Ashley Johnson, front row, kneeling, third from right •
This edition of the Canterbury Player of the Week is an intricate one. Eastern Kentucky player-coach Kelsey Basham singled out teammate Ashley Johnson in the team’s 33-31 win over Kutztown – the tightest contest of the DII Fall Round of 32 (click for bracket). Rookie inside center Johnson and her two tries were bright spots in the upset victory.
“Ashley’s brand new this season and has learned the sport so quickly,” Basham lauded the team’s leading point-scorer. “She has a good attitude and takes everything we say seriously. She has explosive speed and is hard to stop. But she works hard in other aspects of the game – she makes good tackles, supports in the ruck – she’s not just a point-scorer. It’s amazing how much she’s developed this season.”
The backdrop for Johnson’s performance is an inspiring, student-led program that lied in rubble a few years ago. High school soccer teammates Basham and Chelsey Cobler joined Eastern Kentucky in fall 2012, just as the team graduated a cast of veterans. The duo spent that first fall alongside fewer than 10 teammates, and no games were played. Nevertheless, the sport dug its boots into the players’ hearts, and the pair committed to rebuilding the squad.
“We did all kinds of things,” Basham recalled recruitment efforts that produced 25-30 consistent players in fall 2013, their first year in charge. “We worked every incoming-freshman event – there were three or four. We made banners, we put up flyers on campus and in every dorm and on every women’s floor. It worked, and so we do it every year.”
But what about coaching? Basham and Cobler consumed as much information as possible online, and stepped in as player-coaches in fall 2013…after one year in the sport…and having played one game in spring 2013. But Eastern Kentucky had its leaders and began rebuilding itself. The team now had the numbers to actually play games, and in fall 2014, EKU joined the DII Ohio Valley Conference and finished fourth.
A turning point occurred in spring 2015, when Eastern Kentucky won its division at Nash Bash. Once the team saw itself as a competitive threat, the notion of conference titles and post-seasons entered the players’ psyche. That drive was amplified in its games against Cincinnati, Eastern Kentucky’s conference rival. Since fall 2015, the teams have traded regular- and post-season victories. Both advanced to last year’s fall regionals, and both fell to eventual national champion Davenport University.
Basham and Cobler are now graduate students and still eligible to compete as player/coaches. Inside center Cobler, who was invited to last summer’s Stars & Stripes competition, tore her ACL this season and has led from the sideline. Basham has directed performance from scrumhalf, and relies on hooker Kelsi Peters and flanker Nicole Foright to lead the pack. The back line is young, but wing Joanne Wang and fullback Sheila Velasco are multi-year leaders with long-term investment.
After defeating Cincinnati 28-19 during league this fall, Eastern Kentucky fell 31-24 in the conference final.
“We felt confident going into that game,” Basham reflected on the disappointing loss. “There’s a lot of history there, so we tend to psych each other out because we know it’s going to be a competitive game. There were some nerves, and we were a little disgruntled being down by a few tries in the first half and having to work back out of a hole. But anytime we play them, the win comes down to little technical things.”
The runner-up finish still meant a trip to the Fall Round of 32, but now the match was 10 hours away in Pennsylvania (Cincinnati received a bye through the first round). During training, the team focused on its defense – spreading the coverage, reacting quickly to turnovers and changes of field, applying relentless pressure in and around the rucks. Off the field, it scrambled to get its finances and personnel in order.
“We try to make something positive every time we lose,” Basham described the effect of the Cincinnati game. “This wasn’t what we wanted – finishing second – but at the same time, we get to go to nationals. So we train hard, because we don’t know what’s going to happen next. When we play teams with no [shared] history, we just go with it and have no expectations of how the game is supposed to go.”
Eastern Kentucky’s defensive pressure was a difference-maker. The visitors took a 26-14 halftime lead and put its final try on the board 15 minutes into the second half. Johnson and Basham scored two tries apiece, and prop Gabby Gude added the fifth. Basham also slotted the conversions. Kutztown surged in the final 15 minutes of the match, and Eastern Kentucky was fortunate that the final conversion failed in the 33-31 win.
The team was elation. A long trip, low numbers, higher-ranked opponent, and Eastern Kentucky won. It’s the latest triumph for a student-led team that is now heading to the Fall Round of 16 against Rugby Northeast champion St. Michael’s. The team’s holding on to that “nothing to lose” mindset and placing its faith in the rising newcomers filling absent and injured veterans’ roles. Basham’s excited, and regardless of the outcome this weekend, also proud.
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