U of S Rugby Club vying for Huskie recognition while enjoying success

Rugby is an international sport, which has seen some growth in Canada over the past decade after success by the men’s and women’s national teams.

Since 2012, the University of Saskatchewan Rugby Club has been working to attract more people to the sport and be officially recognized as a part of Huskie Athletics.

The men have played in the Prairies University Men’s Rugby Championship for the past few years, which includes the University of Calgary and University of British Columbia-Okanagan. For the first time this year, the women’s team was able to organize a 15s roster, as the team previously only had enough players to fill a 7s roster. There currently isn’t a league for the women, but they did set up a couple of matches against Mount Royal University.

Mike Sheinin, one of the club’s coaches, said the group often travels to tournaments and have recently been successful.

“There was one in Winnipeg where the men finished first,” Sheinin said about the event held last November.

The women were in a bit of roster turnover phase during that tournament, he said, and weren’t able to win any games. But January was a different story for the women’s team at an event in Red Deer.

“Both teams actually got second in that tournament. So that had more teams, including two from Calgary and two from Alberta,” Sheinin said.

“That was maybe a little bit more of a structured tournament, with teams that are kind of in our league, so getting second there is really, really great for both sides.”

But despite the club’s recent successes, they are not officially part of Huskie Athletics. That means they don’t use the name, logo or get any funding from the school to run the program.

Canada West and U SPORTS only include the women’s division as part of their official sports lineups.

“We have a sustainable team here. We have plenty of people. We have some funding coming in,” Sheinin said.

“We can act and look and feel like a Huskies program. Trying to make that official has been a bit of journey.”

Carter Greenslade, the club’s president – who joined after playing football in high school and had no prior rugby experience – said they’ve had some good conversations with the school about potentially making the club an official program.

But, he said, that process is slow, and when he first joined the club in 2018 Greenslade thought it would become official that same year.

“It’s just a matter of working with the people around us in trying to get there,” he said.

Greenslade said having the Huskies logo on the club’s jerseys would be a big step forward when they show up for tournaments.

“We’re just the U of S Rugby Club, right?” Greenslade said. “We’re very proud of our name, and proud of what we’ve done with that name, but we would like to be able to go into (competitions) with a little bit more of a formal backing.”

Brooklyn Grimard, the women’s captain and vice-president of the club, said that recognition would go a long way for the athletes, as they essentially have to pay to play.

“We are mostly funding ourselves,” she said. “We pay for our own travel. We drive ourselves to games. By having that Huskie logo, that does give us a better opportunity to have more funding and allow us to go to more events and not have to worry about the cost.”

She mentioned it could also bring more people into the sport, as it’s difficult for many people to cover an added expense while also working through classes.

“That’s a big thing, to be juggling university as well as trying to pay for your sport,” Grimard said.

“I feel if we had more funding, we would be able to have more people come out and not have to worry about that need as much.”

The teams accept donations and try and find jersey sponsors to help cover some of the cost of attending tournaments.

While there hasn’t been an official partnership between the club and Huskie Athletics, Sheinin said the relationship is still a strong one.

“They do support us,” he said. “They support our growth as a club and want us to succeed. I think having that (recognition) would open more eyes to it. I don’t think a lot of students know there is a U of S rugby team.”

While the club waits for a decision, Sheinin said they’re encouraging anyone who’s interested to come learn the game and join the club.

Shannon Chinn, Huskie Athletics’ chief athletics officer, said in a statement that the school reviews its sport model every year, “but at this time, there are no plans to expand the number of teams that currently are part of the Huskie Athletics umbrella.”