NEWBERRY, S.C. -- After completing their first official season of competition, the Newberry College women's rugby program will have a new leader heading into their 2023 campaign as Eric Enright has been announced as the new head coach for the program.

"I'm incredibly excited to have the opportunity to lead the Newberry program," said Enright. "This group has so much potential and I'm looking forward to hitting the ground running here in the next couple weeks. I want to thank Sean, Sarah, and the rest of the hiring committee for providing me with this opportunity that I've been so hungry for and I can't wait to get to work."

Enright joins the Wolves after spending the last season with the Tampa Krewe club team in Florida where he led his squad to a undefeated regular season, making it to the Super Regional Final. Prior to that that he spent a season as the Division II Head Coach/WPL Assistant Backs coach for the Bekeley All Blues Rugby team.  While there his team won the 2022 Pacific Super Regional, leading the team to their first trip to the National Championship weekend in club history. The WPL team also grasp a national championship berth as well.

"Throughout the process Eric stood out among all candidates as his values and tradition of excellence matched with what we were looking for at Newberry," added assistant athletic director for compliance Sarah Arsenault who led the search committee.

Eric spent the season prior as the head coach of the Division II team with the Austin Valkyries Rugby club where he assisted with getting the DI team a 4th place finish while earning an 8th place ranking nationally for the DII team. His Division II teams won the state championships in 2018 and 2019. Enright got his start in the coaching ranks as the head coach for the Texas State University women's team where he led the squad to a DII Bowl Championship at 7's National in 2016 in the team's first ever appearance.

As a player-coach for the Texas State men's team, he helped lead the men's 7's team to their first ever national appearance while also picking up a Southwest Conference Championship as a player in 2016.

"Eric brings a wealth of experience and has a passion for teaching the game and mentoring student-athletes," said athletic director Sean Johnson.

Enright holds a World Rugby Level 2 certification.