A new women’s professional rugby league is giving former Summit Rugby players a place to call home.
Four-time state champion Nicole Kimball was on reserve this past weekend at Infinity Park, where the new Denver Onyx squad played its first match.
“This feeling of being in a stadium solely meant for rugby in the United States, it just carries so many special memories,” Kimball tells Krystal 93 news director Phil Lindeman. “It holds a special place in my heart. Some of my best memories with some of the most amazing players (were there). Being back in that stadium, it really felt like a full-circle moment.”
A sea of pink, not green, greeted Kimball when the Onyx took the pitch. It was the league’s biggest crowd on its first day in existence.
And the Onyx put on a show, beating the Bay Breakers 63-7. It was the kind of lopsided whopping Summit often dealt to opponents when Kimball played there from 2016 and 2020.
“The thing that sets rugby aside, and it shows in the support for this league, is the culture and community around it,” Kimball says. “It’s the respect the fans have for the players, and the respect the players have for the opposite jersey.”
Kimball had almost given up on rugby. She was burnt out after playing D-I for Sacred Heart in Connecticut until she returned home to coach.
“I just remembered, ‘This is why I love the sport so much,’” she says. “The kids really are everything. They are the future of rugby.”
That future is about to be brighter with the advent of Women’s Elite Rugby, the six-team league featuring the Onyx, plus squads in New York, Boston, Chicago, Minnesota and California.
The WER is not the first women’s league in the nation – Kimball is still playing club ball for the Colorado Gray Wolves of the Women’s Premier League – but it’s poised to become the largest.
“We have players coming in from Canada, we have a couple players that just came from the PWR, which is the professional league in Europe,” Kimball says. “And those players are getting paid.”
The WER is not technically professional – yet. The players are not getting paid, but they have kit sponsors and travel is covered. They even have medical insurance.
“This lays the groundwork for every team to get that equal treatment, get the same opportunity, and progress the sport,” Kimball says.
She is back on reserve this Saturday, April 5, when the Onyx play the New York Exiles.
On Sunday her old Summit teammate, All-American Cassidy Bargell, is starting for the Boston Banshees against the Chigo Tempest.
“This is the most organization that I’ve felt from this large a group of admins, players and coaches,” Kimball says. “We are all working toward one thing. We may be playing each other on the field, but off the field we are laying the groundwork for the next generation to come in and not have to worry.”