Ada Lacia Milby (; born July 6, 1983) is a Filipino-American rugby player who plays for the Philippine national women's team. She is also the first female member of the World Rugby Council. Ada is the first woman to be appointed to the World Rugby Council, in 2017 she serves on the Regions Committee and Rugby Committee; and she is also a member of the Asia Rugby EXCO since 2016. She heads the Women Advisory Committee and serves on the Admin and Finance Committee. She is now also the President of Philippine Rugby Football Union, being on the board since 2013.

Early life and education

Milby was born to an American father and a Filipino mother in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

in the United States. Ada Milby has a younger brother Sam Milby who would later be an actor in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. She grew up in Tipp City in

where she attended high school. In high school she played

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

for the boys' team of her school as a left half back or safety. She described the experience as "unwelcoming". She only stayed in the team for a year due to gender discrimination she encountered from her own male teammates. Prior to playing American football she was a competitive

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

for 12 years. She attended the DeVry University for her college studies. It was on her first year of college when she decided to take up rugby when she encountered a booth of girls recruiting rugby players at the Wright State University. She graduated from DeVry with a degree in "Business Management, Klemmer & Associates in Leadership". After graduating from Devry, Milby entered the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

in 2005 and was stationed in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

for a year. She held the rank of staff sergeant. In Iraq, she served in a 500-personnel battalion, with only 25 women. She would later come to the Philippines in 2011 to reside with her brother who had settled in the country.

Playing career

Milby made her international debut for the Philippines in 2012 and was designated captain of the rugby union team later that year. She also captained the sevens side. She was part of the rugby sevens squad that competed at the Asian Women's Sevens Series in 2013. She has also competed at the

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

having competed at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games where she helped the team secure a bronze medal, the

2017 Southeast Asian Games The 2017 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 29th Southeast Asian Games, or the 29th SEA Games, and commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event that took place from 19 to 30 August 2017 in Kuala ...

., and reclaimed the podium in the 2019 Southeast Asia Games with a silver medal finish.

Rugby administration

Milby is involved with the Philippine Rugby Football Union having served as its Secretary General. In 2013, she was the head of development for grassroots rugby in the country, launching the "Get Into Rugby" program in the same year. This led to her nomination as a member of the Philippine Rugby board of directors. She then became a member of the Asia Rugby Executive Committee and the Women's Rugby Chairperson of the continental body. The World Rugby Council decided in 2017 to allow for 17 new members provided that all of them would be women. Asia Rugby was the first one to respond to the move of the global body naming Milby as the first woman member of the World Rugby Council in mid-November 2017. In 2020, she was named to ''Rugby World Magazines list of Top 50 Most Influential People in Rugby. Milby was elected as the President of the Philippine Rugby Football Union on December 15 2020, succeeding Rick Santos.

Personal life

As of 2017, Milby has two daughters with the younger born in 2015.

Notes

References

External links

Ada Milby
at the Kuala Lumpur 2017 Southeast Asian Games (archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Milby, Ada 1983 births Living people United States Army personnel of the Iraq War Female United States Army personnel Female rugby union players Female rugby sevens players DeVry University alumni SEA Games bronze medalists for the Philippines SEA Games medalists in rugby union Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games Filipino sports executives and administrators United States Army non-commissioned officers