Josie Ziluca - Women's Rugby Coach - Princeton University Athletics

Josie Ziluca

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
josie.ziluca@princeton.edu
Phone:
609-258-8489

Josie Ziluca, who has led the women's rugby team as its head coach since 2019 on the club level, wrapped up her third season as varsity head coach during the program's third varsity season in 2024-25.

Princeton is the fourth Ivy League school to have varsity women's rugby, along with Brown, Dartmouth and Harvard. The women's rugby team, who compete in the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association, is Princeton's 38th varsity team and 19th team for women.

2024-25 was a historic season for the Tigers. Under Ziluca's guidance, they earned their first varsity 15s victory, a 59-0 triumph over Bowdoin on Sept. 21. In addition, Princeton defeated Mount St. Mary’s, 49-12, on Oct. 26. Malinka Kwemo was honored with All-NIRA Honorable Mention accolades. In the spring, Princeton advanced to the semifinals at the Navy 7s tournament and competed at the College Rugby Coaches Association of America (CRAA) 7s National Championships, where Princeton almost took down national championship-winning Harvard, 29-22. The Tigers were rewarded for their growth representation on the national scene with four players attending USA Rugby Pathways camps: Annie Huettel, Ava Gregory, Sara Zavieh and Celia Watson. In addition, two Tigers were named finalists for Princeton Varsity Club (PVC) awards, with Erica De San Jorge nominated for the Art Lane ’34 Award and Sofie Grouws the Class of 1916 Cup.

The Tigers were highly successful academically in 2024-25, with 11 players named to the Academic All-NIRA team at the end of the school year.

2023-24, Princeton's second season at the varsity level, saw the Tigers continue to grow as a program. In the 7s season, the Tigers earned wins over Mount St. Mary's, Navy, West Chester, Kutztown and UNH. After a competitive 15s season in the fall, Leilani Bender was honored as a Second Team All-NIRA selection.

In the 2022-23 season, Ziluca guided the Tigers to a historic first varsity sevens win when Princeton overcame Navy 17-14 at the West Chester Sevens on April 1. Ziluca also helped mentor Amelia Clarke, who played for the USA Rugby Women's U20 Team in Summer 2023 in a pair of matches against Canada and Wales. Princeton also thrived in the classroom during Ziluca's first season as six student-athletes were named to the NIRA All-Academic Team.

Ziluca started her college athletics career at Longwood as a Division I lacrosse student-athlete, but she found her real athletic love as a member of the club rugby team. During that time she also walked on to the Varsity tennis team. In over 10 years since, she has gained considerable coaching experience on the college, professional and national team levels, and she has also established herself as a player, coach and advocate for women in sports.

After a year of playing club rugby at Longwood, she went on to play at the Northern Virginia Women's Rugby Club (NOVA) and toured domestically with Atavus All-Stars as well as internationally with Atlantis 7s. She played on the San Diego Surfers teams that won Club 7s Nationals in 2015 and 2019 and played on the national level with USA 7s in 2014 and continued with an Olympic training squad leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Currently, she plays on the USA Touch Team, competing in two World Cups in Malaysia and England, with more international competitions on the horizon.

She also has considerable experience in strength and conditioning, having worked with NFL and USNT players, professional rugby players, and many university athletes, developing their sprint and agility mechanics as well as their performance for games and matches. Her focus in strength and conditioning performance work blended with attention to team culture has enabled her to bring past teams to championship wins.
Ziluca has continued to be involved in the USA Rugby Women’s Pathways program since 2017, traveling to Canada several times and also trialing potential national team players in some of the Atlantis Rugby select-side tours she runs, as the Women’s Program Director for Atlantis Rugby Club. Ziluca is consistently on coaching panels at nation-wide and state-wide Rugby conferences.

In addition to her playing and coaching, Ziluca also advocates for young women to try the sport of rugby. This past May, she traveled with other coaches and rugby professionals to Mongolia to meet with their government to discuss avenues of growth for the sport of rugby in their country. She helped accredit over twenty coaches there and coached national team players as well as young school kids. She was accepted into this program through the U.S. State Department. This project was similar to one she completed in 2013 in Laos, working then with Princeton’s now current PiA director, Mags Dillon and many Princeton graduates. The American group led many community rugby clinics and got their Laos’ national team and Child Fund Rugby off the ground in that area.

Outside of Princeton, Ziluca has served as head coach for the professional 7s team the Pittsburgh Steeltoes since 2023.

Ziluca studied Art History at Longwood.