Lauren Hoeck during the 2012 Hong Kong 7s /// Photo: Ian Muir •
Last night, the USA Women’s 7s team held its final jersey ceremony before heading to the Rio Olympics. Twelve players rose from their seats to accept their Team USA kit, but there are scores of teammates, staff and supporters who helped them get there. It was a send-off seven years in the making.
On Oct. 9, 2009, the International Olympic Committee announced that rugby would feature in the 2016 (and 2020) Olympics. At the turn of the year, USA Rugby hired Canada’s Ric Suggitt as the women’s head coach. He inherited a group of seasoned players groomed by former coach Julie McCoy, who had led the USA to the Cup semifinals of the first-ever Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2009. World Cup vets like Lauren Hoeck (pictured), Amy Daniels, Cristina Mastrangelo and Christy Ringgenberg, as well as Pam Kosanke, Beth Black and CJ Hildreth served as mentors during the subsequent cycle and kept performance at a premium. That consistency allowed Suggitt to start looking for the next generation of talent that might project to the Olympics.
“As we begin our quest for the 2016 Olympics we have cast a wide net and we will use these first two years to build a solid foundation,” Suggitt told USA Rugby after the 2010 LVI, his first outing. “We looked at 60-plus athletes for this first event of 2010 and we’re excited to begin our journey alongside one of the major IRB tournaments.”
At this point, there was no worldwide 7s series for the women, so while the Eagles competed in Las Vegas and Hong Kong, Suggitt tested the majority of his player pool at home. That changed at the end of 2011, when the then-named IRB (now World Rugby) backed a three-stop Women’s Challenge Cup (Dubai, Hong Kong, London), which laid the groundwork for the Women’s Sevens Series (WSS) that we know today.
The timing couldn’t have worked out better for USA Rugby, which, with the aid of the USOC, signed its first professional 7s players in January 2012. The women claimed eight of 23 contracts, and Suggitt’s search for residents began in late 2011.
It wasn’t the recruitment situation that it is today. There was no one to lend insight into what a professional rugby career at the OTC was like. Signing a contract, relocating to San Diego, leaving gainful employment or college degree – it was a gamble, one not everyone was prepared to make. Those eight individuals broke ground for their future teammates. They were also charged with creating and nurturing the right team culture, one based on inclusivity and selflessness. Those inaugural eight were hugely influential to the women’s 7s program:
FIRST PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S 7S PLAYERS – JANUARY 2012
• Bui Baravilala (Honolulu) – She started attending 7s camps as a high schooler, having impressed Suggitt during the LVI 7s. Baravilala entered the national pathway in 2011 with the USA U20s [Read more from then-coach Bryn Chivers, who also talks about Olympians Katie Johnson, Joanne Fa’avesi and reserve Meya Bizer]. The flyhalf took a sabbatical for approximately a year-and-a-half before rejoining the circuit at the 2015 Atlanta 7s. She’s represented the Eagles in 13 tournaments and is a 2016 Olympian.
• Katie Dowty (San Ramon, Calif.) – The Radcliffe and Beantown alumna played scrumhalf and served as an Eagle 7s captain. She later played in Australia once her tenure at the OTC ended and then took up assistant coaching positions at DI varsity AIC and Central Washington. She’s now entering her second year as head coach of DI varsity Dartmouth College.
• Kelly Griffin (Oakland, Calif.) – The UCLA and Berkeley All Blues alumna has competed in the most tournaments since the Olympic announcement (read more). The hooker was always one of Suggitt’s favorites, “a grinder,” and was named Team USA captain for the 2016 Olympics.
• Kaelene Lundstrum (Bird Island, Minn.) – The rangy 15s winger worked in at prop for 7s. Lundstrum debuted at the 2011 Dubai 7s, the first stop on the one and only IRB Women’s Challenge Cup, and followed with appearances at the 2012 London and Amsterdam 7s. She didn’t, however, make it onto the WSS before leaving the OTC. She now plays wing for the WPL Twin Cities Amazons.
• Vanesha McGee (Ewing, N.J.) – A fantastic strength along the sideline, McGee was one of the country’s most powerful finishers on the wing, in both 7s and 15s. It was a surprise when the New York alumna’s contract wasn’t renewed in 2014, and McGee hasn’t resurfaced on the rugby pitch since.
• Deven Owsiany (Royersford, Pa.) – The first of several college players to complete her degree off-campus, Owsiany was also the first Penn State alumna (Sadie Anderson, Meya Bizer) to relocate to San Diego. Owsiany served as 7s captain and, as she transitioned out of the residency program, made the 2014 World Cup squad for 15s. She currently trains at the Atavus Academy and plays with San Diego.
• Kimber Rozier (Chapel Hill, N.C.) – The halfback was fresh out of the University of North Carolina when she debuted for the Eagles at the 2011 Dubai 7s. She became one of the most reliable kickers on the squad, and like Owsiany, made the ’14 World Cup team to France. She rotated in at flyhalf, and is now the uncontested standoff for the 15s Eagles. She currently trains and plays with Scion Academy.
• Jill Potter – A 7s and 15s captain, Potter was the eighth and final player to sign a contract. The New Mexico product hadn’t played 7s before but Suggitt saw quality in the 15s Eagle. Potter has overcome a broken neck that eliminated her from one of two 15s World Cups and cancer to lead the USA 7s from prop. She is one of three original players on the 2016 Olympics team.
A year later, at the turn of 2013, the residency group doubled and included Rio-bound Ryan Carlyle, Lauren Doyle, Vix Folayan and Nathalie Marchino, who is actually competing for Colombia and playing against the USA in pool play. And with a new series to fill out a proper 7s schedule, Suggitt could start testing his athletes against regular, quality international competition.
Suggitt believed that the U.S. had a wealth of athletes who just needed to discover rugby, and he went searching for them. Generally, the prospects didn’t pan out, but the ones who did made the process worth it. Reference Alev Kelter and Jessica Javelet, also soon-to-be Olympians. Suggitt’s reign wasn’t seamless – players came and left – but he saw the Eagles to a third-place finish at the 2013 World Cup Sevens, a silver medal at the first-ever women’s 7s division at the 2015 Pan Am Games, and qualified for the Olympics after winning the 2015 NACRA 7s championship.
Two debutantes helped the U.S. qualify for the Olympics in 2015, and they occupy opposite ends of the age spectrum: Fallbrook High School’s then-graduating senior Richelle Stephens and latecomer Carmen Farmer, who surprised with her late addition to the 2014 World Cup 15s squad. Stephens played in all but one WSS tournament after her debut, while Farmer returned for the final two ’15-’16 series events before being selected to the Olympics squad.
When the aforementioned earned their 7s caps, the player pool was poised to narrow down for the upcoming 2015-16 WSS, but problems awaited the Eagles. Suggitt’s contract was not renewed for the run-up to the Olympics, and ARPTC founder McCoy, Suggitt’s predecessor, took over in September 2015. She coached the team through Dubai and Sao Paulo, and then was replaced by former USA 7s assistant coach Richie Walker in March 2016. That’s three head coaches in about seven months, in less than a year before the Olympics. Through it all, the 7s players consolidated their focus on each other and tried to weather the leadership upheavals.
When the final roster was announced, there were a couple of surprises – Megan Bonny and Kristen Thomas chief among them. Bonny had been at the OTC for three years, heading to Chula Vista pretty quickly after graduating from Washington State. The 7s prop, who also has 15s caps, has competed on 14 WSS tours, but didn’t play in the final two tournaments of this season. Thomas debuted at the 2015 Sao Paulo 7s and hadn’t missed a WSS tournament since heading west from Florida. Toss in the Pan Am Games and NACRA championship, and wing played in 12 events for the Eagles. [7.25 Update: Thomas suffered a Rio-excluding injury on the final WSS stop.]
Former West Point cadet Nicole Heavirland and 15s World Cup fullback Meya Bizer took the two traveling reserve spots. Jane Paar, Lilly Durbin, Cheta Emba, Hannah Lopez and Bianca Dalal were in the Olympic training squad until the final cut.
Since the Olympic announcement in fall 2009, almost 60 players have worn USA 7s jerseys [see cap count]. That stat doesn’t include players on representative sides like the USA Falcons or Stars & Stripes, or squads during camp/round robins against Canada, Brazil, Japan and Ireland. That stat doesn’t include the many players on the taxi squad, who trained full-time at the OTC, some without ever playing for the USA. All of those players and the staff alongside them deserve a piece of the joy that was expressed during last night’s jersey ceremony, and whatever happens in Rio, they should take pride in knowing they were a part of it.
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