Youna Uehara is a fourth-year kinesiology student at U of T. She began rugby in ninth grade at Ballenas Secondary School in BC because her school offered it, and she eventually traded her figure skates for cleats. She later played for three rugby clubs, and her team travelled to Portugal for a key tournament.
There she suffered a fractured nose and a concussion and stepped back from the sport. At U of T she hesitated to try out, because, as she puts it, you cannot play when you are scared of getting injured. She qualified for the Varsity Blues women’s team in third year and made her debut in the third game after an ankle injury at training camp.
This fall she is a veteran, and she hopes to play for Rugby Ontario next summer and to return to the Scarborough Aces, the club that helped shape her.
Reported from Youna Uehara: A student-athlete, by Melaney Cerna (The Varsity, October 4, 2026).
More from the original reporting: thevarsity.ca/2026/10/04/youna-uehara-a-student-athlete/