BU’s Black joins University of Victoria rugby program
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Rugby has officially taken Kypling Black from coast to coast.
The Brandonite played for Team Manitoba at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L., last summer, and is headed west this fall. Black has committed to the University of Victoria Vikes for the 2026 Canada West season.
“I’m super excited to go out. I’ve been waiting almost two years to go out,” Black said, adding she originally talked with Vikes head coach Brittany Waters about coming this season but decided against it.
Brandon University’s Kypling Black, left, is transferring to the University of Victoria for the 2026 Canada West rugby season. (Thomas Friesen/The Brandon Sun)
“I’m still so young, I just turned 18, I feel like it’s better I got some university experience and learned how to do a few things on my own before I moved across the country from all my family.”
Black instead signed with her hometown Brandon University Bobcats, who followed a similar trajectory to the Vikes on a smaller scale.
Victoria ran the table in Canada West play, blowing everyone out except the powerhouse UBC Thunderbirds, who it beat in a pair of one-score games. The Vikes edged the T-Birds 18-17 for the conference title, then met them again in the national final.
UBC handed UVic its only loss of the year, 15-13.
Meanwhile, the Bobcats went 4-0 in Prairie University Women’s Rugby Conference play, earning the No. 1 seed for the championship weekend on home turf. They beat the Mount Royal Cougars 37-24 to reach the final, but fell 24-22 to the defending champion Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans in the gold-medal game.
Black felt it was a good decision for her development.
“Brian Yon is a great coach to start off with. He’s really hard on his players, which pushes us all to our fullest potential, which I think really helped me because I need to be pushed as a player,” Black said.
“Playing with those girls at a higher level and having competition where I actually needed to work 110 per cent to be my best really helped me this year. Now I know what I’m walking into when I go to UVic.”
The five-foot-11 forward, who started as a lock for BU and hopes to do the same next fall at UVic, said she’s been following the program since her Grade 10 year.
She knows a few of the players already from training for a week with Team Manitoba at MacDowell Rugby in Victoria, as well as Regina product Abby Hall of Team Saskatchewan.
“Watching it slowly progress and seeing all the players that get the chance to play at a national level, the culture seems so great and the players have so much fun,” Black said. “I’ve never heard a bad thing said about the program as a whole.”
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com