SOCORRO, N.M. – An experienced educator, rugby player, and coach started work today, Aug. 8, 2022, as the leader of the New Mexico Tech Miners Men’s Rugby Team. Christopher P. Hathaway, who most recently served as an assistant rugby coach at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will lead a team that captured the Small College Division Championship at the the National Collegiate Rugby 7s Tournament in New Orleans in May. The Miners men’s rugby team also recently won the American College Rugby 15s National Championship in Dallas, Texas.

Hathaway earned a bachelor of business administration degree, with an emphasis in sport management, from Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2013, and a master of arts in teaching degree, with an emphasis in elementary mathematics, from Relay Graduate School of Education in Denver, Colorado, in 2019. Hathaway taught in the Denver and Aurora, Colorado, public schools. 

Hathaway has coached men’s and women’s rugby teams at the collegiate, high school, and youth league levels in Michigan and Colorado. He also coached men and women at the senior level. The men’s team he helped coach for Davenport University reached the 2022 Men’s Gold Division Rugby 7s Collegiate Championship Final Four. The women’s team he helped coach won the National Championship at the 2022 Women’s Red Division Rugby 7s Collegiate Championship.

The New Mexico Tech Men’s Rugby Team starts its season Sept. 3 in a match against the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The team’s first home game will be Oct. 1.

More information about the New Mexico Tech Miners Rugby Team is on its social media sites and online at: www.nmt.edu/physrec/clubs/rugby/index.php