Kathy T. Flores

Bay Area rugby coach and USA Rugby legend Kathy Flores has passed away after a year-long battle with metastatic colon cancer. She remained wonderfully stubborn and determined up to her last minute. Born in Philadelphia, PA, Kathy grew up in New Jersey “Down the Shore.” She earned a Bachelor’s in Physical Education from East Stroudsburg University, attending on a javelin scholarship. She moved to Florida to pursue a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology at Florida State University in 1978, where she happened into and started playing rugby. Kathy played and coached on numerous teams, including the USA Women’s National team [the Eagles], Berkeley All Blues, San Francisco Fog [the Mark Bingham-inspired SF gay mens’ rugby club], Bay Area Touring Side, University of San Francisco Women’s, Cal Berkeley Women’s, and Pacific Coast Grizzlies, amongst others.

In 2013, she left the Bay Area after accepting the head coach position at Brown University in Providence, R.I . This opportunity was groundbreaking because Brown Women’s Rugby would play at the NCAA Division I Varsity level, a first for the university. Her tenure at Brown, where she coached until her death, was the realization of her “dream job.”

Kathy had extraordinary collegiate and USA National team coaching successes, and won many individual awards, including induction into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame as an individual in 2016 and as a member of the USA 1991 Women’s Rugby World Cup Championship team in 2017. She is known and loved world-wide as a pioneer and legend in the game of women’s rugby.

Kathy is survived and will be missed immeasurably by her 1991 USA Rugby World Cup Championship teammates, including Dr. B. Bond, J.Crawford, and Judge T. Flanagan of the greater Bay Area, players at FOG, Berkeley, and USF, teammates, colleagues, and friends around the globe. If you wish to pay tribute, please consider donating to the U.S. Women’s Rugby Foundation: go to https://www.uswrf.org to read more.

Fate whispers to the Warrior, “You cannot withstand the Storm…” and the Warrior whispers back: “I AM the Storm.” (Engraved on Kathy’s favorite bracelet.)