Maccabi USA Women’s Rugby Squad for World Games
By Sydney HarmonPHILDELPHIA (June 30, 2022) – Maccabi USA Rugby is excited to announce the Women’s 7’s Roster for the upcoming Maccabiah Games in Israel July 14-24. The team will be led by Coach, Eyal Hakim, the current men’s head coach at Boca Raton Rugby. Hakim participated in the 2015 Pan Am Maccabi Games in Chile as a player with the Men’s Rugby team where he won a gold medal in 7’s and a silver medal in 15s.
He’s also been involved with the Israeli National Rugby Team and currently heads up a women’s All-Star 7’s program, Phoenix Rugby, that plays worldwide. Eyal is also involved with World Rugby as an educator trainee.
He will be joined on the bench by Sam Harrison, a player on the 2017 Gold Medal USA Men’s squad, who has been coaching the Men’s program at Colorado College and coached the first Maccabi Junior Boys team at the 2018 Maccabi Youth Games.
The Women’s Open squad is a great mix of college, club, and WPL players.
“We are excited to have our first ever Maccabi USA Women’s team competing in Israel at the 2022 World Maccabiah Games” stated Maccabi USA Rugby Chairman, Dave Rudzinsky. “As Women’s rugby continues to grow, we need more high-performance opportunities for players and that’s what we are trying to create! Big thanks to all the people who have been working over the years to make this finally happen!”
The World Maccabiah Games, first held in 1932, are an international Jewish multi-sport event held quadrennially in Israel. It is the third-largest sporting event in the world, with 10,000 athletes competing. Rugby was first introduced to the World Maccabiah Games in 1985. Team USA won gold in 1997 narrowly beating South Africa and won the first gold in Sevens Rugby in 2013. In July 2017, Team USA won another 15’s gold medal over South Africa.