Catholic University men's rugby has been elevated on campus for the fall of 2025, with the program moving from being a club sport to a Premier Team Sport.
The program will still be run under the Athletic Department, and longtime Head Coach John Solomon will be an employee of the school starting July 1, but it won't be full varsity.
The rise in status was prompted by a few factors, Solomon told GRR.
"I think the administration sees, between our success and the availability of Catholic rugby high school students, as an opportunity to increase enrollment," Solomon said. "Every year we try to push our program forward and every year it's been incremental. Also we're celebrating 45 years on campus this year. The fact the we now have an endowment that's larger than some of the varsity programs is pretty big."
So it's a combination of alumni support, both vocal and financial, the fact that Athletic Director Kevin Robinson was at Mount St. Mary's knows a bit about the college rugby landscape, and certainly success on the field helps. Catholic made the NCR semifinals in D3 (previously Small College) postseason twice in the last three years, and have been a perennial playoff team over the last several years.
All of that made the University administration notice and think that young student-athletes would be more interested in attending Catholic University if the rugby team had more support on campus.
