The University of Utah is starting a women’s rugby program which will begin training this spring.

The time, said men’s program director Mark Drown, is right.

“High School girls rugby has really taken off in the state in the last couple of years, but when they graduate they don’t have a lot of playing options,” said Drown. “We set up a booth for a couple of hours in the student union and we got 30 signups.”

Many of the women who signed up are Polynesian, and have male relatives who play. Utah men’s coach Haloti Liava'a's niece, Tina Hosea, will be president of the team, and apparently the sister of at least one prominent Utes Rugby alumnus has signed up.

The coaches have signed on, too, said Drown, with members of the men’s coaching staff committing to working with the women’s team. The team will assemble in April, said Drown, and work on the basics, work on conditioning through the summer, and then play some 7s in the fall as they develop a 15s schedule.

“We’re going to crawl, then walk, then run,” said Drown. “But we know there’s demand on campus, and we need another place for high school girls in Utah to get into college rugby.”

The addition of the women’s team makes the Utah Rugby Club one of the largest clubs on campus.

Anyone interested in the new University of Utah Women’s Rugby team should contact Tina Hosea at k-hosea@hotmail.com.