She 'absolutely had to play rugby,' and now she's heading to UPEI's hall of fame

There was no rugby team at the University of Prince Edward Island when Shannon Atkins was a student back in 1992, so she made one.

Now the university will honour Atkins by making her the first rugby player in the school's Sports Hall of Fame.

"I absolutely had to play rugby," said Atkins of her drive to eventually create a varsity team at UPEI."I literally just called up my friends and said, 'Do you want to play rugby?'"

She gathered together enough players to create a club team, then she had to find a league and organize schedules and referees.

But she wasn't done yet. By 2000 Atkins had convinced the university to make rugby a varsity sport.

And then she rose to the challenge as a player. At the varsity level, she was First Team All-Canadian twice and AUS MVP in 2001.

'A very empowering sport'

Atkins enters the hall of fame as a builder, a playerand a coach. She served as a player coach when the team launched, and was head coach on the bench from 2011-15.

"It was a whole group of people that made it happen," she said.

"There were people that helped me build, and when I played, there were other great players all around me that made me look good. And when I coached, there were other girls who were just so passionate and hard-working and they made me look good too."

Rugby is a tight-knit community, said Atkins. That's what drew her to the sport, and that's what is keeping her there.

"Rugby is a very empowering sport and that's why I love it so much," she said. "We have all these young women that are doing things that they didn't know that they could possibly do."

After spending some time in B.C., Atkins is back on the Island coaching the sevens team for Canada Games.

The team placed fifth at the last Canada Games, and she expects to lead the group to a similar finish this time around.

The official induction ceremony into the UPEI Hall of Fame is Saturday, Nov. 2.