We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Kennedy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Coming up with the idea for Girls Rugby was something that did not just happen overnight, although the process from idea to actual business seemed a lot quicker than that. I had worked in rugby development for a number of years and I was seeing a trend at the youth and grassroots levels – girls were not finding rugby. Programs around the US were littered with young boys and yet you would only find a small number of girls participating. Something wasn’t right and I wanted to figure out what exactly that was. I had developed different programs and resources for community groups to grow more opportunities for girls and yet despite all of these efforts, it wasn’t working. Finally in 2017 I had the idea of doing something bigger – something that would make a massive splash in the participation of girls in rugby. I called my two business partners and we decided to get together and dream about what this could be. In late 2017 we locked ourselves in a room for 3 days and we did exactly that…we dreamt about what Girls Rugby could be. At the time that we met, there were only 1,055 girls registered and playing flag rugby in the United States. Let that sink in…in the entire United States, just over one thousand girls were actively playing flag rugby. That’s such a small number when compared with boys and other sports. Girls Rugby was going to be the entity that would change all of that. We didn’t want to just get more girls playing rugby, we wanted to provide the best sport experience possible and help give girls what they needed to be successful in life. There are an incredible number of stats around young girls and the less opportunities they have compared with boys, the fears that they have around their confidence and their abilities, and the greater risks apparent in their lives; all because they are female. Girls Rugby was born to provide girls with more opportunities to be active, to have fun, make new friends, and develop themselves into the incredible humans they are meant to be. And I’m proud to say that exactly what got us all excited in the beginning is the same thing that keeps Girls Rugby going today.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Of course! I’m Erin Kennedy and I am the CEO & Co-Founder of Girls Rugby. I grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania before moving out to Denver for graduate school. I completed my Master’s Degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver and started my career in rugby just after graduate school. I’ve worked in sport development for the past 15+ years where I’ve worked for USA Rugby, Rugby Americas North, Rugby Canada, and the International Olympic Committee. Currently I am the Regional Development Manager for Rugby Americas North and the CEO of Girls Rugby, Inc. I also am an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver and I do a number of contract projects for various organizations.
Girls Rugby provides flag rugby programming paired with leadership skills and core values for girls aged 6-14. We have 11 programs offered in 7 states and in 2022 we registered 767 participants. We are one of the fastest growing and largest rugby entities in the United States and we hope to grow our programs to reach thousands and thousands more girls nationwide and beyond. We have been increasing our offerings for programs since our foundation, increasing our reach by 640% since 2018. There are no other programs in the United States that run girls-only flag rugby programming, allowing Girls Rugby to further provide opportunities for girls to be active and learn positive core values and life skills that they can apply on and off the field.
The Girls Rugby experience is unique in that the focus is on an environment centered around learning, growth, and community. This curriculum was specifically developed to help participants explore various leadership skills and apply them to their lives on and off the field of play. The curriculum introduces new values and skills to the participants each week of every season. Participants have a chance to explore these concepts and develop them with their coaches, teammates, and in their own Rugby Playbook. There is no emphasis on competition and participants get the chance to interact with the greater Girls Rugby community in a way that is different from other traditional American sports.
The things that I’m most proud of, looking back on the last 5 years, are the stories that we hear from families and participants about how this program has impacted their lives in a positive way. We have countless stories of these young players learning positive values and concepts in rugby and applying them to their lives off the field. We are contributing to the foundation that these girls need for the rest of their lives.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
When we were first developing the idea of Girls Rugby, there was an uphill battle ahead of us in terms of the brand. We would go to Google Images and search different terms like “girls rugby” or “rugby for girls” or “girls rugby USA”. What we found were pictures and pictures of adult women playing tackle rugby, pictures of adult men playing tackle rugby, pictures of lingerie football leagues, and very few young girls playing rugby. There were almost no pictures of our demographic – young girls under 14 playing flag rugby. What we found on Google was a challenge to our business and a challenge to our product. People believed that rugby was a rough sport, only contact, only for men and boys, and they couldn’t find images or content that would counter that.
We wanted to change the stereotypes. We wanted to change the way that the world thought about girls and women in rugby. As we started to build our brand we were very conscious of building it in the right ways. We wanted to redefine what it meant to be a girl in rugby. We made sure that all of our pictures showcased young girls and athletes. We made sure that we showed diversity in race, age, body type, ability, and other demographics. We wanted every girl to see the images of Girls Rugby and see themselves in it.
I’m proud to say that after 5 years if you go to Google Images and search those same terms, you will find many pictures of Girls Rugby throughout the other pictures in the search. There are still a lot of pictures of women and contact rugby, but we are slowly integrating our brand of rugby for girls into all of that. We are redefining rugby for girls and we are going to continue to do that with our positive messaging and diverse imaging.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The biggest misconception that people have about Girls Rugby and about my role as the CEO is that I get paid lots of money to do what I do for the organization. Since we founded the organization in 2018, none of the co-founders have taken a salary. I currently am the one full-time staff for the organization and I do that without taking any salary or compensation for my time. I have a full-time job (and some semblance of a personal life) on top of what I do for Girls Rugby. I am very fortunate that my current job allows me the flexibility to manage Girls Rugby and I have a supportive partner who keeps me going so that I can achieve my dreams.
The dream is exactly that – working for Girls Rugby full-time and receiving a salary to do that would be amazing. It isn’t about the money for me – clearly I wouldn’t be doing something full time for 5 years if it was. For me it is about the success – it is about building something that is so valuable and contributes positively to the community. If I can help to change just one girl’s life through the work that we do in Girls Rugby, that’s all that matters. And I’ll continue working towards the goal of making this organization sustainable and putting as much of my time, energy, and heart into it to make it happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.girlsrugbyinc.com
- Instagram: @girlsrugbyinc
- Facebook: @girlsrugbyinc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girls-rugby-inc/
- Twitter: @girlsrugbyinc
- Youtube: @girlsrugbyinc