Introducing: Guy Kitson, the head coach of the UON Scarlets, the newly named University of Northampton’s Women’s Rugby Union team.
We spoke with Guy ahead of the start of the season about him, the team and their ambitions for the 2023/24 season.
Kitson has been coaching for 10-years when he started out at 17 with his local team and developed his coaching throughout his time at uni and beyond.
When asked what made him get into coaching, he wanted to prove he was better than those who had coached him previously: “Knowing how annoyed I get with bad coaches, it probably stemmed from there and that idea that you can always do it better, so probably putting my money where my mouth is.
“But there is something truly fulfilling when you take a group of people, if they are newbies like a lot of this team or quite experienced athletes and you can see the difference which you’ve made to them that is a very rewarding feeling.”
It was a coincidence how he ended up coaching here at UON. The role came about former President Helena asked Kitson if he would help the team when they were short of a coach. Fast forward three years and he’s still at it, hoping to push the team further than they have ever been.
With the increase in demand and growth for women’s rugby, he spoke with us about the future of the team.
“The main target for this season is we get a competitive team out, we’ve got our first game scheduled for 6 December.
“The numbers are there, the commitment from the players is there, we just need the facilities now.”
It is clear that the head coach has high ambitions for his team and wants to see their continued growth: “Women’s rugby is the fastest-growing sport in this country.
“It is vital that the university recognises that and this team is pushed by a coaching team in the university to reach its full potential.
“At this point, it’s a bit of an untapped talent within the university. A lot of these guys here have never seen a rugby ball, let alone touched one.
“So yeah, it’s massive.”
With the growth of the sport within the university, the team have aspirations for getting involved with BUCS league as well as matches.
“I think the key thing this year is to get games played. We’re looking to build on this season to then enter the BUCS league for next season.
“So it’s just consistent games against equal opposition to then push us forward to that next part.”
The team also hope that if they can get the numbers together for competing in this year’s Varsity.
“Varsity would be amazing. If we could get a team ready for it, that would be exceptional and we’ll go one more.”
It is clear that the team are pushing to grow their support and wants to see the team become successful and have the opportunities to grow.
But it wasn’t all serious talk… we had to get to know the head coach’s favourite meal deal and the decision was made that Popeyes was his main choice: “I had Popeyes the other day and that is a bit pricey for the students, but that did bang to be fair.”