Kathy Flores has played and/or coached rugby for the past 30 years. She has represented her country both as a player and a coach of USA Rugby Women’s National Team. Flores was recently awarded USA Rugby Coach of the Year in Fall 2015 and inducted into U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame in June 2016. “The thing I love most about my sport is the sense of confidence and self-esteem it gives to young women. I consider myself extremely lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of their growth.”
photo by Agapao Productions
At Brown University I love the diversity of our rugby team. We have young women from all ethnicities, socio-economic levels and from hometowns around the globe. We are more than a varsity athletic team, we are a community within the “Brown Community” that embraces you and is there for you on and off the field. We attract a lot of young women who are “first generation” college students, let alone Ivy League students, who may be far from home and their familial support system. Whenever the players talk about our team to other interested students, they talk about how this team is like a family in the support they give to one another.
Now, I know most sports teams will feel the same way but there is something special about a rugby team. When rugby is played it as an interlocked unit both literally and spiritually. Rugby players are not selfish and individual success is not achieved without the other fourteen players; even the simple act of passing the ball to a teammate is prefaced with the words “with you.” Rugby is a tight-knit high-spirited community with a vibrant culture. Women’s rugby is still relatively unknown in some parts of the country, and despite the physicality associated with it, we promote camaraderie and friendship not only the team but also with the opposition. Unlike other sports, if you host a team, you socialize with them after the match; treat them with respect, and even with some opponents becoming our closest friends.
Over the years I have seen the positive effects of rugby’s ethos of camaraderie between rugby players and teams save many young women who had no support, were struggling with family issues, and with their identity in the world. Once, in a meeting with a USA Rugby National Team player, she told me of how she had struggled with her identity and had thoughts of ending her life but how she decided to attend a rugby practice as a new player. At the end of that practice, she felt she’d found the kinship she lacked in her life, which set her on the path to becoming an elite level rugby player. While this does not happen so dramatically for everyone, it does teach us to be trustworthy and dependable, both on and off the field, through the inherent nature of how the game is played. It is for those reasons and the many, many intangible qualities I have witnessed over my thirty years as a player and coach, that believe the uniqueness of the sport, its very accepting culture, and the physical demands which has helped to shape and provide structure for those searching for belonging. Rugby is the sport for everyone. Once you are part of the community, whether as a player or spectator, you will remain a member of its family.
