Andrew Spencer Hired as New Head Coach at Mary Washington
Andrew Spencer Hired as New Head Coach at Mary Washington
The University of Mary Washington athletic department has hired Andrew Spencer as the new Head Coach of the men's rugby team, announced Director of Athletics Patrick Catullo.
"We look forward to having Andrew Spencer join UMW Athletics to be the next head coach of the men's rugby program and continue the team's tradition of excellence," said Catullo. "Coach Spencer's experience and coaching ability will be a great asset to the team, the department and the entire UMW community."
"I'm honored and excited for the opportunity to lead the men's rugby team at the University of Mary Washington," added Spencer. "I want to thank Patrick Catullo and the search committee for their warm welcome throughout the interview process—I'm truly grateful to be joining the UMW athletics team.
"It is a privilege to work alongside current coach and UMW rugby alumnus Charbel Medlej as we build on the program's strong history and guide this team into the next chapter. I look forward to working with this talented group of student-athletes to help them be successful academically and athletically."
Spencer joins UMW from Nazareth University, where he served as head coach for 2024-25. Nazareth competed in National Collegiate Rugby's Liberty Conference. He helmed the team NCR's CRC 7s tournament in the spring. Before that he served as an assistant coach at Nazareth.
Prior to Nazareth, Spencer served as Head Coach at SUNY Geneseo, where he led the team to a pair of conference 15s championships and one state 7s championship in his two seasons.
A 2015 bachelor of science graduate form John Carroll University, Spencer played Rochester Aardvarks in 15s and the Roc City Reapers in 7s, as well as at St. John Fisher College, where he gained his doctorate of Pharmacy in 2019.
He is a USA Rugby L200/World Rugby Level 1 Coach.
UMW has moved to a new status at UMW, being listed asa "Team Sport" which is not NCAA but is overseen by the Athletic Department. That prompted a shift in how some things operate within the program, basically eliminating the role of Director of Rugby. Last year UMW finished 3-4 and 7th out of 12 in the Rugby East. They pushed Queens (which went on to make the NCR final) to a three-point decision. Just missing out on a D1A playoff seed, the Mothers entered D1A's new Challenge Cup, beating Ohio State 71-0 to make the final, and then defeating Grand Canyon 40-25 to win the Challenge Cup and cap a 5-7 15s season. That record included three losses by a try or less.
UMW remains in Rugby East this coming season with seven games on the slate for the fall as of this writing: Navy, Mount St. Mary's, Army, Penn State, Life University, Southern Virginia, and Ohio State.
