Photo: Neariah Persinger
Last weekend the USA Falcons, the Eagles’ developmental side, competed in its first fixture of 2018 – Super 7s in Brisbane, Australia – and fielded a team that included five uncapped players. Alena Olsen is one of those up-and-coming talents, and the University of Michigan senior featured well in the tournament. Here, she reflects on the tour itself, the impact on her rugby life, and the decisions to come in the near future.
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Olsen, like the majority of her Super 7s teammates, is a known entity. She has represented the Women’s Collegiate All-American (WCAA) 7s team on multiple occasions and continued her development with the Legacy Rugby Academy, which is also run by former WCAA 7s head coach Brandon Sparks. She debuted with the USA Falcons at the 2017 Las Vegas Invitational, and in fall 2017, Olsen was named the Big 10 conference’s Back of the Year.
The fall also marked Olsen’s final on-campus semester at Michigan. She purposefully weighted her course load in the fall and now only has an online class to fulfill before graduation.
“I’m still applying to jobs, looking at continuing schooling and other gap-year options, but the benefit is having flexibility to train or travel whenever I need to. For example, Super 7s,” Olsen enthused. “There was time between [the Sydney] camp [in Chula Vista] and tour, so I decided to stay in the area and train with the team, get more time with ball in hand and on foot conditioning – in comparison, Michigan is covered in snow. I liked the continuity, working on skills every day, getting to know your teammates, staying active.”
After Sydney 7s, half of the Eagle squad traveled north to Brisbane to join the Falcons, including head coach Richie Walker. He, along with Women’s High Performance General Manager Emilie Bydwell, served as assistants to USA Falcons head coach Jarrod Faul, whose coaching lineage includes the San Diego Surfers and Life West Gladiatrix.
“We got to chat a lot with all the travel time,” Olsen detailed her first outing with coach Faul. “I enjoyed playing for him! He geared us in a positive direction and gave individual feedback but also provided room for us to ask a lot of questions and set our own goals as a team.”
During the run-up to the tournament, the focus was on cohesion, and USA Falcons captain Hope Rogers did well to bring the squad together. On a rainy day one, the team went 3-0 against Poland 19-5, Wales 26-17 and France 22-5. Olsen did a great job from flyhalf and was the team’s go-to conversion kicker. She has good speed, supports well, and plays with a little bit of adventure that makes 7s fun to watch.
“Day one was fantastic,” Olsen reflected. “I think we just had great chemistry as a team, connecting well on the field and then sharing each other’s energy off the field. … We were focusing a lot on empowering one another, playing to each other’s strengths, and maintaining a high work rate from beginning to end.”
The Falcons advanced to the Cup quarterfinals the following day and dropped a 21-19 decision to South Africa. In the Plate semifinals, Japan impressed in a 28-12 win over the Falcons, hustling around the pitch and over the ball, and taking angled lines through the defense. The tournament provided a sixth exhibition game, and the Falcons lost 29-12 to Spain.
“Day two was tougher. We didn’t have the same cohesiveness,” Olsen explained. “We lost the ball on offense a couple times against South Africa, and they were able to take advantage of those turnovers. I missed an easier conversion that ultimately lost the game. We weren’t able to find the groove for day two, but it was good for learning about our weaknesses and areas of improvement.”
Experiences like these are especially important to younger players, who are learning what top-level 7s looks like and where expectations lie.
Olsen during summer 7s season / Photo: Legacy Rugby Academy
“Never having played internationally like that, it was nice to finally see how I matched up with everyone, because watching on a stream is so different from in real life,” Olsen explained. “It’s easy to psych yourself out. Everyone is so fast and strong and skilled, there’s pressure to perform, but more emphasis on just developing and learning. I loved being there though, surrounded by so many admirable players. I was definitely fan-girling the whole time, but I still fan girl over my own team.”
USA Rugby just announced that the Falcons will be returning to the Okinawa 7s in late February for a second tour, but hasn’t released any other details for future fixtures. In 2017, the team also competed in Las Vegas and Vancouver.
“If I played rugby after I’m officially graduated, I’d be living the dream,” Olsen looked toward the not-to-distant future. “That’s what I’ll be working toward while trying to navigate career options. Definitely keep playing, maybe try to get to another big city with competitive teams, if not Chula Vista.”
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