Central Washington University will be rebuilding as a rugby club for both men and women for the fall of 2025.

We don’t have a lot of details about the women’s team as yet but will follow up with that information shortly. We do now that Mikey O’Malley, who was an assistant this past season, will be coaching the team. But both men and women will return as clubs after the plug was pulled on their varsity status in mid-April.

Central Washington Discontinues Rugby as a Varsity Sport

Oscar Treacy of Central Washington Wins 2025 Rudy Scholz Award

As for the men’s team, a small but significant group of players have opted not to transfer and remain at the school—the driving reasons for that are that CWU will be honoring scholarships for this coming academic year, and most of the remaining players have just the one year left anyway.

GRR poke with Quaid Hunt and Brock Kluempers about the men’s team revamp.

“It’s very different,” said Kluempers. “We will be moving from being student-athletes focused on playing to running a team, scheduling fields and practices, recruiting players, and setting up a schedule. Obviously the experienced players will important, but the main thing is we want to bring the culture to the club and make sure we maintain that culture.”

The team will be competing in NCRC D1AA as a club. Emilio Carranza, 2024-25 Assistant Coach, will coach the men’s team. They will train twice a week. Hunt said the University has been quite cooperative in helping get the club set up and helping them formulate a budget as a club team. They met with the Athletic Department to discuss issues such as use of the varsity rugby space and the PE weight room. 

“The big thing is we want to have fun playing rugby,” said Hunt. “We want guys who want to be here at the school, and who are on the team because it’s fun. The school is supportive of us, but it has been tough making the transition.”