March 20, 2017
Women’s Premier League Expands to Ten Teams
Doug Coil
The Women’s Premier League (WPL) was founded in 2009 and is the top division of women’s senior club rugby in the United States. For the 2017 season, the League is expanding to ten teams.
Beantown Rugby and Chicago North Shore will join the WPL this year, as they have been among the best DI rugby teams in recent years. The WPL considered many factors in choosing these teams for expansion including consistency of competition and a history of stability within the clubs themselves.
Beantown was one of the original members of the WPL and has performed weel in the east coast, has placed well in the WPL historically and also finishing as DI runners-up in 2015.
Chicago North Shore has considered moving to WPL for some time. It has been a top DI level club and in 2016, reached the DI National Championship Final.
The WPL will incorporate the new teams into the two geographic conferences: Beantown Rugby, Atlanta Harlequins, DC Furies, New York Rugby, and Twin Cities Amazons in the East; Chicago North Shore, Berkeley All Blues, Glendale Raptors, Oregon Sports Union, and San Diego Surfers in the West. All 10 teams will be vying for a shot at the Championship starting Labor Day Weekend and culminating at the WPL Finals event at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 10-12, 2017.
