Photos courtesy Queens University of Charlotte Athletics
While Michigan and Wisconsin hold their high school 15s seasons in the fall, many more states are also contesting their 7s seasons this time of year. Indiana returned for its second season of high school 7s this fall (North Central won), but it wasn’t quite the right fit for Warsaw, which was itching for 15s.
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“It’s tough for me to justify playing 7s when I have 30 young ladies wanting to play fall rugby,” Warsaw coach Trevor Cracknell explained.
So the coach looked outside of Indiana to build a 15s schedule to keep his large player pool engaged. Michigan provided good opponents. In early September, Warsaw took on Grandville in the teams’ first run-out of the season and won 22-10. The team then followed with 17-14 win over Sparta, a game marked by wet weather, handling errors, and a ball that mimicked a “bar of soap,” according to Cracknell.
The Grandville match occurred at Grand Valley State, and Cracknell attempts to schedule at least two fall games on college campuses. Last weekend, Warsaw and McMinn Tribe (Tenn.) met at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Last spring, Tribe finished fifth in the high school division of the national invitational.
“Our games this weekend were by far the toughest, as the Tribe are a strong team that is very physical, especially around the rucks,” Cracknell recapped. “The Tribe had most of the possession on Saturday and had a good amount of success counter-rucking and turning over our possession. However, once we got clean fast ball they struggled to contain our back line.”
In the first game, Warsaw took a 15-point lead before McMinn closed in with two converted tries in the second half. Late in the game, Warsaw scored a converted try for the 22-14 win.
“We made some adjustments to our game plan, especially around the contact area for the second game, which showed in the result,” Cracknell said of the 29-0 win. “We started the second game very aggressively in the contact area, which enabled us to create and maintain fast ball for our back line to exploit. This put the Tribe under pressure, which resulted in us having most of the possession throughout the game. As usual the Tribe players never give up and fought hard to the end; however, they were not able to break down our defense and make any significant inroads into our 22.”
Captaining the team is senior Brooklyn Lyon, who has been playing since 7th grade, and she makes her mark as a hard-tackling No. 8. Cracknell also highlighted seniors Sara Linton (flanker), Lenna Rom (center) and fullback Grisel Cisneros (fullback) and juniors Angelica Rodriquez (flyhalf/center) and Natalie Locke (flanker) as consistently good players.
“Grisel, a second-year player, has been making a lot of big tackles this fall and has really stepped up becoming a leader on and off the field for the team,” the coach praised. “Natalie Locke has been playing flanker this fall but has started at loosehead prop and hooker in previous seasons. When asked by a college coach what position she plays, she said, ‘Anywhere they want me to.’”
Watch for sophomores Riley Horvath and Abby Garcia, who stepped up their performances in Charlotte last weekend. Horvath served as scrumhalf for the absent A-side starter, and lock Garcia put in some big tackles and hit the rucks hard.
Warsaw will wrap up its friendly fall with a game against Michigan’s Grand Haven on Nov. 18 but is open to another fixture before then. These games will give Warsaw plenty of insight into this year’s team, and provide good information when building toward the spring 15s season, which begins in mid-March.
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