Georgian College is adding a women’s rugby sevens team to its varsity sport programs.
Georgian’s athletics department announced last week that the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) had approved the school’s application for the team, which will play an exhibition season in 2025 before officially launching the following year.
In a press release, Georgian said student athlete recruitment will begin in February.
“A women’s rugby sevens team is a thrilling addition to Georgian’s stellar lineup of award-winning varsity teams,” said Suzie Addison-Toor, the school’s vice-president of student success, in a statement. “It also aligns with our commitment to foster diversity, equity and inclusion within our athletic programming, and it’s one example of our continued investment in creating unrivaled student experiences.”
Rugby sevens will be the fourth women’s varsity sport offered at Georgian, adding to volleyball, basketball, and golf.
The Grizzlies men’s rugby team has been around for more than 15 years and has won the provincial championship three times.
The new women’s team will play its home games at J.C. Massie Field in Barrie.
Women’s rugby sevens has been an official OCAA sport since 2016, and there are currently eight colleges that have programs.
Rugby sevens is different from traditional rugby union, as both teams can only have seven players on the field at one time, and the games are comprised of two seven-minute halves. In rugby union, each team fields 15 players, while the games consist of 40-minute halves.
Rugby sevens has featured in the last three Olympics, with the Canadian women’s team winning a historic silver medal at Paris 2024.
