USA Rugby - World Cup 2022
Premiership Women's Rugby
Kristine Sommer - Founder
Founded by a former professional rugby player who saw firsthand what happens when athletes are left to figure out the next chapter alone - and decided to build the bridge that should have always existed.
Kristine played for USA Rugby and competed in Premiership Women's Rugby. Off the pitch, she has spent nearly 14 years in business development - working across water treatment, construction, and technology, with a background in chemistry.
Inside those industries, she kept seeing the same gap: management and sales roles that companies couldn't fill with the right people. We needed leaders who could handle complexity, operate under pressure, and earn a team's trust from day one. The candidates coming through traditional pipelines weren't built for it.
Rugby players are. And nobody was making that connection.
Too many times, she also watched teammates and fellow players struggle after their careers ended - not because they lacked ability, but because no one built the bridge for them. No introduction to the right company. No one following through to make sure they actually landed.
A résumé is not a career transition. Tryline Management is.
"This is my opportunity to connect two worlds I've lived in - and build something that fills a gap that's been there too long."
In rugby, everything you do affects everything else. There are no shortcuts, no shadows to hide in. That doesn't just build athletes - it builds the kind of leaders most companies spend years trying to develop.
Rugby cannot be played any other way. Players put the group first not because they're told to, but because the game demands it. In high-stakes environments, that instinct is rare and invaluable.
Give them something they've never done before. They'll find a way. That problem-solving instinct was trained into them at the highest level of sport, under pressure, in real time.
Failure isn't just tolerated in rugby - it's how you grow. Quick accountability, rapid adaptation, back up immediately. The resilience that takes years to build elsewhere? Rugby players arrive with it.
The workhorse in the scrum. The voice in the huddle. Rugby builds both the visible leader and the one quietly making everything work. That's the depth every team needs.
Tryline Management exists to be the conduit - the bridge between elite athletic careers and the corporate world that needs exactly what those careers produce.
We have formal partnerships with the USA Rugby Players Association and professional leagues, giving us direct access to athletes before they're even available.
We're not here to hand athletes a résumé template and wish them luck. We're here to make sure they succeed in their next career - their next team.