Mon River Maniacs High School Girls

     In the year of 2002, three girls decided that they wanted to play the international sport of rugby. Unfortunately, there was only one team in the Morgantown area - The Mon River Mud Dogs the Under 19 Boys team. These three girls decided to still take on the challenge and play on what amounted to a co-ed rugby team. Thus, the makings of the Mon River Maniacs were created.

     Christina Hunt, one of the three players on this "co-ed" team wanted to play on an all girls rugby team the following year. Christina asked Chris "Murph" Anderson to be the coach of the team if she could get 15 girls to play and he agreed. Starting slowly with a couple of girls here and there, eventually, she did get the required 15 girls. With only 15 girls, the coaching staff decided to play only one game in that inaugural season. They lost miserably to Carrick of Pittsburgh but it didn't really matter as the girls were winners in successfully creating a team and finishing a game. Many of the things that the team says today come from this first year - "Team Canada", "The Eva Dance", "The Mon River Spearchuckers", etc. "The first year was crazy and so much fun because we only had 15 girls but it was a great learning experience," says Jodi Richardson.

You can view a brief featurette by WBOY by clicking here.

More Maniacs history can be found at their website.