National champion rugby coach hired as UMFK athletic director

The University of Maine at Fort Kent has tapped a national champion rugby coach to be its next athletic director.

Becky Carlson stepped into the role in August, according to the university’s website.

She is UMFK’s second athletic director in as many years, replacing Jason Coleman, who was hired last August.

Carlson was the founding coach of the women’s rugby team at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and helped the team to three consecutive national championships from 2015 to 2017. She left Quinnipiac this spring after the school eliminated its varsity rugby program.

Nearly two dozen Quinnipiac rugby athletes are suing the university in federal court to reverse that decision. Carlson testified that she believed the school eliminated the program in part because of her battles with its administration over what she viewed as unequal treatment of the team. A judge rejected that notion.

“I’ve been the only coach and I have a deep history of asking questions,” Carlson said, the Hartford Courant reported.

Carlson had for years been a vocal champion for her program, pushing for everything from better field conditions to greater publicity while advocating for women’s rugby — an NCAA emerging sport — to become a full Division I championship sport.

U.S. Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher is among her standout former players.

Carlson joins UMFK as the university is broadly expanding its athletic offerings. The school is in the process of almost doubling the number of varsity sports it offers, adding softball, golf, esports and men’s and women’s cross country in the 2026-27 school year. It launched a baseball program last year.

“Becky brings a remarkable combination of proven success, visionary leadership, and a deep commitment to student-athletes,” University President Deb Hedeen said in a release Wednesday. “Building a championship program from the ground up takes more than coaching expertise. It takes vision, perseverance, and the ability to bring people together around a shared purpose.”

A university spokesperson did not respond to a Bangor Daily News request to speak to Carlson.

The Bengals compete under the USCAA, a non-NCAA governing body for small colleges, where they have won more than a dozen national championships between soccer and track and field.