After three seasons in existence, the Southeast Warren High School rugby team in Liberty Center, Iowa has been granted varsity status.

The School Board voted unanimously - 4-0 - to approve the measure, capping what is a meteoric rise to varsity status, at least by rugby standards.

The move seemed logical, though considering the popularity of the sport in the small school. Southeast Warren has 139 students, with more than 10% playing rugby, and only a handful more playing football.

"It was a huge night for us," enthused Coach Jeremiah Johnson.

Johnson was coaching at another school close to his job, when one of his players said he had a cousin at Southeast Warren who wanted to start a rugby team. This student, Addison Spear, started a conversation with Johnson, and through that helped drum up interest and get some faculty support.

"Then we needed to start looking for coaches," said Johnson. "We had three coaches at East, so I said that if we didn’t find one for Southeast Warren, I’d take over until we did."

Suddenly Johnson was in the car about 90 minutes more for rugby practice. Success followed quickly. They won the 1A state title in 2012, the first for Southeast Warren in any sport, and finished 2nd a year later with a much younger team.

They received immediate support from a key area, where Principal Delane Galvin had played some rugby in college and was receptive to the sport. He allowed the rugby team to use school facilities and the name and logo.

"We clearly had it better than most club teams," said Johnson. "We definitely knew we had something special there."

Johnson broached the subject of varsity status, but there was some concern about losing players.

Then Blake Cruikshank joined the school as Athletic Director, and he wanted rugby as a varsity sport.

"There had been resistance from some within the school to allow us to display the trophies in the school trophy case," said Johnson. "We had some kids on the team who wouldn’t have passed the academic standards," but at the same time only three team-members played football and only one other played any other school sport.

"AD Cruikshank saw we were engaging students that normally wouldn’t participate in any team sports," said Johnson. "And he wanted to make sure the kids were treated fairly, and got credit for their efforts. We made a presentation to the school board in June, laying out our costs and defined our criteria for lettering. I went back for the vote on July 10th, and we were voted in."

Cruikshank thought the measure would pass 3-1. Ultimately the vote was 4-0.

The team now has to adhere to academic standards and a code of conduct, but Johnson anticipates not issues. For a small school trying to get as many kids as possible engaged in sports and school, it's likely the rugby team will help raise the achievement level for players simply because they enjoy playing, and succeeding, in rugby.