Old Blue sent three sides to the Northeast championship. /// Photo courtesy Old Blue RFC •
New York, N.Y. – The Old Blue RFC has named its 12-woman roster for the 2016 USA Rugby Emirates Airline Club 7s National Championship at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., on August 13-14.
“The team is peaking now thanks to the sweat and devotion of the 35 players who took the pitch for us this summer, who came to practices and who worked hard training every single day,” said coach Gary Lee Heavner. “It wasn’t difficult to put out two or three equally competitive sides each week.”
The club regularly put in two or more sides in each qualifying tournament and finished first and second each week, with the rosters rotating weekly.
Heavner stated, “What was tough, was selecting only 12 to travel and represent the club next weekend, because there are at least another 12 players who are good enough to represent Old Blue in Denver, and who if they went as a separate team, would fare well at that level.”
Old Blue, in its third season, is looking to better its inaugural 2014 season when it bowed out of the championship tournament in the final match. Once again the team is perhaps one of the youngest to qualify for nationals with over half of its player less than 21 years of age.
All of the selected players, and many other Old Blue Women also represent the Northeast Academy program and have been training with that program all summer. The Northeast 7s Academy – with training squads in New York City, Boston, and Buffalo – is a National Development Academy that has been sanctioned by USA Rugby as the official Academy in the Northeast of America and as a designated pathway to the USA Eagles National Team selection.
“Our Women’s program would not be where we are without the help of our award-winning coaching staff and of course the Old Blue Rugby Foundation who provides substantial scholarships to many of the players,” said Old Blue President Quentin Unsworth.
The roster of women traveling to Colorado (with the Old Blue Men, who will also be looking to return to the championship final) include:
Tahlia Brody
Kaitlyn Broughton
Sarah Buonopane
Kate Daley
Corinne Heavner
Rosalie MacGowan
Kat Ramage
Nikki Richardson
Frankie Sands
Tiana Stroughter (c)
Danielle Walko Siua
Denisse Zambon
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