After a meteoric year Erica Coulibaly is 'living the dream' with the Eagles

It is entirely possible that no one enjoyed as mesmeric a 2025 as USA Women’s Eagles’ Erica Coulibaly.

This time 12 months ago the 24-year-old’s life was vastly different. It consisted of a 05:30AM alarm, a short trip to a training field 15 minutes away and 90 minutes of training. All that before a full day’s work as a software developer in Colorado.

Evenings were fully-booked too, with gym sessions and sprint training on local pitches. That process was repeated three times a week. Not including the travel involved at weekends to play for eventual Women’s Elite Rugby champions, Denver Onyx.

Fast forward 12 months and Coulibaly is a full-time Women’s Eagles Sevens player and is about to take part in her third HSBC SVNS Series tournament over the next two days in Singapore. What a difference one trip around the sun can make.

In many ways the entirety of the wing’s rugby career can be categorised by these leaps. Having only first played rugby in 2021 while at the University of Iowa, rugby sevens was always her first love, although it was in the 15-a-side game that her big break came.

Purely thanks to geography, Coulibaly was invited to join USA training camps hosted by former USA Women’s Eagles head coach Sione Fukofuka and his assistant coach, Sarah Chabot. The latter was also her coach at club level.

“I got to improve my defensive skills under her, and they were able to shape me into the player that they needed for the USA,” Coulibaly told RugbyPass.

“Then I got the opportunity to go to PAC4 (Pacific Four Series) and the Brazil tour (with the USA Women’s Falcons) and just continued to build – be the player that they needed.

“They needed someone who could score tries. Be a strong runner on the edge, with speed. I was the leading try scorer for my team and MVP in the final. We were really able to sharpen those skills and add where we needed.

“I feel like I took it step by step. Each time I got an opportunity to train with them it was exciting and a surprise each time. I knew they had their players and I was new to the pool.

“I was never expecting to be selected. I always worked hard to hit the points that I needed to and put my hat in the ring.”

And put her hat in the ring Coulibaly did. After she made her Eagles debut against Japan in April and won a WER title, she was selected for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

“When I found out I was going to a World Cup, I walked out of the room bawling,” Coulibaly said. “I’m sure people thought I didn’t make it. I was a wreck. It was just so amazing.”

Across the North Atlantic, Coulibaly enjoyed 160 minutes on the pitch from two starts and scored a try against Samoa at York Community Stadium as the Eagles exited at the group stage.

Upon getting home, amid a return to the day-to-day of typing code, the opportunity to join Emilie Bydwell’s sevens side emerged.

 

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It was the format in which the 24-year-old got her first taste of the sport. Even if it was a little delayed by Covid. Having played association football for much of her youth, she found rugby at the University of Iowa almost by chance and learned the ropes playing against pool noodles as social distancing was strictly enforced.

Eventually her debut came at the National Collegiate Rugby Sevens Nationals. A baptism of fire.

“That was my first experience of live contact, the rucks and everything,” Coulibaly said. “Also, not knowing the rules. Was I prepared? No. But experience is the best teacher, and I learned on the field.”

Over the years Coulibaly has become accustomed to hard lessons. In 2023 and 2024 she was an invitee to USA Women’s Eagles Sevens talent ID camps.

Heading into the first of those, Coulibaly was emboldened by her time with the University of Iowa where she was the undisputed star. Quicker, stronger and more determined than any of her collegiate teammates, there was an internal sense that the camp was going to be straightforward. That her dream of wearing red, white and blue was going to be realised.

“I got a lot of feedback which was very helpful and important to me,” she explained. “Coming out of the University of Iowa, I was on my high horse, and I needed to be humbled and told there were a lot of areas to grow.

“It turned out that running fast is not the only thing you need. I had to work a lot on my technical skills, passing, catching and playing off other players.

Then just reading pictures better on defence and offence. I had to take that back and work on that.”

Going back to the USA’s California training base, you could safely say that Coulibaly had worked out the kinks. A bona fide Women’s Eagle, she was immediately selected for the inaugural HSBC SVNS Series stops of 2025/26 in Dubai and Cape Town. Yet again, she thrived.

“Honestly, I thought that I’d get a lot more jitters,” Coulibaly said. “Once I stepped on the pitch there was this calm. I’d heard people talk about it. I’d never felt that on the field.”

Across her two tournaments Coulibaly scored two tries. She also helped her nation to wins against New Zealand and Canada as this latest iteration of the USA have flexed their muscles on the world stage.

 

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Ahead of stops in Singapore and Perth, their head coach Emilie Bydwell has requested that her team take more risks. That they embrace the unpredictable and shirk their more structured past.

We have already got to see the likes of Sariah Ibarra and Ariana Ramsey have a greater impact on games, while the more experienced Alex Sedrick and Kristi Kirshe have provided cooler, more level-headed options in the middle of the park.

Offered a full-time contract with the sevens set-up, Coulibaly is likely to be a regular feature on the Series for years to come. She has a stop in New York, just a hop away from her native Massachusetts, to look forward to and potentially even some reps in Jack Hanratty’s 15-a-side squad when the time comes.

There can be absolutely no doubt that the 24-year-old is living out a fantasy.

“I’m definitely living the dream,” she said. “When I got offered a contract, I was able to quit my job and come play rugby full-time. I am definitely living the dream.

“When people ask me what club I play for, I say that I play for the USA 15s and sevens teams.”