After holding rugby leadership roles in Scotland, England, and Italy, Elaine Vassie came to the U.S. \u2014 and plans to stay \u2014 because she believes she can make a difference here. \u201cIf you\u2019re coaching high level in nations where rugby\u2019s developed,\u201d she says, \u201cmaybe you\u2019re tweaking things, as opposed to, \u2018How do we help someone fall in love with the game?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colgate Magazine<\/em> spoke to Vassie at the start of the season to learn more about her and where she plans to take the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous U.S.-based experience: <\/strong>Vassie came to Colgate from the Texas Rugby Union All Stars, where she served as defense coach while running education workshops. Previously, she spent three seasons as the general manager of Major League Rugby\u2019s Dallas Jackals, a former pro team based in Arlington. In addition, she\u2019s a former head coach and director of the Dallas Harlequins, a DI men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breaking the mold: <\/strong>Vassie was the first female assistant general manager in Major League Rugby in the U.S.; previously, she was the first female coach and director in the Men\u2019s National League One in England when she took over Manchester Rugby Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helping students grow: <\/strong>\u201cOur students are people first and then they\u2019re our students and then they\u2019re athletes who choose to play rugby,\u201d Vassie says. She aims to offer support to players both on and off the pitch. \u201cHow do we give students good life experiences that they can translate to whatever their lives will be?\u201d For one, she\u2019s been working with Career Services to integrate its programming into the rugby schedule. Students are \u201chere to grow as whole people, not just rugby players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gold standard: <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve changed a lot on the medical side. Dr. Ellen Larson \u201994 has been phenomenal; we\u2019re running a pilot with [Student Health Services] on in-person concussion assessments, which is the gold standard from a world rugby perspective. We\u2019ve also sourced a new athletic training partnership with Oneida Health so we have them present at training sessions and game days to enhance the level of care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She knows what it\u2019s like to suffer from a concussion: <\/strong>At age 19, Vassie was in a car crash that left her with headaches for months and cognitive issues for years. \u201cPeople weren\u2019t talking about concussions like they are now,\u201d she says in a Rugby Journal<\/em> profile. \u201cYou\u2019d have a scan and get sent home with a leaflet.\u201d It derailed Vassie\u2019s schooling and sports (she was a multisport athlete: netball, soccer, swimming, tennis, trampolining) until she was \u201cfeeling normal again.\u201d A friend invited her to play rugby in her early 20s \u2014 which is late by England\u2019s standards but helps her understand Colgate students who are beginning to learn the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Equal turf: <\/strong>Although the rugby program is divided into men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams, Vassie and her coaching staff \u201chave a real drive\u201d to make it a rugby community. \u201cThe laws of the game are the same for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams,\u201d she says. And because both teams have members who haven\u2019t played before coming to Colgate, the coaching staff is intentional in using the same language and terms, as well as sharing clips of games and other resources. \u201cThat gets us toward the shared mental model,\u201d she says. \u201cThe philosophy, the shapes, the pattern, all of that is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She loves rugby because it\u2019s a mix of brain and brawn: <\/strong>\u201cThere\u2019s a tactical understanding, technical challenges, and lots of different components. You don\u2019t have just one job to do \u2014 you\u2019ve got a lot of jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Team dynamics: <\/strong>\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s special about rugby is once you\u2019ve taken the field with someone, your relationship changes. There\u2019s a different level of reliance within rugby because of the physical component of the game and the speed that it\u2019s played at in terms of fluidity.\u201d Because of that dynamic, she says, \u201cYou should have a group that you can, 20 years down the line, still pick up the phone and have a conversation with, and that\u2019s because of the experience you had on the field when you were here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After holding rugby leadership roles in Scotland, England, and Italy, Elaine Vassie came to the U.S. to make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":16088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[40,2486,334,112],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-16028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene","tag-athletics","tag-elaine-vassie","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4aw","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/082724_Elaine_Vassie_MDD_86.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16028"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16142,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16028\/revisions\/16142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16028"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}