My name is Amanda Martinez. I am the forwards captain for the Claremont Foxes, a DII women’s college team. I would like to share the story of our team, especially the story of our seniors (including myself) as a way of coping and processing the end of what would have been a historic spring championship, and the absolute highlight of our four years in college.
The Claremont Colleges are a 5-college undergraduate consortium of about 5,000 students, located right outside of Los Angeles. We are a close, tight-knit community, and our rugby team is founded on hard work, love, and passion. The Foxes 2020 seniors include myself, Ali Parker (Backs Captain), Michelle Ramirez, Mia Kenworthy, Sophie Baker (Club President), Kendal Kipper, Molly Ferguson, Aleah Goldstein, and Catherine Weiss. This is our four-year story.
As freshmen, our team was a successful NSCRO competitor, eventually going on to win the 2017 Pacific Coast championship in Oregon. This year was filled with great pride and happiness, and as freshmen we were happy to come along for the ride and step in when we were asked to. The trip to Oregon will forever be such a memorable time, and a reminder of the beautiful adventures you can go on with your teammates. The biggest lesson we learned from our first year of college rugby: have fun.
Our sophomore year, we were invited to move up to the DII level. It was such an exciting time as our team was facing brand new opportunities. We were lucky enough to make it to playoffs, and the mindset we had going in was to just play our best and see how far we could go. As a new team, we had absolutely nothing to lose. I will never forget how emotional that day was when we unexpectedly won the spring DII western playoffs at Stanford. Right as the ref’s whistle blew, we all started crying and hugging each other on the pitch, and felt so grateful and so proud, knowing that we fought talented competition with everything we had and somehow came out on top. We knew we were making history for ourselves, and we were beyond happy for each other. We couldn’t believe how fast success was coming to us.
We went on to Fullerton for the 2018 DII spring championship. One of my proudest possessions will forever be the badges that USA Rugby handed out to us, labeled NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION. I remember holding that badge in my hand, thinking this was the real deal. At the semifinals, we defeated Salisbury University 44-27, only to lose to Tulane the next day. The loss strangely did not really hurt us because we never thought we would get this far in the first place. I remember losing and yet being so incredibly happy with how far we had come. I was walking off the pitch with a smile on my face, happy the season went on until the very end. The tears that came in the locker rooms after were from us thanking our seniors, who paved the way for this team from NSCRO Pacific Coast champion to DII spring runner-up in just a few short years. I think they were more than happy with how their senior years turned out. The biggest lesson we learned from our second year of college rugby: believe in yourself.
Our junior year, we were absolutely determined to be champions. We had to learn to take ourselves seriously, to carry ourselves as professionals with a specific goal in mind. We sacrificed a lot at practices, running our asses off over and over with one goal: becoming DII spring champions. Although our star player and senior at the time, Dana Alimena, had suffered a double ACL/meniscus injury over the summer and was out for the entire league season, we finished our league undefeated, with dominating scores such as 60-5 against UC Irvine. We were eager to take this kind of success and energy to the championships.
Everything was locked and loaded for playoffs, taking place less than an hour away from us. Dana Alimena recovered from her injury and was going to play for the first time this year. We had star talent everywhere, and we had the numbers to back them up. Our bad luck started on our first day at playoffs. Our dreams were sadly cut short at Irvine in a controversial loss against St. Mary’s. The seniors were absolutely devastated. The entire team was blindsided by this loss. We came back the next day, with a new goal: make the most out of this defeat, and kick ass tomorrow. We won our second match 50-12. I flanked alongside seniors I had been looking up to for three years, and remember playing my heart out for them. These seniors were the true professionals of our team. Our season ended that weekend, and the spring championship came and went without us. The seniors made up for the season by placing third at the DII College 7s National Championship. The biggest lesson we learned from our third year of college rugby: always play your best.
Jumping into our senior year, the class of 2020 had seen a lot. We had been through accidental successes and unexpected failures. We were not satisfied with our season last year, and more importantly we had seniors to avenge. We knew this team had to have talent, numbers, and discipline to become spring champions. We were beyond hard on ourselves. We would try to improve every game, setting the bar higher and higher for ourselves because we didn’t want to leave any room for error. The coaches and the players were on the same page: be the undeniable champions we know we are.
It is difficult to continue this story as I sit in my room, surrounded by cardboard boxes. On Wednesday, March 13, the administration of Claremont Colleges asked all students to pack up their things and leave for good. It was sudden news, and it felt like a total nightmare for everyone on campus, especially the Foxes. Our worst fears were coming true. On Thursday, what would have been just another practice turned into a funeral for our season. We threw a last-minute version of the banquet we normally throw in May after our season. USA Rugby had not yet officially cancelled our tournament, so we were holding on to the idea of USA Rugby keeping the summer sevens tournament alive, or maybe, just maybe, pushing back 15s. We were willing to do anything to keep playing, even if the schools were forcing us to leave campus. Deep inside, I am still waiting for USA Rugby to announce the return of our tournament, but I know that day will never come.
I believe with my whole heart that the Claremont Foxes would have been the 2020 DII Spring Champions, because we would have done anything to get there. If you don’t believe us, you can check the numbers. We were Scrum by the Sea champions in the fall, and went undefeated (6-0) in the spring: 74-31, 67-10, 66-7, 57-0, 104-20, 47-5. We spent the spring season pushing our limits, obsessing over a chance at the spring title. It is especially difficult for the seniors, the captains, and leadership, because we spent every day thinking about our return to the spring championship, especially when we found out playoffs would be returning to Stanford, where we had so much success our second year.
I personally cared more about getting my team to the spring championship than walking the stage and getting the diploma. The diploma was more for my parents, since neither of them went to college, but getting the trophy was for my Fox family. As seniors, both of those big life moments have been taken away from us, and it’s hard to just go home empty-handed. As forwards captain, I am extremely disappointed, but at the same time, I know this team has a much brighter future ahead. The work and training will carry on, and the Foxes will return another day to play again. It’s in our culture to fight for each other, and that feeling is not going away any time soon. We continue to support each other through these difficult times. Some teammates are housing together off campus. Others are helping each other get home. We still and always will support each other.
The biggest lesson we learned from our fourth year of college rugby: support your family.
I wanted to write this in dedication to the Foxes seniors, who are champions to me:
– legendary flyhalf Ali Parker (Scripps College), who has been an amazing captain and leader on the field
– star prop Michelle Ramirez (Scripps College), who overcame a foot injury, recovering just in time for playoffs
– Mia Kenworthy (Pitzer College), who played with us for only two years but dominated the field every game
– amazing flanker Sophie Baker (Scripps College), our president and walking definition of “support your family”.
– beast fullbacks/wings Kendal Kipper (Pomona College) and Molly Ferguson (Scripps College), our bravest and most humble try-scorers
– Aleah Goldstein (Scripps College) and Catherine Weiss (Scripps College), our best friends who were there for us day and night