BROOKVILLE, N.Y. — The LIU rugby team has a new leader.

Joseph Rasmus Jr. has been appointed head coach and led the Sharks through their first workouts in preparation for the fall season on Monday.

Rasmus most recently served in a trio of concurrent roles — head coach of the University of Illinois men's rugby team and Chicago North Shore of the semi-pro Women's Premier League and director of rugby for Silverbacks Elite Rugby.

"I'm really excited to be working with a motivated group of athletes," Rasmus said before the initial workout. "In rugby, you're always dealing with a wide range of motivations that they're trying to get out of the game. I really felt like here, in the context of the NCAA, I was going to find student-athletes who are aligned.

"Eventually my goal is to be a national team coach. And you've got to be in a professionalized training environment and work with those types of athletes to have those opportunities."

This past year, Rasmus helped Chicago North Shore improve by 60 points per game in a four-month period. He also led the club to its best-ever finish, its most-ever points scored, and its largest-ever margin of victory in a WPL match.

With the Illinois men's rugby team, he led more than 100 participants and captured the 2021 JV XV Big Ten championship.

Now, he turns his attention to leading LIU into its opening match, against Harvard in two weeks.

"I'm really making sure we have a strong platform before our game against Harvard," Rasmus said. "We're making sure we build really good foundations. Technically, I think we have a lot of work to do before we're going to do anything too adventurous or crazy tactically. I think another big part of it is getting the women to recognize and own what their points of difference are — what makes them better than other individuals in the NCAA and be able to express that on the field."