Trine University in Indiana has confirmed that it will be adding men's rugby as a school-supported sport starting in the fall of 2022, and is looking for a new Head Coach now.

Trine University hasn't had rugby before, but has a well-known rugby alumnus—USA 7s player Joe Schroeder attended Trine on a cheerleading scholarship after starring for the Royal Irish rugby program in high school. Schroeder and former USA Rugby Pathways head JD Stephenson met virtually with Trine Athletic Director Matt Land recently to give their support for the program.

"Personally, I’m very excited to hear about this news," Schroeder told Goff Rugby Report. "Rugby has been gaining more and more popularity across America and to see it reach my alma mater is just another indicator of its continuing growth. It is awesome to see that Trine students will now have the opportunity I did not have, which is to begin or continue their rugby playing career at the collegiate level. I’m excited for the future for them." 

"We've been talking about rugby for a few years," Land told Goff Rugby Report. "Then the pandemic hit and we tabled it. But during the pandemic we had really great results from out athletic teams—every team participated. So this summer in our planning meeting we decided to go with it."

Rugby will be a varsity sport and will get full support from the school, "like every sport in our athletic department," said Land. And the expectations are there, too. "We are starting rugby with the desire to win every game we play in rugby; we don’t do things just to do them."

The University is also looking for rugby to help diversify the student body, especially by appealing to high schoolers in the Western part of the USA. With one of the top-ranked Engineering, Business, Education, and Criminal Justice programs in the Midwest, they have attractions over and above a rugby team.

"We over the last seven years we have averaged 99.3% job placement within six months," said Land. "If you come here and you're successful and you graduate, you'll get a job."

Still, having a rugby team helps.

"I always want to change our demographics and change our footprint," said Land. "Rugby allows us to do that and reach farther west. In 2018 we started hockey and built an ice arena because we wanted to get into Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Illinois and that was huge for us. We also know we have interest in rugby from students in our area and we want to meet the needs of our community."

The job posting for the new Head Coach job is here>>. It has all the details on the position and its responsibilities.