February 13, 2024 (Ann Arbor, MI)

Kelly McCafferty, a key member of the University of Michigan’s stellar rugby team, is a woman who dances to the beat of her own drum.

“Both of my parents went to Michigan State and my mom was on the swim team there; I grew up as a huge Michigan State fan,” the Battle Creek, Michigan resident offered. “Everyone assumed I’d of course go but I wanted academics first and that meant Michigan. Sorry mom and dad! Well, not really.”

And despite having played a veritable decathlon of sports while growing up, McCafferty ended up playing a sport — rugby — at a high level at Michigan that she never even considered, never thought of, before she got to Ann Arbor. Her ‘zig when life zags’ spirit makes her a natural fit as an EcoAthletes Champion.

“Kelly’s fearlessness, creativity and drive, which has led to her success on the rugby field and in the classroom at Michigan, will serve her well as an EcoAthletes Champion,” enthused Lew Blaustein, EcoAthletes’ CEO and founder. “We can’t wait to see how she sparks the #ClimateComeback.”

McCafferty’s sports menu was beyond full during her grammar school days.

“I basically tried every sport but rugby when I was a kid,” McCafferty recalled. ‘Soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, lacrosse, golf, and tennis. By the time I got to high school, I narrowed things down to just volleyball, basketball, tennis, and golf. I knew absolutely nothing about rugby then.”

That would change after she arrived at the University of Michigan in that COVID fall of 2020. With academics being McCafferty’s prime focus, she decided to pursue club sports rather than going the much more time-intensive varsity route. That said, she felt like she wanted to try something new. She just wasn’t sure what that was.

“I definitely wanted to do something different when it came to picking a sport,” McCafferty relayed. “Some of my friends were on the men’s rugby team and I said to myself, ‘that sounds interesting, I’m going to check it out.’ When I got to the first women’s team practice, I was the only new player. So, it was a challenging initiation but it was just so much fun and the girls on the team were so welcoming, that I was happy to come back. At the second practice, I was invited to join the team at a tournament in Nashville. And so, I was on my way!”

The 5’ 11” McCafferty became a forward almost immediately, driving ahead in tight spaces, taking and giving a lot of contact along the way. She quickly became a key cog in one of the top rugby club teams in the US. “There’s something special about being part of a women’s rugby team,” she noted. “The culture is unlike any other team I’ve been a part of.”

By the end of her first season in which she played both the 15-a-side and 7-a-side rugby formats, McCafferty was able to play the game on instinct, no longer needing to think before acting. That fluency allowed her to take on a key role in what would be an incredible national championship season in 2022 for the Wolverines.

You see, at Michigan, rugby is a club rather than a varsity sport. Which means they don’t offer athletic scholarships and the budgets for coaches and other support staff is a fraction of their varsity counterparts.

And yet…

“Despite being a club team, our goals were big: Win the Big Ten and then the National Championship,” asserted McCafferty. “We were such a cohesive unit that didn’t get rattled when we were down. Beating Michigan State at State was a big marker for us on our way to the Big Ten title. Then we faced the Notre Dame College[1] Falcons in the National Championship game in Houston. They’re a varsity team and a very tough one at that, but we were not in awe of them in any way. They scored first but we answered right back, took the lead and blew past them. You could see that look in their eyes early in the second half — they knew we knew they were done and we put them away 42-12, our first-ever national championship in rugby. It was sweet!”

And to prove this was not a fluke, McCafferty and her teammates went back to back, winning the 2023 National Championship in a rematch against Notre Dame College 33-17.

“We got wind that Notre Dame College thought the 2022 championship game was a lucky stroke, so we were determined to make it back to Houston to prove ourselves,” she revealed. “Our hard work throughout the season led us to achieve an undefeated regular season and qualified us for another post-season run.  After a tough semi-final game against the University of Northern Iowa, we punched our ticket to Houston. During the 2023 National Championship, I knew my role: be the first to every ruck and drive against NDC’s powerful scrum. I played my part well and we emerged victorious, finally setting those ‘luck’ rumors to rest. 

As it was with rugby, McCafferty did not think of environmental sustainability before she got to Michigan.

“I planned on studying marketing so I went to the business school,” she shared. “In my Introduction to Business Class, I was introduced to the idea of business as a force for good and triple bottom line (people, planet and profit). This spoke to me and I pivoted almost immediately to pursuing a career in the environment and corporate social responsibility.”

Last summer, she took her sustainable business game to the next level by interning with a renewable energy developer, gaining valuable knowledge of and experience with wind, solar, energy storage, and green hydrogen. McCafferty is considering three options post-graduation: Earning a masters’ degree in environmental psychology (“I’m very interested in greed!”), working in the public sector (“Government has a very big role to play in decarbonization and I can see working in that space”), or in the private sector for a purpose-driven company (“Business has of course been a huge part of our climate problems; I’d like to work for a company that wants to turn it around!”)

She also sees the value in using her platform as an athlete to help a climate turnaround, aka the #ClimateComeback, by joining the EcoAthletes Champions roster.

“I love being part of a community of athletes across a wide variety of sports and from many countries,” exclaimed McCafferty. “Athletes need to be a force for good on climate and we need to move the needle faster. EcoAthletes is helping us do just that.”

[1] Notre Dame College Falcons of Euclid, OH are not to be confused with the Notre Dame University Fighting Irish in South Bend, IN

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