Stacey Bridges (born April 23, 1988 in

Waco Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 population of 146,608, making i ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

) is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. She made her debut for the

on 10 August 2009. She represented the Eagles at the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2017 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in Ireland in August 2017. New Zealand became the 2017 champions by beating England 41–32 in the final on 26 August. Matches were held in Du ...

's; she was a first alternate during the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup, training and traveling with the team. She played for 2 years with the USA U-20's. In her senior year of high school she was also an alternate for regionals in powerlifting. Stacey Bridges was voted 2020 Women's XV Player of the Decade. Stacey Bridges has earned 40 caps, marking the second-most caps earned by a USA Women's Eagle, behind US Rugby Hall of Fame Inductee, Jamie Burke, who has 42. Stacey Bridges played 39 of the 40 international games as an 80-minute lock, likely earning Bridges' the record for most minutes played at the international level by a US Eagle. Bridges is known as an expert in set pieces with special skill maintaining go forward in early phases, as highlighted in the USA Eagles v. Barbarians game in 2019, after which FloRugby dubbed Stacey Bridges the "offload master" and one of the best locks in the world. As a freshman at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, Bridges originally sought out to join the power lifting team. While at an open house she asked some of the rugby girls where the power lifting table was and they were able to convince her to give rugby a try. "I haven't looked back yet," Bridges claims. She credits her college coach Will Riddle and her U-20 coaches Bryn Chivers and Lance Connolly for shaping her into the national team player that she is today. She graduated with a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, Biomechanics, biomechanical, Pathology, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kines ...

from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. She made her debut for the USA Eagles in August 2009 against England. She is the assistant coach for Dartmouth Women's Rugby.

References

External links

USA Rugby Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridges, Stacey 1988 births Living people United States women's international rugby union players American female rugby union players 21st-century American women Sportspeople from Waco, Texas Rugby union players from Texas