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Summit girls rugby enters 30th season aiming to dominate and reach new heights

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Cody Jones

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Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
Highlights from the Summit High School girl rugby team’s Green versus White game on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

It is a special season for the Summit High School girls rugby team. 

Not only will the team have the opportunity to capture an 18th-consecutive state title at the conclusion of the fall season, but the program is also commemorating its 30th season as a team. 

30 seasons ago, head coach Karl Barth was approached about starting a girls rugby program at the high school. At the beginning, participation was low, but the team just had enough players to field an entire rugby team for a 7’s league.  

“We started with seven girls,” Barth said. “It is funny that we started with 7’s and that is what we play now. That is how we played the first season against the, like, two other teams that had seven, eight girls.”

From there, the program truly began to blossom. Despite only having seven players on the team in its first season, Summit was able to play 15’s — when 15 athletes play on the pitch from each team — in its second season. 

That was all it took for the Summit girls rugby team to truly pick up momentum as a program. Soon the team was consistently capturing state and national titles as well as becoming a force in the rugby world. 

Over the last three decades, Barth has not only seen his program grow, but has also witnessed the sport grow across the country. While there were only a handful of small high school girls rugby teams in the late 1990s, the sport has since grown immensely, with numerous programs now thriving across the U.S.

“I think there are two teams that are a year behind us, if my math is right,” Barth said. “I don’t think there are any that are still around before us.”

While some of the programs that existed in the 1990s have since become obsolete, Summit has just grown stronger as time goes by. On the precipice of its 30th season, the program now routinely sees 80-plus girls come out for the program on an annual basis.

What attracts girls to the program isn’t just its success, but the culture Barth and his lineage of athletes have cultivated through the years. 

Seasoned veterans such as senior Teagan Barth, senior Hailey Russer and senior Clara D’Augustine, will look to preserve the team’s culture and pass it on to new members as the fall season gets underway.

“I think this year we have definitely tried to make sure that the culture is at the center of the program,” Teagan Barth said. “Rebuilding it, making sure we have our team values and making sure the freshmen are a part of making those. Having the values be the center of the program and then rugby comes after.”

“(Karl) Barth does a good job of making sure we know where this team came from and how lucky we are to be where we are now,” Russer said. “They didn’t even have a field to practice on when they started up the program. Where we came from is so cool to watch.”

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Barth, Russer and D’Augustine are all expected to be major contributors for the Tigers throughout the high school fall season. After spending most of the summer playing rugby, the trio of players enter the season excited and poised to make their mark.

Barth, Russer and D’Augustine will be aided by other skilled rugby players such as senior Avery Thisted, junior Zoe Nelson, junior Siena Tofig and sophomore Avery Russer.

Summit’s speed is perhaps its most lethal asset. While 15’s rugby does not allow for fast breaks down the field, the reduced number of players in 7’s rugby allows for significantly more open space, making it easier for athletes to outrun opponents, break tackles and cover large distances.

Summit has leaned heavily on its speed as a recipe for success and is expected to once again utilize the skillset to win games this season.

Contrary to previous years, Summit is not primarily focused on securing another state trophy in November. With a major 7’s rugby tournament scheduled in Idaho for the same weekend as the state tournament, a large chunk of the Summit girls rugby team will play in the tournament instead of competing in the state competition.

While the team will still be chasing an 18th-straight state title throughout the season, the program believes the Idaho tournament gives the team the greatest opportunity to be challenged and tested like never before.

“It is not about the streak, it is not about 18 years,” Russer said. “It is about how we are playing and doing our best, doing what we have learned. So as long as we keep doing that, we are going to see success. It is about the culture and working together.”

“We are already so good, but compared to other teams we are not as good,” D’Augustine said. “We want to get to the next level and then just climb the ladder.”

Summit officially began its season on Thursday, Aug. 28, when it hosted its annual Green versus White scrimmage. The intra-team competition allowed new team members to get their first game of rugby under their belt and allowed returners to get back into the groove of the game. 

Summit will play its first series of regular season matches on Saturday, Sept. 6, when the team hosts the Summit 7’s rugby tournament.

“That tournament is always super fun,” Teagan Barth said. “I think it will be a really fun tournament because all of our teams will be there, including our JV. It is always fun to support our younger players, but also compete with high-level teams.”

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