After playing in the Scholar’s League since 2016, the Ravens men’s rugby team intends to compete in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) beginning in the 2022-23 season.
In RSEQ, the team will compete against Bishop’s University, Concordia University, McGill University and the University of Ottawa, among other schools.
“This is a huge step up for our club and continues to prove our legitimacy as a highly competitive rugby team,” team president Connor Millenor said in an email.
Despite the move to RSEQ, the men’s rugby team will still not be considered a varsity club. The women’s rugby team has held varsity status since the 2012-13 season.
According to Millenor, the team will not have varsity status because it would be a large financial burden on the school’s athletics department.
“We currently only get funding as a club and thus it is a much lower amount than varsity teams,” Millenor said. “Players pay club dues, and we, as the club, have to pay for our own field rentals and other costs that would usually be covered by the school.”
Without varsity status, the team is also responsible for finding its own sponsors and athletic therapy to compete at a high level. It also means they have to purchase their own equipment, which can be costly, Millenor said.
The team was founded in 2015 as a co-ed Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) club and did not play in a formal league, but played exhibition matches against local teams. The club began playing in the Scholar’s League in 2016, where they competed against various universities in Ontario and Quebec.
The team earned a competitive club designation from Carleton Athletics in 2018, which made the team “more competitive and less recreational, but not yet a varsity team,” Millenor said.
In 2020, the team received approval from Athletics to join RSEQ.
The team still plays under their first head coach LeeAnn Napiórkowski. Millenor said Napiórkowski has brought “a wealth of information and insight on becoming a more competitive team.”
Napiórkowski—the winner of the 2020 Ravens Club Team Coach of the Year award—is joined on the coaching staff by assistant coaches TeKapua Rewi and Dave Harrison.
At the same time as they received their competitive club designation in 2018, the team found success. They won their first Scholar’s League championship and finished the season 6-0. They repeated their title in 2019.
“The ceiling is extremely high for this team,” Millenor said.
As the men’s rugby team won’t transition to RSEQ until the 2022-23 season, they will look for their third consecutive championship this year in the Scholar’s League.
The club recently announced new kits for the upcoming season.
Ravens Men’s Rugby has revealed their new primary kit for the upcoming 2021 season 🔥#FearTheConspiracy #BirdGang pic.twitter.com/ESTMp4OJiN
— Carleton Ravens (@CURavens) July 4, 2021
According to Millenor, the team will have a training camp from Sept. 7 to 10, followed by tryouts on Sept. 11. Any student enrolled at Carleton is eligible to come to the training camp and tryout sessions, but next year, there will be more strict eligibility rules under RSEQ.
This season, the team will be made entirely of returning undergraduate or graduate students. Millenor said the team will not scout high school athletes this year due to there being no high school games because of COVID-19.
Featured image from file.
