Cadets get ready to rugby
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The Norwich womens rugby team practices at the school on Tuesday. The team is currently ranked No. 2 in Division II in the nation. Left, Norwich womens rugby coach Austin Hall, left, directs a drill during practice on Tuesday. Jeb Wallace-Brodeur Times Argus |
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By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff - Published: March 21, 2007
NORTHFIELD – The Norwich University women's rugby team began practice for its spring season, with the focus on the Division II National Elite Eight Championships outside of Orlando, Fla. at the end of April.
The No. 2 ranked Cadets qualified for the championships in November during their fall season and have been waiting ever since.
The 30-woman roster includes players who had never seen a game prior to joining the team. That didn't stop a few from falling in love with the sport and others from kicking aside the sport they played as freshmen.
"I played soccer here my freshman year," junior Coral Lore, a member of the Corps of Cadets who is in her third full season (a year and a half) with the women's rugby team. A "full season" constitutes a semester, as rugby is a year-round sport. "When I came back from Iraq, I was going to play soccer again, but (the rugby team) convinced me to come out and play rugby. Once I tried it, I was never going back to soccer. Not after that first game."
Others, like senior Miranda Hulse, didn't know the rules but was convinced to play anyway. Senior Stephanie Hurley is in her eighth season but had to be encouraged to play.
"My freshman year here I was in the Corps, and when we were getting our uniforms, some players who were already on the team at the time kind of pressured me into coming down at least to see what it was," Hurley said. "Before then I had never seen a game, I didn't know what to do, and then I got into it and fell in love with the game."
The veteran leadership is now facing the possibility of being called national champions.
"These girls want it," women's rugby coach Austin Hall said. "We've been talking about this season for three years. We've had the vision, it's been there, and now it's here."
Of the six regions of collegiate rugby, the Northeast Region (which the Cadets are in) teams play their regular seasons in the fall, while warmer regions compete in the winter. This difference in schedule means Norwich has known since November it was vying for a national championship, while nearly four months later, the Cadets' opponent still remains unknown.
"My biggest fear is teams coming in fresh off their seasons," Hall said. "Although it could work against them with having done too much work coming into it, but the Northeast typically does very well at this. Last year Plymouth State lost in the national championship to UC-Santa Cruz, and we tied Plymouth State last year and we beat them this year. Two years ago, Providence College won the whole thing, and they're from the Northeast."
Which side the advantage falls – on the teams fresh from a season or on the teams who were forced inside by the snow – also remains unclear.
"Last fall it was easier for us to be competitive and be more prepared because we had so much more time to prepare than we do now," Lore said. "Last fall we got to be outside and actually use the field and now we haven't gotten to play on the field once since that last game in the fall. We're actually getting more practice in game situations instead of on the field, and we're going to have to come out feet on the ground and just go into it."
"We have a strong core of players and last fall we really got to know each other and styles of play," Hulse explained. "This spring we have a big advantage in knowing each other on and off the field and I think our camaraderie and our respect for one another will take us a lot farther than anything else."
Either way, the team has been keeping busy in the off-season, both in their heads and in the gym.
"We all knew what was expected of us in the off-season," Hurley said. "Most of the girls were in the gym all the time preparing that way, and mentally. Coach emphasized that our first thing to do in the morning is to ask ourselves what we can do to prepare to win a national championship. We've all been mentally preparing, so now that we're back in the gym, we're working on getting comfortable with all the mechanics again. We all know everyone's strengths and weaknesses, and we know who's going to be there for us like when we're down on the ground, we know what our next step will be getting up because we know how all the others play."
Norwich ended the fall season with back-to-back wins over Siena College and Bowdoin College to claim the Northeast Rugby Championship.
The Cadets will travel to Sanford, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, for the Elite Eight over April 21 and 22.
Four teams will remain after the first day, and the two remaining teams after April 22 will earn tickets to the national championship on May 5 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
"It is going to be tough in the hot Florida sun, but everybody's going to have to be dealing with the same issues we're dealing with," Hall said.
The "same issues" are not just weather-related. Rugby has been around as a competitive sport for decades but has yet to be encompassed in the realm of the NCAA.
"It's bigger than you'd know," Hall said, "and the reason is we don't get a lot of publicity. People just don't write about it. It doesn't make the news like the seventh grade football league, and that's great, but I wish we got some publicity every once in a while because we really do work hard all the time."
The Norwich women's team is sanctioned by the school but is not considered a varsity sport. The rugby players are subjected to drug testing and must comply with the University's academic standards for athletes to remain eligible alongside the varsity programs.
The university is funding the team's trip to Florida and provides a rugby field and access to Plumley Armory for indoor work while the snow melts.
Army is often atop the Division I ranks, which begs the corollary between military schools and rugby.
"The military has been playing rugby a very long time," Hall said. "It's definitely a team game. You have to have 15 players that are all thinking the same way, so, with the Army, they need 15 people all thinking the same way, so there's definitely a lot of carry over.
"It's got a lot of people who are very good athletes. The most fit people I know that are my age and older, 30-40, are the rugby players. I'm not picking on the men's basketball leagues, but the guys who play rugby at my age and between 30 and 40, and there's 50-year-old guys in the league I play in who are more fit than I am. It's intense fitness; the players are committed people to the game and to the traditions of the game."
Norwich opens the season this weekend at Providence College and at the University of New Hampshire the following weekend, and will take part in the Cherry Blossom Tournament in Washington, D.C. prior to the Elite Eight.
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