Anyone have recruiting ideas for a womens rugby club team?

Question

I live in South Carolina, USA and our team has been struggling to grow to a full side for more than 4 years. WE currently rely on another city (and they rely on us) to make a full side. If we could each have a full side then we could actually play each other!! (like we do in 7's season)

I welcome any original ideas and success stories or if you have a list of things not to do, then thats great too!

Answer 1

Get them together for tag rugby first and slowly introduce them to full rugby. When i was working this summer we got a lot of women to play in an company tag tournament. No offence but must women i know will shy away from rugby if you tell them its full on contact. If you got a crowd together for tag you would have fun and eventually be able to convince a few to join the normal team if they are having fun.

Mind you its no good to simply throw them into a tag game cause to be honest they wont have a clue what they are doing. But once you get them all together do a warm up and then a few fun drills, before you know it they will be telling their friends to come out for a  few hours and enjoy it

Answer 2

Well think about what women love: gossip, hot men, shopping.  Instead of just proposing a rugby team, it could be a social team and rugby team.  Instead of just training, you can watch mens rugby games (and concentrate on the hot guys!), go shopping together, and just have fun!!  Women will be more likely to join, and may find that they love playing and are good at it.

Answer 3

A couple of different ideas for you. Put up flyers in local gyms and bars. See ifd the local paper will run an ad in the paper. My local paper has a colum on local sports.  Call in to a local radio station and see if you can get on air time to promote your team.  Get invovled with a local bar and do a social there and invite the public.

Answer 4

try setting up a charity tag rugby tournament. maybe get a few bars and businesses to set up their own teams and enter. you will arouse interest and raise money for your favorite charity too. maybe for wounded veterans . people will always want to help.

they do that every year here in my town in ireland with great success.

they have mixed teams of men and women.

PS it is great fun for all.

Answer 5

I second two of the ideas referenced above.

I started playing rugby during a relaxed game of "touch" on the beach. If you can combine with a men's team, you'll have more numbers (and can poach their partners). Touch helps people learn to pass backwards and is an easy, low-key introduction to rugby.

The clinic or 101 idea is also great. Our club (we have two men's teams and one women's team) hosted one last weekend- it was terrific. Several different stations to cover passing, rucking, tackling, kicking, and laws. To market the 101, we posted fliers, advertised in free papers (and craigslist), and recruited people from work/school.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Another idea is to run a workshop.  I'm from the Cook Islands and our womens matches in the past have been intermittent games against visiting sides - nothing long term.  

This year we decided to form a structured body and then planned a one week workshop as an introduction to recruit more women/girls.  You will need to advertise and really get the message out and rope in the right people to help you co-ordinate & facilitate this initiative.  See if you can get sponsorship and come up with an exciting concept to attract both young & old.

Look at how you can pull in younger players (targeting schools, youth clubs) because they will be the lifeline of your club.  We had some great trainers and the players all broke up into little groups to make it more personal and moved from one drill to the next.

Over two days we took the women through the basics of the game ~ the tackle, scrum, passing, catching, lineout, breakdown etc and their roles as a forward & back.  This is imperative as it builds player confidence especially for those who are new to the sport and might feel a little uncomfortable delving straight into team practice.

On the last day we ran a little mini-tournament and you can choose the format you like ~ 7's, 10's + 15's.  This was wrapped up with a bbq & beers which gave the women an opportunity to socialise and for us to get feedback from them in an informal setting.

It was an extremely successful campaign and was a gradual introduction to full contact which I think is one of the main things that deters women from playing the sport.  I know we recruited players that we wouldn't have otherwise through the usual channels.  Best of luck!