Iowa Central Unveils Women's Program

08.06.2025College Women

Iowa Central Community College is launching a women’s team and has hired Matt Ramirez as the Head Coach.

Ramirez was the Women’s Head Coach at Central Washington, which lost its varsity funding in May. He was an assistant and Head Coach at CWU since 2018.

He now has the job of starting a program from scratch, albeit one that has strong support from the men’s program which has enjoyed success for several years.

While high-level college rugby programs are rare among two-year institutions for men, they are virtually non-existent (if not actually non-existent) among women.

“It’s a pioneering situation,” Ramirez told GRR. “It’s a unique opportunity rather than a challenge. The administration is fully bought-in on the sport.”

Ramirez points to ICCC Men’s Head Coach Brent Nelson for the work he has done to establish Tritons Rugby as a national power and a celebrated program on campus.

“Brent has negotiation all those speed bumps and that’s going to make it a little easier for me,” Ramirez said.

Iowa Central will be recruiting from student-athletes on-campus and locally from Iowa HS teams. Of course, Iowa’s high school leagues are 7s, so there is a bit of an adjustment for players who want to play college rugby, which is both 7s and 15s. However, Ramirez said he was enthusiastic about helping student-athletes through that transition.

“I’m excited about the opportunity,” said Ramirez. “We have some excellent two- and three-year degrees, such as Nursing, Trades, Financial Services, Vet Tech, and a lot more, and at a low cost. Students can develop personal skills and also, if they are worried about going directly into 15s from 7s, can work their way through it with Iowa Central.”

The program can set players up for transferring to a four-year program, getting required courses out of the way and playing some rugby at the same time.

So Ramirez will be working on a new plan to promote new options for female student-athletes, and also he is going from an establish program to one that’s just starting.

“We have a great player pool in Iowa and also, remember, girls wrestling is a sanctioned sport in the state so there are girls who are used to the contact,” he said. A few players with some rugby experience are already at Iowa Central, and there was a small club being coached by Triton men's players. “We’re also looking to make our player pool bigger, increase the caliber of athlete playing women’s college rugby, and maybe we will be able to do a Rugby 101 session on-campus.”

This is yet another piece of news in which a team in the middle part of the country is fielding a school-supported women’s team. Loyola of New Orleans announced yesterday, and Southern Nazarene has been in action for a few years, now. Walsh is now fielding a roster that is almost entirely a turnover from the old NDC roster, and as a result is starting a bit of a new era. Drury and McKendree are still building. Of course there is Lindenwood, now entering NIRA as a full NCAA D1 program, where Davenport has been for some years.

Iowa Central CC will officially start competition in the fall of 2026. For more on the program go here>

Iowa Central Unveils Women's Program

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