San Diego’s Liz Trujillo /// Photo: Carisa Weaver •
Player migration is nothing new for the Women’s Premier League (WPL), but a Women’s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) year always shakes up the player pool. Although details have not been released, there is a pseudo-residency in the works for a selection of USA 15s players, and they’re heading to San Diego in September. A group of Eagle forwards will be playing their WPL ball with the Surfers.
It’s fortunate for San Diego, which was looking to restock the pack with veteran leadership. Pumping up the experience are No. 8 Jordan Gray (BYU), lock Molly Kinsella (Glendale), hooker Sam Pankey (D.C. Furies/Scion) and prop Hope Rogers (Penn State). All of these players are capped Eagles, and Rogers, who was named MA Sorensen College Player of the Year, is a WRWC vet.
When these players arrive, they’ll looked toward club stalwarts like Elizabeth Trujillo, Deven Owsiany, Tia Blythe, Vivian Renshaw, among many others, to aid their integration into the Surfers’ way of play.
“It’s definitely been addressed,” San Diego WPL coach Jarrod Faul reflected on the effect of incoming players, “but as long as they’re committed to trainings and the team culture, we’re more than happy to have them on board.”
San Diego is also inheriting Eagles Kate Zachary and Hunter Griendling from the USA 7s program. They were OTC residents in the run-up to the Olympics, and the latter showed prevalently at the club 7s championship earlier this month. Faul is just as excited to learn more about the new talent, including Belmont Shore transfer Matelina Maluia and UCSD grad Mely Quiroz.
“Last season, we were quite low in numbers and didn’t have a great deal of depth,” said Faul, who splits his time between San Diego and Life West during the year. “We traveled light and with players who were inexperienced or hadn’t played at the WPL level. This year, we’ve had really good numbers – 35-plus to every training – and really quality players turning up.”
The Surfers have found themselves in fifth place on more than one occasion come season’s end. San Diego must first finish the regular season in the top two of the Blue Conference – which includes Glendale, Berkeley and ORSU – to improve on its final standing.
“Last year, we didn’t finish where we would have liked to, but at the end of the year, we were playing really entertaining rugby and finished in high spirits,” Faul said. “This year we’re looking to improve our finish. I just heard that all of the teams are going to be fairly strong this year, so we’ll take one game at a time.”
The Surfers have been training for the past 3-4 weeks, but the 7s players have just joined practices this week. All of the out-of-state players will be accounted for come early September, and then Faul will have a full understanding of his roster.
San Diego initiates its WPL season on Sept. 10 with an away game against reigning champion Glendale. After six rounds of play, all eight teams will convene at Life University in Marietta, Ga., on Nov. 11-13 for the championship.
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