About Wisconsin High School Girls Rugby

The Wisconsin Girls’ Rugby league is the governing body for girls’s high school rugby in the state of Wisconsin.

Contacts

President | Betsy Wendelberger, WendelbergerE@gmail.com
Vice-President | Joe Garcia, joejgarcia0213@gmail.com
Director of Finance | Alex Glorioso, aglorioso@catholicmemorial.net
Director of Communications | Brittany Aprahamian, bnaprahamian@gmail.com
Director of Development | Nina Rouse, christina.rouse@muskegonorway.org

History of Wisconsin High School Girls Rugby                                

The first Wisconsin high school girls rugby team formed at DSHA girls school in 1996 under Dan Chanen, as an official school club.  A year later, the first high school girls rugby match involving Wisconsin teams took place against an unofficial Catholic Memorial Krusader team (est. 1997).  Memorial’s team lasted one season before folding.  DSHA played predominantly collegiate sides for these first three years.

After the first high school girls National Invitation Tournament was held in Milwaukee in 2000, several new programs began and a conference, originally called the “Super Four” was formed.  The first conference season and state championship occurred in the fall of 2001. A state tournament was introduced in 2007. 

For the first four years, the existing teams were divided into two divisions.  After a conference season of pool play, the top four teams in each division were pitted against the other division in a three-week playoff, culminating in a one-day State Championship tournament featuring every team playing for their final State ranking. In 2012 all teams played each other in one division, with teams playing a one-round playoff at the State Championship to determine 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th place.

In 2012, the league officially joined the Wisconsin Rugby Union.

This season the league celebrates it’s 22nd season of organized league play.

Team Participation

Divine Savior Holy Angels (est. 1996)
Catholic Memorial (est. 1997) (folded 1998) (re-est. 2006)
Kettle Moraine (est. 2000)
North Shore (est. 2001) (folded 2011)
Muskego (est. 2001) (folded 2018)
Vernon (est. 2002) (folded 2018)
Madison (est. 2002) (folded 2003)
Fond Du Lac (est. 2004) (folded 2018)
Bruisers (est. 2004)
Oak Creek (est. 2007)
Pius (est. 2002) (folded 2003) (re-est. 2008) (folded 2009)
Menomonee Falls (est. 2009) (folded 2011)
Cudahy (est. 2010) (folded 2011)
Wauwatosa (est. 2010) (folded unknown)
Appleton (est. 2013) (folded unknown)
Green Bay Pulaski (est. 2015)
Oshkosh (est. unknown)
Madison (est. 2016)
Stevens Point (est. 2017)
Sussex Hamilton (est. 2017)
Green Bay N.E.W. (est. 2019)
Muskego/Vernon (est. 2021)


Bold–denotes active team