2025-26 End of Season Report

A Season of Firsts, and a Foundation Being Built

The 2025–2026 season closed with a championship banner, a coaching transition, and a program that looks nothing like the one a handful of students started in 1969. Here's what happened, and what it means heading into the next chapter.

The Headline: Women's Rugby Reaches the National Stage

"We proved we belong on the national stage. Now we make sure the teams that come after us never have to prove it again." — Kerri O'Malley, Women's Head Coach

The Women's program had the kind of season programs wait years for.

Fall 15s: Florida Rugby Union State Champions, advancing to SARC Regionals in Charlotte, NC, where they faced UVA and James Madison.

Spring 7s: Back to back Florida State Champions, then a perfect 5-0 run through the Love at First Ruck qualifier to punch the program's first-ever ticket to CRC National 7s.

At Nationals in Boyd, MD: a 2-2 record against elite competition, capped by the 2026 NCR D1AA Shield Championship.

Captains Anna Jennings and Amelia Cutshaw both graduate this May, alongside four other seniors, but the culture they built isn't going anywhere. MVP Back Jessica Engel, MVP Forward Alanis Rivera, and Most Improved Player Angelina Nevryueva all return next fall.

A New Era for Men's Rugby

After 18 years leading the Men's program, Ken Simmons stepped back from Head Coach to become Director of Rugby for both programs, a transition that, by every account, needed far less handholding than expected.

Enter Martin Russell, whose first season introduced a player leadership model that put accountability in the hands of the roster itself. The result was a run to the semifinal of the Florida Collegiate Championship, a game the team lost but one Coach Russell called a performance that "augurs well for the future."

The numbers behind the season:

1. 8 games played
2. 614 carries, 590 tackles
3. 23 tries, 182 total points

Matt Boylan had a season to remember, taking home both MVP and the Leadership Award while leading the club in tries, carries, and assists. Charlie Cole was named Most Valuable Rookie after topping the team in total points. Jason Martin (MVP Back) and Peter Sciortino (MVP Forward) anchored a defense that racked up nearly 600 tackles across the spring.

Six seniors graduate this May and December, and the program says goodbye to five international exchange players from Ireland, France, and Scotland who each left their mark on the club.

Thank You to the Legend

Before he ever coached a single, Ken Simmons built the Men's program from 2007 to 2025 into what it is today. A 2019 UF Alumni Rugby Hall of Fame inductee, he's now applying that same steady hand across both programs as Director of Rugby. Few transitions in college rugby go this smoothly. Fewer coaches earn a tribute page in their own program's season report.

Investing in What's Next

Two new scholarships, the Mark Carpenter Scholarship and the Florida Rugby Alumni Scholarship, will each award $5,000 a year to an incoming Men's program student-athlete starting in the 2027–2028 academic year. Both were funded entirely by alumni donors, a reminder that the people who wore the jersey decades ago are still building the club today.

That same spirit runs through the 1969 Society, named for the club's founding year. It now counts 144 lifetime members and 326 total contributions to the Florida Rugby Endowment, which distributed $3,806 to the Men's and Women's programs in 2026 alone.

The Alumni Association Behind It All

None of this happens without UFRAA. This year, the association:

1. Was selected for the 2025 US Rugby Foundation x Madak Collegiate Alumni Jumpstart Grant, chosen from 30 applicants nationwide
2. Engaged Madak on a two-year strategic initiative to build lasting infrastructure across fundraising, communications, and brand
3. Is preparing to launch GatorsRugby.com in August 2026 as the unified home for the Men's program, the Women's program, and every alumnus who's ever pulled on the jersey

What's Ahead

Mark your calendars. The inaugural Gators Rugby Family Festival runs September 11–13, 2026, at UF Rugby Haven in Hampton, FL, complete with lake day, a Saturday tailgate at The Swamp for Gators vs. Campbell, and a Sunday morning send-off with the Gainesville Hogs. Alumni Weekend returns January 15–17, 2027, in Gainesville.

A club that started with a handful of students in 1969 is now a nationally competitive Men's and Women's program with an independent alumni association, an endowment, and a strategic plan built to carry it through 2028. This season was proof of what that foundation can produce.

Let's Go Gators Rugby.

‍