Glendale after winning Toys for Tots 7s in Des Moines / Photo courtesy Des Moines RFC
Glendale is returning to the USA Rugby Women’s Club 7s National Championship (Aug. 12-13, Minneapolis) as the Frontier representative. The region has struggled to build a qualifier system for women’s 7s club, and this year only the Rocky Mountains’ Raptors and Mid-America’s Kansas City Jazz expressed interest in nationals. The teams met in an early July qualifier in Iowa, which Glendale won, and the Jazz dropped out of this weekend’s second qualifier in Colorado.
The isolation is frustrating, as new 7s coach Mose Timoteo can attest to, but Glendale is pulling good numbers and interest remains high.
“That’s the one thing: We have the athletes. And everybody’s motivated. We have at least 30 girls who come out and want to compete and play at the level we want to play,” said Timoteo, who is assisted by Sam Enari. “We want the competition, too, so we can find the weak links, the strengths and adjust. The good thing is we have very good players that we can run against, but you want to run against different opposition, get a different look.”
There’s Black Ice and Boulder Babes in the area, but then local, competitive options fall off. And then the Denver 7s canceled the women’s bracket due to lack of interest, and that came as a big blow to the team. Glendale expects to travel, and earlier this month went north to the Roy Lucas 7s in Portland, Ore. There, the team blooded some new players and faced Pacific Northwest leaders like Atavus and ORSU. The Raptors ended that trip 2-2.
Timoteo has a good idea of the team he wants to bring to Minneapolis, but will use this weekend’s tournament to get a few more players eligible and test more combinations. Look for captain Alli Hale to lead in the way of dynamism and vice captain Justine Wypych to anchor the backs.
“We’re probably going to be the smallest team in the tournament,” Timoteo surmised. “But we’ve got some pace and skill, and players who can compete. With the players we have, we can do well. We’ll just keep working these last couple weeks before nationals.”
The team is a mix of Glendale’s WPL and Division I players, out-of-staters who’ve worked their way up the squad, as well as college and high school students.
“I just wish these girls had a lot more games,” Timoteo lamented. “Some of the young girls are coming from high school to training, and there is so much talent. They want to play top-level rugby – especially a couple of the girls who went to the [All-American] high school camp in Arizona. The skill they have – they just needed direction and they were good to go.
“Finding the competition, it’s a struggle, but we’ll make it work and get as much as we can out of it,” the coach concluded.
But the summer season hasn’t been all frustration, as Glendale veteran and Rocky Mountain Region women’s rep Jeanna Beard explains:
“Mose and Sam have really brought structure to the Glendale 7s squad that I haven’t seen before. We’re a very young team who are just learning the game and transitioning from 15s to 7s. It’s been fun to watch them grow as athletes, and I see this as a jumping-off point for Glendale 7s to start making a name for itself.”
Glendale will compete in Pool A with Mid-Atlantic champion Scion Rugby Academy, Pacific South runner-up Tempe, and Pacific North runner-up, which will be determined this Saturday.