Jamie Burke (born October 15, 1980 in

Cherry Point, North Carolina Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point (*) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, United States, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and ...

) is a former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player and now coach.

Life

Jamie Burke began playing rugby in 1998 at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

Charlottesville, VA Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

, where she went on to earn All-American Honors in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. In 2003, Burke won the prestigious Woodley Award, given to the top collegiate player in the country. Following her graduation from UVA, she went on to play rugby for a number of clubs around the country; the Washington D.C. Furies; the Berkeley All-Blues, where she won a Division I National Championship in 2007,; Beantown RFC, where she won two National Championships with the NRU Senior Women All Stars in 2009 and 2010; Raleigh Venom, where Burke helped the team win the 2011 Division II National Championship.; and the Women's Premier Leaguebr>Glendale Raptors
She made her debut for the USA National Team in 2004 against the New Zealand Black Ferns and has played in the 2006, 2010, and

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...

s. She was one of the team captains at the

2010 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in England. The International Rugby Board Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limite ...

. After the 2010 World Cup, Burke received several awards including IRB World Cup Dream Team, Team of the Year and Team of the Decade by Rugby Magazine, ScrumQueens All Star World Cup Team, and Team to Beat the World Champions by Letchworth. She was also named to the Team of the Year in 2011 by ScrumQueens. In August 2013 Burke earned her 41st

cap (sport) In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

against England in the Nations Cup (Women's rugby), surpassing Eagle great,

Patty Jervey Patricia "Patty" Marie Jervey (born March 29, 1964) is an American former rugby union player. She appeared in five Women's World Cups for the . She was a member of the Eagles squad to win the inaugural 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup. The 2006 Wo ...

, making her the most-capped women's player in the US. On August 13, 2014, during the 2014

Women's Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official backing ...

, Burke earned her 50th cap against Australia, making her the only woman in USA Rugby history to hit that milestone. Jamie recently finished a graduate degree at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

, where she has published several articles related to outdoor education.Burke JN, Ganes DZ, Mayeda DT, Gass MA. Impact of a Culturally Relevant Residential Treatment Program on Post-Discharge Outcomes for Hawaii Youth. Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs 4(1):54-80, 2010.JN Burke. The Outdoor Classroom: Integrating Education and Adventure. Journal of Experiential Education 33(1):90-92, 2010. In 2010, Burke won the Thomas V. Moser, M.D. Memorial Scholarship, given in honor of Dr. Moser to outstanding rugby players pursuing educational goals that maximize their potential. Since retiring from playing in 2014, Jamie has stepped into coaching. She has served as the assistant coach for the Glendale Merlins'br>Women's Premier League
team, helping guide the team to 2 National Championships. She is also the head coach for the Rugby Colorado Girls High School All-State Team and has recently stepped into a role as an Assistant Coach with the USA Women's National Team. In addition, she travels for

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

as a coach educator. Most recently, in 2020, Jamie was named as the best women's tighthead prop of all time.

References

External links

USA Women's National Team ProfileUSA Rugby Archived ProfileUNH Media Relations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Jamie 1980 births Living people United States women's international rugby union players American female rugby union players Female rugby union players People from Cherry Point, North Carolina 21st-century American women