Photo: Deanne Cowan
The second annual Northeast Invitational will bring eight girls’ high school teams to Denville, N.J., on April 29-30. Additionally, four middle school teams will take the field Sunday for 7s matches.
RELATED: Northeast Invitational Schedule • Girls High School Ranking • Women’s Rugby Results: April 21-23
Host Morris (N.J.) spearheaded the tournament last year, as coach Tom Feury realized there was a need for tougher games in advance of the high school national championships. This year, four of the eight attendees are competing at either the club or single-school nationals (Morris, West End, State College, North Bay), and the quartet is grateful to have this opportunity.
Morris, West End, Doylestown and North Bay have also entered middle school teams.
West End headlines the event, having gone undefeated through three major East Coast tournaments so far this spring. Host Morris has been close behind, as has Maryland’s North Bay.
State College is the reigning Pennsylvania champion and continues to lead the state. The single-school nationals veteran is joined by fellow Pennsylvanian squads Doylestown and Downingtown. Play Rugby finally joins the tournament circuit this spring, as does Connecticut’s Cheshire.
Teams will play two 45-minute matches on Saturday and one Sunday. The schedule was created with an eye toward new, interesting match-ups. Eight coaches have contributed synopses of their seasons thus far and highlighted some impact players:
MORRIS – TOM FEURY
Thus far, Morris has not been able to play any competitive matches in their league due to either forfeit or rainout. Luckily, they have been able to get some good matches at the Maryland International Festival, where they won matches against West Carroll and North Bay. They were losing to rival West End when the match was called early in the second half due to injury. They did get to face West End again the following week at the D.C. Furies tournament, where they were defeated. Morris also played North Bay twice during that outing and split those matches.
So, Morris is looking forward to getting another crack at West End, as well as new solid competition in the form of State college and Doylestown this week. They will lean on the leadership of their senior captains scrumhalf Jess Nagie and flanker Jordan Cowan (Quinnipiac). Seniors Lock Grace DePoortere (Sacred Heart) and center Mia Lancellotti (Penn State) are also key players. Underclass rising stars include junior flanker Alba Corney, junior prop Sophia Zaragoza and junior wing Lauren Madalian. Head coach Gene Caulfield has his eye on the long-term goal of improving upon their 7th place finish in club division one at nationals next month.
STATE COLLEGE – BERNIE CANTORNA
With a mix of new and experienced players, State College has been able to maintain an undefeated season so far. Junior flanker Gigi Agliardo strengthens the forward pack with her impressive speed and dominating tackles. An experienced playmaker, senior flyhalf Darina Roe uses her exceptional agility to lead the State College attack.
WEST END, MATT ESTES
2017 has been a wonderful year so far for the West End Ruckettes. After losing 16 seniors last year, 2017 was eagerly anticipated to see who would be fighting for starting positions as well as who would emerge as leaders for our team. Elizabeth Wilson (’17, Girls’ High School All-American [GHSAA] and Ruckettes Captain) figured prominently early on during pre-season training as a field and emotional leader.
As we got closer to our season and began to identify positions and roster rotations, Shannon Gaskins (’17, team captain) displayed an amazing transformation from ’16 and established herself as a force on the pitch and a mature leader off it. With 11 players in new starting positions, the leadership from Wilson and Gaskins has been instrumental in our 2017 development and success. After prodigious performances in our matrix and in three tournaments thus far, the Ruckettes’ goals for the remainder of 2017 are to continue to get better as a cohesive unit, continue to develop our reserves, build momentum going into nationals, and to maximize the number of players that continue to play rugby after high school.
DOYLESTOWN, STACY MANCUSO
Doylestown has a young team this year, and is light on numbers. Due to this, they will be merging with six players from White Horse in an effort to put out a more competitive side against the formidable sides at the Northeast Invitational.
NORTH BAY, SCOTT HOFFMAN
North Bay has had an even season thus far marred by illness and injury. Sophomore back captain and GHSAA flyhalf Alex Pipkin, and junior forward captain and GHSAA 8-man Samantha Tancredi have held the team together with strong play and leadership. Senior outside center Hailey Sacker, sophomore inside center Deanna Shrodes, and junior hooker Samantha Brooks are also big contributors to the feisty side.
North Bay is looking forward to a strong finish to matrix play, run at the Maryland State Championship and return to nationals. Our Northeast Invitational matchups against Play Rugby, Downingtown and Cheshire should all help prepare us to that end.
DOWNINGTOWN, RICH BAILY
The Downingtown high school girls’ team started their season attending the Maryland International Youth Rugby Festival and competing against three very talented teams – North Bay and West Carroll of Maryland and West End of Virginia. Downingtown has since been undefeated against PA competition defeating Penn Legacy 56-15, West Chester 42-5, and Doylestown 37-29. They are looking forward to facing their remaining RugbyPA opponents and the NE invitational in the last few weeks before the season culminates with the RugbyPA State Championships. Their season goal is to once again make it to the State Championship game – a feat they have accomplished for the past five seasons.
Leading them this year are co-captains Anne-Laure Razat and Francine Vazquez. Razat has been playing center and contributes speed in attack and valuable leadership to an experienced back line. Vazquez, who has played every forward position for Downingtown, is tough on defense and is usually the player to “set the tone” of a game with her aggression and big hits.
CHESHIRE, MIKE HALE
Cheshire Girls Rugby are the Connecticut champions for 2015 & 2016. Field availability has been limited due to the weather and scheduling, and so our Connecticut season has been off to a difficult start. Most of our games are going to be back-loaded in May. Although we won our first game we are looking forward to this weekend to see where we are.
We are a very young team that is being led by our senior captains Isabel Cuddy and Cammi Chester, both are committed to Sacred Heart University next year. They are four-year starters for Cheshire and have been leading the CT Rugby all-star team for three years.
PLAY RUGBY, RYSZARD CHADWICK
The Girls Play Rugby USA Academy is going through a transition currently and it is starting to build momentum. Assistant coaches previously have really stepped up and taking on the head coach roles and I am happy with their progress and steep learning curves so far. They have managed to keep the positive culture and also help develop the newer players at a rather rapid pace. Coaches have been working hard on communicating their thoughts and vision to each other which is helping the development of the program.
Kevin Braithwaite Head Girls Coach said, “So far this season has been great. Our new captain Susan (sophomore) has been doing a great job leading the girls each game. She has been with Play Rugby for a while and her experience is what makes her stand out in competition. Our forward pack has a couple of new players but our flanker Kye (senior) has been doing a great job leading the pack. We would like to throw shout-outs to Cristin (sophomore), Deja (freshman) and Alia (senior). These three girls have made a lot of progress from the start of season and they surprise the coaching staff every game. We got a couple of new players who we are looking to play at the tournament coming up. These girls are excited to play and have a lot of potential.”