The women's rugby team qualified for a shot at the national championship for the second straight year - but winning games has been only half the battle. Faced with a tight budget, the club team is struggling to raise money to fund itself for the postseason.
The team has been trying to find a way to get enough money to attend the rugby Sweet 16 in Albuquerque, N.M., which will take place April 18 to April 20. If the squad advances after that weekend, it will have to find a way to return to the West Coast two weeks later for the sport's Final Four.
As a club sport, women's rugby is organized differently from varsity sports. The team receives a yearly budget of $20,000 from the Department of Athletics, but the athletes are not recruited and the coaches volunteer their time.
The team has had difficulty obtaining extra money to go to the USA Rugby National Guard Division I Women's College Playoffs and Championships, said team president Kalie Gold '08, who plays scrumhalf and wing.
"The better we do, the more popular we become," Gold said, as the team will be invited to bigger and better meets.
But with the higher standards come financial problems. Student-athletes in club sports take on the administrative roles of the team since the coaches already work for free.
The team has lobbied the Department of Athletics for extra postseason funds for both this season and next, but the department has been unable to fully fund the trips. Gold estimated the team might need to raise $15,000 to pay for airfare and hotels in the New Mexico portion of the playoffs.
In the past, players have paid for gas in order to carpool to away games when the budget did not include money for a bus.
Gold said the players have been working shifts at the Gate and at concession stands at hockey games to raise funds for the trip.
Although rugby is not an NCAA sport, Brown's club team has developed into a nationally ranked program. Led by center Emilie Bydwell '08, who has been training for the national team, the Bears won the Northeast Championships for the first time this season and were ranked No. 1 in the country.
If the squad wins its first two games to advance to the Final Four, which the team failed to do in its 2004 and 2007 playoff appearances, it would have to find about another $15,000 to go to Stanford University on May 2-3 for the finals. After months of raising money, the team would need to do it all over again - and quickly.
"We would just have to go into emergency mode," Gold said.
Gold's injured left wrist shows another difficulty the team faces. Since the athletic trainers are assigned to work with the 37 varsity teams, club athletes usually have to go to Health Services for medical attention.
After an X-ray at Health Services didn't show anything, Gold continued to play on the team. Later, a sports medicine professional examined her wrist and saw that it was, in fact, broken. Gold said that more medical attention is the highest priority for the team - after salaries for its coaches.
Head Coach Kerrissa Heffernan, who is also the senior associate director of the Swearer Center for Public Service, said the team understands the budgetary restraints of club sports. She was not critical of the Athletic Department's approach to funding club sports.
The team and the Athletic Department have discussed making rugby a varsity sport.
"We do play varsity-level teams," said Andi Payne '10, who plays the position of prop. However, she added that the responsibility and control the students currently have over the team would be missed and might diminish the appeal of the team for some players.
Susannah Kroeber '11, a flyhalf for the team, said the team lacks alumni donors. In contrast, the men's club rugby team has been in existence for longer and has more alums who donate to the team.
The Department of Athletics facilitates fundraising through the Brown University Sports Foundation. But the foundation receives donations for specific teams, not for a general discretionary fund.
"We support (women's rugby) just like we support any other team," said Nicole Peters, assistant director of athletic development for the foundation.
Only five schools field women's rugby teams under the NCAA Emerging Sports program. Of the country's other programs, many function similarly to Brown's team.
But Vassar College's women's rugby team is notably different. Their club team has not had much difficulty in obtaining money to attend the playoffs this year or in earlier years, said Vassar Coach Tony Brown. The college's athletics department pays for Brown to be a full-time coach who runs both the men's and women's teams.
"We are a club sport that is treated like a varsity sport," Brown said. "(The school) recognize(s) that being a contact sport and playing at a collegiate level needs to be supervised."
Gold said that being a member of the women's rugby team is "like having a job on campus." She added, though, that the team's extra efforts have brought the players closer together. The players work well together and try to keep off-field distractions aside, she said.
"When we're in a practice, you feel that we're just playing rugby," Gold said.
Nevertheless, she said some of the players might soon reach a "breaking point." Although she said she is confident that the team will find the money to go to the Sweet 16, a trip to the Final Four would come with anxiety - not just about playing for a trophy, but also because of the financial burden it would place on the players and the extra work they would need to do to fly to California.
"It's a lot to ask student athletes," Gold said.
