Principia College’s rugby team, the Thunder Chickens, was once National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Division II national champions and made a run in the Division I playoffs, but will not compete in the NCR this year as coaches work to rebuild the team roster. Instead, the program will operate in a “club” capacity, playing limited matches.
From 2021 to 2025, the Thunder Chickens built momentum, capturing the 2022 Division II (DII) national championship and later competing in Division I (DI), where they reached as high as No. 5 in the National Collegiate Rugby rankings.
This summer, players learned the team would not be competing in conference play. “At first, we were told we’d drop to Division II, but over the summer, they told us the team is now a club. Not DI, not DII, just a club. That was it,” team member Ntando Sibanda said.
Interim Athletic Director Ramiro Dominguez said that the team didn’t get the required number of players to stay in the division play. Under league rules, a team leaving DI must wait two years before joining a lower division, so the Thunder Chickens will play a club slate of friendlies in the meantime. “This year, without the numbers to fill a full roster, they’ll be playing more like a club schedule, no conference, just friendlies,” Dominguez said.
Recruiting challenges
For Principia, recruiting has been the central challenge. Rugby 15s demands close to 30 players to train 15-on-15, absorb injuries, and get through a season, but Principia has struggled to meet that number. “Even when we were Division 1, we didn’t have 30 guys,” Dominguez said. “We just didn’t get enough recruits to fill up the year before and to fill up last year to make a full roster.”
Players said they were worried about the trend. “We calculated it,” Sibanda said. “By next year, we’d be down to six guys who could actually play. That’s dangerous territory.”
Changes to how Principia funds international recruiting have been part of the issue, according to coaches.
“We stopped bringing international students, who were the best asset we had for the rugby team,” said Head Coach Damir Conci, who graduated last semester and was captain of the team. “If you don’t have scholarships or a program to present, why would domestic students choose Principia for rugby?”
Rugby is not as popular a high school sport in the United States. When coaches recruit locally, they often try to attract athletes from the more popular sports. “It’s hard to get American kids to switch from football or basketball to rugby,” Dominguez said. “That’s a tough sell.”
Dominguez said he’s optimistic about the future of the rugby team. “Every sport has its ups and downs. Volleyball was down in numbers, softball was down for a few years, and even basketball took a time off before coming back stronger. Rugby is in that stage now, but I think it can bounce back by 2026 or 2027.”
Coach departure
When head coach Philip Kellerman stepped away from the team last year, it worried players who were already concerned with the smaller roster.
Dominguez said that it wasn’t the reason the program stepped away from competition. He said Kellerman was “given an opportunity for another one-year contract” but “decided that didn’t fit his long-term plans… and we wish him the very best.”
Player Experience
Despite Principia Rugby’s national success, some players reported feeling overlooked compared to other sports. “Coming from high school, I expected at least a jacket and warm-up T-shirt; instead, we got one old jersey. Meanwhile, other sports had full kits,” Kudzai Chiwara said.
Dominguez said outfitting decisions were made by the head coach, adding that Athletics had planned updated essentials and begun new kit designs for this season: “I believe if you look good, you feel good, you play good.”
The Thunder Chickens’ 2022 Division II national championship also brought frustration when players had to wait years for rings. They only recently learned they would receive them at the same time as the women’s basketball team, which won a 2025 conference title. “That bothered us,” said Chiwara. “We won nationals and had to wait years, then you hear other teams might be getting rings for winning conference titles. It makes you feel like rugby wasn’t treated with the same values.”
Dominguez said that championship rings are traditionally a head coach’s decision. “Once Coach Kellerman decided not to return, I made sure those guys got their rings,” he said. “They earned them.”
Legacy and future
For some players, the hardest part has been losing the competitive edge. “Nobody wants to compete for fun,” Sibanda said. “We had a mission. We came here to win championships, but now we can’t do that.”
Even so, Principia Rugby has built a reputation that extends beyond Elsah. “In the rugby world in America, people know Principia,” Sibanda said. “We can go anywhere, say we played for Principia, and people remember us.”
Chiwara added that opponents had expressed interest in facing Principia again. “I talked with a couple of guys from Lindenwood. They were looking forward to playing us this year. I had to tell them we didn’t even have a team anymore. That hurt.”
Looking ahead, Dominguez said the future depends on rebuilding depth: “With strong recruiting, I think the program should be back by 2027, maybe 2026.”
Although the Thunder Chickens will not compete in National Collegiate Rugby this year, their 2022 national title and run as a top-five Division I team remain defining moments. For now, rugby will only be playing friendly games, focusing on rebuilding with the hope of returning to league play in the near future.
