full format 15s match of rugby. Kick off time and location TBD. Please check the Instagram. The Women's+ Team will play the newly resurrected Georgetown Women in a 7s format competition. Kick off is 12pm at Deanwood Rec Center in DC. This will be an outstanding opportunity for the incoming rookie class to experience playing as a unit against the many rookies of Georgetown. The Women's+ team of mostly returners took on Mary Washington University to open the season on September 24th and made a big statement with a 56-3 win in 60 minutes.

Herd Rugby Co-Founder and Men's Team Captain, Daniel Davillier talked to Gift Egbelu of Gift-Time Rugby Network this summer on the Greaux Rugby Podcast. They discussed the growing impact of HBCUs in rugby, and the balance of working with a developing program during a pandemic. With developing efforts of the Howard Rugby program, expanding the outreach into media is a focus. Big thanks to Gift for this opportunity and platform. Howard is excited to continue to work together to build the HBCU game. Check out the dynamic interview - Episode 66 - at https://gifttimerugby.com/greaux-rugby-show-daniel-davillier-jr-captain-co-founder-for-howard-university-rugby-men/?fbclid=IwAR3QYm-j-J2Uo_87zD-s6Qcikz6ljtGDcRzOJHVOrgUzqGt51rw0MRYICVs The episode can also be found under the Greaux Rugby Show anywhere you get your podcasts.

This May, we closed out the first official year as a program! While there are many things to improve upon, both teams are incredibly proud of the athletes and how the teams have come out of the pandemic with a successful rugby program. MEN'S TEAM The Men's Team competed in four 7s tournaments this spring, finishing with a 4-8 record. The team graduated only one senior, Deonte Morris, and is excited to continue the momentum into the fall. The biggest highlight of the season was the team's first win where they held their opponent scoreless - quite a feat in rugby 7s where practically every mistake yields a score by the opponent. The men's breakout athletes have been recognized by Captain Daniel Davillier. Cade London (CJ) and Jeremiah Chukwuka, both rugby rookies playing at prop, stood out with thier ownership of the match pace and strategic defense. Jeremiah even was awarded Tournament MVP in the men's final tournament of the spring. Rel Anglade at Wing/Half-Back acted as the team utility knife all year, showing both his energetic leadership and match awareness. College Men's 7s is a fast-paced competition and our men were up to the challenge. This year, the Men's Team has set a standard of knowledge and intensity that we will build on as we grow. WOMEN'S+ TEAM The Women's+ Team played in two 15s friendlies, three 15s conference matches, and one 15s playoff match this season. The team went 1-2 in the conference and used the friendlies against a DC-area women's motley (Furies, NOVA, Stingers, GW) and UVA to grow and build on thier 15s skills. A few of the highlights of the season include the come-from-behind win against UMD, where the women+ rallied in the last 5 minutes to score twice and win 22-19 on a last play try. Another was in the match against American University where, playing down (to 12 and 13 players) all of the match, they dominated every scrum playing down without a number 8. While all of the athletes have made marks, the tenacious tackling of Gabby Mays at Fullback, the bravery and intelligence of Kam Haliday at Flyhalf, and the hard running of Alicia Bush at 8 (all three are rugby rookies) have been notably influential at their key technical positions this year. Additionally, the Women's+ Team hosted the first rugby match ever on Howard University soil, on the evening of April 2, 2022. While it was a loss to Conference Competitors George Washington University, the Women's+ Team kept answering GW's tries and showed that rugby belongs and should be respected as an important part of the Howard University community fabric. Herd Rugby has made a mark in college rugby scene this year and the more we grow and build out our depth of athletes, the better we will be. We are excited for what our second year holds and look forward to the continued support of the community. HU... You KNOW!

DC's Major League Rugby team, Old Glory DC, has profiled both the Herd Women's+ Team Captain/President and Head Coach for their Women's Day Profiles. The profiles, written by Evan Lappen, are in-depth and capture the knowledge, determination, and passion both women encompass. We are proud to have both these women as examples of the experienced and professional leadership at the Howard Rugby Club. Captain Takunda Rusike's profile can be read at https://oldglorydc.com/ogdc-womens-day-profile-takunda-rusike/ Head Coach Kat Aversano's profile can be read at https://oldglorydc.com/womens-day-profile-kat-aversano/