Photo courtesy Iowa Youth Rugby Association
After five rounds of league play, the Iowa high school 7s season culminated with the state championship last weekend. For the first time in the competition’s existence, only the top six teams – as opposed to the entire league – were invited to the final event in Pleasant Hill, and Dowling Catholic ended the day undefeated and with a massive championship trophy.
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Iowa is divided into two pools during the regular season, but crossover games equalize the separate standings. Dowling topped the Varsity West pool and was closely followed by runner-up Valley. Dowling benefitted from second-year head coach Kurt Flood, who has deep roots in the West Des Moines high school. As a senior in 2010, he played on the first rugby team that Dowling offered and then went on to play at the University of Northern Iowa. That’s where he met Jeremy Newman, who is now Dowling’s assistant coach, and the duo rely on UNI’s philosophy and style of play to guide their coaching.
“League play was quite competitive, as many teams in the league have expanded their rosters and drawn many top athletes from their respective schools to participate in girls’ rugby,” Flood reviewed. “A tough rivalry that we always have in all sports was with West Des Moines Valley. Valley is very well coached and their players are always ready to exploit any weakness that may become available to them. This forced us to work that much harder in order to be prepared to face such tough competition.”
The remaining four teams at states hailed from the Varsity East: No. 1 ranked Ankeny, Southeast Polk, Des Moines East and Des Moines Roosevelt. Pool leaders Ankeny and Dowling earned automatic berths to the semifinals, while the remainder contested semifinal play-ins.
The first round was decided by a converted try in both matches: Southeast Polk edged Des Moines East 28-21, while Valley bettered Des Moines Roosevelt 21-14. That produced the following semifinals: Ankeny vs. Southeast Polk and Dowling vs. Valley.
Dowling knew a battle awaited in Valley, but was fortunate to have a solid cast of leaders to guide the team’s performance.
“We had great leadership this year in Lejla Cardenas,” Flood commended the second-year player who represented the Hawkettes, the state all-star 7s team, last summer. “Brittany Woods, a senior, helped to show the other players what it means to be committed to the team through her leadership. Christina Odir, a senior, always got the team excited by breaking long runs.”
Flood pointed to underclassmen like Nancy Odir and Eva Tombe, who have been “students of the game all throughout their careers and are looking to have a couple of breakout years in the future,” the coach noted.
Dowling leaned on that leadership and underclassmen push to beat Valley 14-7, while Ankeny pulled away from Southeast Polk 42-21 for the final’s berth. But in the championship match, it was Dowling that pushed the point differential, 28-7, winning its first title since 2014.
Dowling’s Nancy Odir was named MVP of the state championship, while Sydney Julich earned league MVP.
For more information on the Iowa Youth Rugby Association, visit www.iyra.org.
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