Tiffin University will be adding women's rugby as its 25th varsity sport during the 2023-24 athletic season, with Marc Ferguson serving as Head Coach.
Ferguson will have a full year of recruiting ahead of the debut season. Women's rugby will debut in fall of 2023.
Ferguson has played, coached, and administered rugby at the adult club and collegiate level, and has traveled outside of the USA with touring rugby clubs. He has over 40 years of rugby experience. Prior to his relocation to Marion, Ohio, he most recently administered and coached the California State University at Monterey Bay rugby clubs. He has a USA Rugby Level 200 Coach Certification.
Marc is also the Commissioner of the Ohio Valley Women's Collegiate Rugby Conference (OVWCRC), of which Tiffin University was a founding member during its club seasons. Tiffin University has offered women's and men's rugby as a club sport since 2014-15. This season will be Ferguson's 8th season coaching TU women's rugby, the first at the varsity level.
The Dragons will remain as competitors in the OVWCRC, moving up to the Open Division level. The 9 Team Open Division consists of Cedarville University, Miami of Ohio, Ohio University, and the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University in Kentucky, Ball State University, and Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis in Indiana, and Marshall University in West Virginia.
The Ohio Valley Women's Collegiate Rugby Conference (OVWCRC) was established in the fall of 2015 by ten small colleges and universities to better foster the competition between the women's teams in Ohio. The conference was affiliated with the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO), and competed in the NSCRO regional and national full side and 7s tournaments that culminated in the crowning of a national champion. There is an OVWCRC championship tournament each fall. The OVWCRC now has 21 member schools making up Small College and Open divisions.
The rugby team will compete at Paradiso Fields on a new turf playing field installed in May of 2022.
"Having served as Head Coach of the women's rugby club team at TU for seven years, I am extremely excited to be named Head Coach of the varsity program," said Ferguson. "I look forward to working with student-athletes attracted to TU as members of the women's rugby team while they achieve the quality education that the university will provide."
"Marc has been integral to building our program and has made this a seamless transition from club to varsity," said Athletic Director Lonny Allen. "He is well respected around our campus and with the athletes he has served in the past. We are fortunate to have such an accomplished coach take on and continue to build this program."