From Jan. 15 to May 15, Eastern women’s rugby head coach Frank Graziano made 65 recruiting trips to find new players for his team.

The longest distance Graziano ventured in his trek to field more than half of the 2014 roster was a four-hour drive to the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where he saw a track meet at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates in April. The next morning he saw a track meet at Palatine High School in Palatine.

“I love going to those,” he said. “I know a lot of the coaches that go to those and they know who I am.”

In those two April days in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Graziano observed 10 hours of track meets.

Graziano said he likes every part of the recruiting process, which includes home visits and bringing potential players to Eastern’s campus, but the one thing he enjoys about the process the most is getting the one answer he wants to hear.

“I certainly enjoy it if you get a ‘Yes’ somewhere along the line that they are excited about coming here,” he said. “It has been interesting to watch them grow over the last couple weeks.”

Graziano has to go searching for different types of athletes that he can turn into rugby players because as of 2013, only 10 high schools had girl’s rugby teams. None of those 10 high school teams were located in the Midwest.

According to a 2013 study conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations, the 10 high schools in the United States that have girls’ rugby teams were all located in California. Only 161 out of more than 3 million girls that participated in high school sports played rugby.

Graziano said rugby is starting to become popular in the Northeast, especially at the Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale.

Besides a few club teams in the Chicagoland area, Graziano said there is not much high school rugby to choose from in Illinois.

He said that there is a big challenge to recruiting, especially when he has to recruit players that do not have a rugby background.

“The challenge is being able to convince the young ladies that it is an exciting opportunity for them and take a look at an opportunity in a different sport,” Graziano said. “All the young ladies that have come in had opportunities to go play sports elsewhere at a variety of levels. They have chosen to give up that opportunity and challenged themselves with this new opportunity.”

Out of the 15 members on the Panthers rugby team this season, none of them played rugby before coming to Eastern.

Most of the women on the team have a track and basketball background and Graziano said he likes players who have played those sports.

“If I can put those two sports together and have a basketball-track athlete that is the ideal kid I am looking for,” he said. “You have decision making on a basketball court, where you are playing in such a little space, your decision making is so quick and your ability to play with your hands and your feet have to be done so fast.”

One of those members on the rugby team this year, freshman Jessica Maricich, was recruited by Graziano this season.

Maricich said the first time she was asked to play rugby; she just brushed it aside, because she already had her mind set on playing a different sport at another college.

“I was like ‘I am not going to play rugby,’” she said.

But after she had a meeting with Graziano she realized how good of a coach he is.

“He was telling me what type of athlete I am and how I play a game, and he only has seen me once,” she said. “He could describe my 18 years of being an athlete, so I realized that he knew what he was talking about. Then after I thought about it I realized this is a great opportunity.”

Graziano has been coaching at Eastern since 1999, after he created Clemson’s women’s rugby team in 1995 and coached the men’s team there from 1992-97.

Eastern went 54-5 between 2007-12 before going 2-6 last season.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].