Can you pick out the Olympic hopefuls in this U.S. U20 photo from 2011? /// Photo: USA Rugby •
The biennial U20 Nations Cup is now defunct, but it was a fantastic tournament that involved the U.S., Canada, England and a fourth team, like Wales or South Africa. In 2011, Santa Barbara, Calif., played host, and all of the matches were live-streamed. That was an important fixture for the Americans, because as it turned out, it introduced the public to several of the current 7s Eagles in the Olympic player pool.
As USA U19/U20 head coach, Bryn Chivers was responsible for introducing promising young talent into the national pathway from 2006-12. And he targeted those players early. During the 2007 tour to England and Wales, Chivers brought a group of 15- and 16-year-olds that included Sadie Anderson, Jozy Gessner and Katie Johnson, among others.
“The first time I saw her, she was 14, and it was clear then that she knew her stuff. She could play,” Chivers flashed back to 2006, when he was introduced to Johnson. “She could pass, offload out of contact, run support lines, play physically – and that hustle that is KJ. She looked like a skinnier version of what she is today.”
She joined the junior Eagles as a flyhalf, migrated to the centers, and then found a home in the loose forwards. As Johnson continued to play through high school, college and the U20s, Chivers was perpetually impressed with the Hopkins, Minn., product.
“Her day was full from the moment she got up,” Chivers remembered. “She was on the diving team, too, so it was workout, workout, workout, and then go play with her team or 7s with the men. If there was rugby in Minnesota – whether men or women – she was doing it.”
On one occasion, Chivers invited the teenager to camp as a coach, so the younger athletes could meet someone who’s been playing at a higher level and get a glimpse into what that commitment looked like.
“We were in the cafeteria at a college campus – there’s lots of food,” Chivers started to laugh. “There were just plates and plates of food stacked in front of her. Her metabolism is such that she has to eat that much. It was incredibly funny seeing a skinny thing going through food like chum in the water and she’s a shark.”
Johnson was the face of the 2011 U20 Nations Cup squad (above photo: Lynne Skilken) and anchored the team from No. 8. Chivers still waxes lyrical about the loose forward’s tenacity, work ethic and endurance – attributes that were all on display for the country to see.
“She’s one of those people who hits outside her weight class,” Chivers referenced a frame better suited for 7s at the next level. “What she doesn’t have in bulk, she makes up in velocity and intent.”
A handful of Johnson’s fellow forwards are still in the game, most notably 15s Eagle Alycia Washington and Wisconsin’s Grace Hovde, but it is the 2011 backs who feature more heavily today.
“That group of backs was exceptional,” Chivers reminisced. “Nana Fa’avesi, Amy Naber, Bui Baravilala, Jacie Vonada, Ally Day, Meya Bizer – that was an incredible set of players. They all went on to play at a higher level.”
At the 2010 Las Vegas Invitational, Chivers heard about a Hawaiian 7s team that had performed well and reached out to the Hawaii Rugby Union to inquire about players.
“I knew that there was opportunity there for us,” Chivers said. “At that time, there weren’t many Polynesians playing on women’s select sides. Karl Barth had a few players for U19s, but we wanted more visibility. Bui was the person who really unlocked it all.”
Chivers ended up speaking with Baravilala’s father and she was invited to camp.
“You could tell immediately that she was an exceptionally good rugby player – in that she knew the craft versus someone who is just incredibly athletic,” Chivers explained. “This was a rugby player. She understood how to make a move, open up the defense and find someone out wide, or pin her ears back and go.”
Baravilala (photo: Lynne Skilken) debuted at inside center during the 2010 U20 NACRA championship in the Bahamas, and then followed up with the 2011 U20 Nations Cup. Chivers experimented with some center combinations, and then moved Bizer up from fullback to form a powerful duo with Baravilala.
“For her, it was physicality,” Chivers said of the Texan. “Her rugby skills were nowhere near as advanced as Bui’s or KJ’s, but her athletic ability was certainly at that level. We knew she could advance.”
Bizer came from football, an influence that marks her piledriving tackles, and it was her high school football coach who first reached out to Chivers. She entered the national pathway with the U17 team, which competed at the now-defunct U19 National All-Star Championship in November 2010. She played alongside fellow up-and-comers like Kelsi Stockert, Megan Pinson and Day before joining the U20s at the 2011 Nations Cup. Bizer advanced up the age-grade ranks, transferred to Penn State, and represented the 15s Eagles at the Rugby World Cup.
Also getting time on that 2011 squad was scrumhalf Fa’avesi, who had been playing for the Sacramento Amazons since 2007.
“She was one of the smallest players we had,” then-Sacramento coach Sefesi Green remembered the freshman version of Fa’avesi. “She was also one of the toughest. … Nana is as resilient as they come. She’s had a lot of chances to give up and many more reasonable excuses to fall on, but it’s been an inspiration to see her get where she wanted to be.”
Interestingly, Sacramento has had only three scrumhalves in the high school program’s lifetime: Neni Green, then Fa’avesi, and now incoming senior and Junior All-American Maryjane Pasioles.
“Nana is a product of a passionate rugby community,” Green explained. “Whenever Nana is in Sacramento, she always has to check in with us coaches. She will either come and help at practice, showing some things she learned. When she is in town during the rare stretch of off-season, she has to meet up with players and work on their skills. All of the Amazons know and look up to Nana.”
That 2011 team finished second at the Nations Cup, defeating Canada and South Africa, and losing twice to England. Those 26 players represented 26 different high schools and colleges, and offered the American public a nice sampling of the country’s top athletes.
“The trap is, you start to look at too many good teams and you aren’t thinking about why they’re good,” Chivers said of sourcing players. “Teams can be good because they have the depth and everyone is a good player and they win – but no one is exceptional. Then you look at a poorer team in the middle of nowhere, and they’re losing every game six tries to three, but it’s the same woman scoring those three tries every game. The team’s unsuccessful, but it has an exceptional player. It’s about how far you want to go [to find players].”
There wasn’t one shot, one team, one coach that got the current Olympic hopefuls to where they are today, but everyone along the way will be cheering on Team USA in a matter of weeks.
“You grow up watching the Olympics as a kid,” Chivers said. “The idea that the players you coached might still carry some remnant of what you taught them when they were young, seeing them play a higher level – it’s incredibly rewarding. We didn’t get into rugby for the fame and money. These are the rewards – turning on the t.v. and watching them play.”
For more of Lynne Skilken’s photos from the 2011 U20 Nations Cup, click here.