Maria Gallo continues to inspire athletes as head coach of UBC women’s rugby
On May 17, 2016, Guelph Gryphon alumna Maria Gallo was inducted into the City of Guelph Sports Hall of Fame. A Guelph native and Gryphon Hall of Fame inductee, Gallo continues to pave the path for women’s rugby at the university and national levels.
Gallo competed in rugby for the Guelph Gryphons from 1996 to 2000. During her time at Guelph, she helped lead the team to four Ontario University Athletics (OUA) provincial championships and to CIAU national championship gold and silver medals; now known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).
“When we won the very first national championship in ’98, that was the biggest highlight up to that point,” said Gallo in an interview with The Ontarion. “I think my time at Guelph, [gave me the foundation], not only academically, but also as an athlete. You have to put in the hard work, and the girls at Guelph, we’re grinders. We were mentally tough and we would grind out the games and we were motivated in that common goal.”
Gallo was also a member of the national rugby team from 1999 to 2010, competing at the World Cup twice and earning 55 caps for Canada.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I’m grateful for the many great moments I lived through rugby. The sport has enriched my life in countless ways…”[/pullquote]Gallo is a multi-faceted athlete, having competed for both the rugby and bobsled national teams. Gallo also believes in a multisport outlook for the athletes she now coaches at the University of British Columbia.
“Bobsled and rugby are very complementary sports, so all the training done in the gym is going to have benefits on the pitch. I’m a huge fan of diversification. […] For me, the ABCs of athleticism are agility, balance, coordination, and speed. Any athlete that has any of those four things is going to be a great physical attribute to whatever sport you are dedicated to,” explained Gallo.
“Rugby is a very tight-knit community, but it would be awesome to get those other talented athletes that are playing other sports and intrigue them towards rugby.”
According to Gallo, the sport of rugby is moving away from its current format of 15s to sevens. Sevens rugby is a faster paced game, played in only 14 minutes.
“15s will still have its roots… But I think mainstream sport will be more sevens. Right now there is a push to structure the sevens league [at the university level],” Gallo explained. “We’re going to make an effort this coming year to formalize the spring [sevens] season a bit more.”
“Guelph does really great at 15s. Sevens will likely be more attractive to smaller universities that can’t quite roster a team. The big universities will probably move to have two teams, a 15s and a sevens,” said Gallo.
Gallo is now a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at UBC, and the head coach of the women’s rugby team. Her induction into the Guelph Hall of Fame is a mark of an incredible career.
“I’m honoured to be inducted into the Guelph Hall of Fame. I’m grateful for the many great moments I lived through rugby. The sport has enriched my life in countless ways: unforgettable memories, several life lessons, numerous lifelong great friendships, and it even introduced me to my two amazing sister-in-laws and husband,” said Gallo.
Gallo’s sister-in-law, Colette McAulay, is the current head coach of the Guelph Gryphon women’s rugby team.