Charlotte 7s co-captain Nicole Benjamin /// Photo courtesy Charlotte Rugby Club •
Last year, as Charlotte was in the process of reinvigorating its 15s team – which advanced to this year’s DII national quarterfinals – its 7s arm got a jolt of its own. Players were booting up with Old Toe, a social club also in Charlotte, N.C., and in 2015, the team was bumped up to Cape Fears’ competitive 7s bracket. What could have been a discouraging outing turned out to be the catalyst for getting serious in summer 2016.
“Even though we lost the games against the competitive teams we played, we had good moments – a breakthough or 1-2 full minutes where we’d completely connect and score, or shut down NOVA for two minutes,” said Nicole “Carni” Benjamin, who co-captained Charlotte 7s alongside Amanda Watkins this year. “It made a lot of the girls who hadn’t played that level of competition before recognize that they had that capability. It was just about putting it together for 14 minutes.”
Benjamin is not only an alumna of the Women’s Premier League’s Twin Cities Amazons (2016 WPL schedule just released) but also the Youngbloodz, regulars at 7s nationals.
“Yeah, that was some of the reasoning behind starting a competitive team. I missed that level of 7s,” Benjamin said. “With Old Toe, the practices were really just two hours of touch twice a week. We wanted something more like our 15s model, where you work on skills and drills, build on each practice, correcting things and fitness, too.”
Former Youngbloodz coach Sam Robinson connected Benjamin with his cousin, Jacko Ah Hoy, who has a strong presence in the Carolinas and teamed up with Old Toe Rugby creator Billy De Rosa. Ah Hoy coached the Lady Toes in 2015 and then encouraged the competitive transformation in 2016. He continues to offer assistance and individual feedback that aids the 7s team.
But the 7s program needed a dedicated, full-time coach, and Benjamin looked toward an unlikely candidate for 2016: 18-year-old Chase Suznevich. The Charlotte player was recovering from ACL and PCL reconstruction, an injury that hit home with Benjamin.
“We wanted to keep him connected with the club,” Benjamin said. “I’ve seen him play and he’s got a lot of rugby knowledge, despite his age. He was apprehensive at first, but he talked with his parents, and he said as long men’s coach Alec Acosta helped him, then he’d do it. But he was off to the races after the first practice.”
There were some growing pains as the two entities sorted out their relationship and communication, but after two weeks, Suznevich and team were working well together.
“He’s able to break things down and keep the game plan simple, almost All Black style: If you can’t do basics, you can’t do much at all,” Benjamin explained. “I was incredibly impressed by not only his patience, but also how much his confidence grew over the 2.5 months. I’d imagine working with women in their mid 20s-30s can be intimidating as an 18-year-old man. But he rocked it, and the team respects what he coaches and implements – even the evil 10+ 150-meter fitness sprints to end practices.”
Charlotte mixed with Old Toe during the Airborne and Beer City 7s tournaments, won the Carolinas qualifier Queen City 7s, and returned to Cape Fear before heading to the South championship. During the latter two tournaments, Charlotte saw tangible progress.
“At Cape Fear, we ended up playing [ARPTC] – that was our best game of the whole tournament,” Benjamin reflected on the match against the defending national champion. “We shut them out in the second half and also brought the score up and lost by one try. They won the tournament. That’s when we recognized that we were getting better.
“This past weekend against Orlando, that was definitely the strongest we’ve played for a full 14 minutes,” Benjamin said of the 15-12 decision to Orlando in the South final. “We still have a lot of developing to do, but as far as a starting point for how young this club is and having never played in a competitive sense before – we’re definitely going to grow from this.”
Charlotte won the second seed out of the South but won’t be attending nationals. The team only has 10 players eligible (Queen City was the only Carolinas qualifier and two of those players aren’t available). That said, Charlotte probably could have petitioned to add more players but decided against it.
“Ten players over a two-day tournament isn’t the healthiest idea, and it wouldn’t have helped the competitive edge of a national tournament,” Benjamin said. “It was a disappointment, especially after barely losing to Orlando. We had already kinda discussed [potentially rescinding the seed] and kept it open through this weekend.”
Florida’s Phoenix finished third at the South championship and is heading to Colorado (and trying to raise money quickly). The club championship pools were recently reworked after Hawaii’s removal (read more), but won’t need another revision as the South #2 seed is 16th overall.
While Charlotte’s summer 7s season ends on a disappointing note, it was preceded by a lot of promise. Benjamin expects everyone to return next year, including a couple of Old Toe transfers. All told, Charlotte enjoyed a general uptick in competitiveness in 2016.
Stay tuned for info on Phoenix.
