Teacher turns Kastamonu into rising hub for women’s rugby

KASTAMONU

A physical education teacher in the northern province of Kastamonu has turned the city into an unlikely hub for women’s rugby, producing national titles and national team players in just a few years.

Sercan Hükümen, a physical education teacher at Taşköprü Seka Secondary School, founded his first girls’ rugby team in 2019. The team won the Turkish championship in its debut year, encouraging Hükümen to expand the project to the high school level. In 2021, that team claimed the national title in the Under-18 Development League.

Building on the momentum, Hükğmen established the Asia Youth and Sports Club and later formed rugby teams under Kastamonu University, where he also teaches at the Faculty of Sport Sciences.

“Since the year we joined the leagues, we have consistently achieved success,” Hükümen said. “We became Türkiye champions in the 2022 Under-18 Women’s category, runners-up in 2023, third in the Under-21 category in 2024 and 2025, and champions at the inter-university women’s level in 2025.”

He noted that five of his athletes have been selected for the national team, all of whom were also invited to the Olympic qualifiers.

The program currently includes teams across multiple age groups, largely composed of female athletes, with around 100 players training four to five evenings a week despite harsh weather conditions.

University student and national player Irmak Karabaş said rugby “became my life,” while fellow athlete Gamze Değirmenci highlighted winning European gold in Budapest in 2024.

“Even though rugby is not widely known in Türkiye, we believe we have made our voices heard,” Değirmenci said.