Photos: Caryl Makowski
The Rocky Mountain Challenge, which serves as the West Regional Cup Tournament (RCT), fielded a smaller girls’ event this year, with two Tier 1 and two Tier 2 teams competing. It wasn’t ideal, but the participating programs got creative on day two and gave their players, who are hungry for 15s playing opportunities, more variety.
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Rugby Colorado fielded teams in Tier 1 and Tier 2 – new terminology from USA Rugby to replace “varsity” and “junior varsity.” The switch represents some flexibility in the formation of all-star teams: Tier 1 is for 16-18 year olds, and Tier 2 is for 14-16 year olds. Jamie Burke is the new head coach for the Rugby Colorado Girls High School All-Stars and isn’t necessarily in favor of the age groupings for girls.
“This is a discussion that needs to keep happening in the girls’ game,” Burke said. “I talked with several coaches and I’m not sure that breaking up by age makes sense in the girls’ game. It makes sense in the boys’ game: A 15-year-old is developmentally a lot different from an 18-year-old, who looks like a full-grown man. But you don’t see that discrepancy across the ages in girls because they develop earlier. So that doesn’t align.”
Secondly, Burke went on to explain, one has to consider numbers. Girls’ high schools generally don’t field JV and varsity 15s teams (notable exceptions include DSHA, St. Joseph Academy, Kahuku, among others), which is a function of numbers. All of the players, freshmen through seniors, compete together on the same team during the regular season, so why is it necessary to separate them during the all-star season?
“It makes more sense for the girls’ bracket to have a competitive and less competitive bracket, but not age-based,” Burke said. “There aren’t enough girls in that 14-15 age range to have enough teams for it to be competitive.
“For us, we had seven girls in that category and the most sensible thing for us was to have one Tier 1 team and say [to the underclassmen], ‘Sorry, we don’t have anything for you.’ But that was the absolute last thing I wanted,” Burke said.
Rugby Colorado is at a crossroads with its girls’ 15s. The state adopted 7s as its state championship season for the fall, and now the State Rugby Organization (SRO) is brainstorming how to reintroduce 15s.
“It’s an ongoing discussion with Angus Peacock, the executive director for Rugby Colorado, to figure out how to rebuild 15s in Colorado for girls,” Burke said. “Right now we only have 7s at the high school level, no 15s. The goal is how to take this [all-state] program and transition it into something that runs through the year and ultimately gets 15s back in the high schools where it can sustain itself.”
As the most-capped (51) Eagle in USA Women’s National Team history, Burke, a prop, is personally invested in seeing 15s flourish. A 7s-only state doesn’t necessarily exclude athletes from learning rugby but the 15s game is a showcase for a wider set of skills. Additionally, there’s pressure from scholarship-wielding colleges to embrace 15s. The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) contests a fall 15s season and championship that begins immediately in September and ends in November. Introducing 15s fundamentals to players doesn’t really fit with the collegiate varsity environment.
And so the build-up to the RCT started well before the June 9-10 weekend. The process began with four open training sessions, where attendees solely focused on 15s fundamentals – from set pieces to ball in contact. The subsequent two training sessions focused on game plan and structure, and then the final three practices got the separate Tier 1 and Tier 2 squads playing together.
Burke was particularly grateful to have the cooperation of capped Eagles, Women’s Premier League players and coaches to lead specialty trainings. Jillion Potter and Carmen Farmer worked on identifying space; Sarah Chobot and Alyssa Boff got into the set piece; Jeanna Beard focused on hookers and the back row; and Julie Tordonato and Keri Peacock led the backs.
“I had great support, and the players had a ton of 1-on-1 coaching from high-caliber players and coaches. That’s not a common occurrence in the girls’ game. It’s usually one coach trying to keep it all together,” said Burke, who noted an incredibly strong scrum over the weekend and credited the specialists’ work on body position. “The entire coaching staff was high-level female athletes. Rugby Colorado has an initiative going, ‘For Girls by Women,’ and we pushed it with the all-state team. It’s really important to try to have role models in coaching roles, so players can see where they can go with this.”
Texas/Oklahoma sent a Tier 1 team, and Rugby Colorado dominated their first meeting 99-10. 5785, a Colorado Springs- and Boulder-based program that has Air Force coach Amy Rusert driving development, brought a Tier 2 team and dominated Rugby Colorado. Lopsided games, aside from being unenjoyable, aren’t great showcases for the All-American and college scouts who were in attendance (Harvard’s Mel Denham, Queens University’s Katie Wurst, Mount St. Mary’s Farrah Douglas), and so the coaches reworked the Sunday schedule for some parity. Teams played across tiers and then the whole player pool merged to play a single 15s game. This outcome furthered Burke’s belief that age groupings aren’t ideal in the girls’ game.
“I was incredibly pleased with our Tier 1 performance. We had a really strong set piece and had implemented a structure that is not as common at the high school level,” Burke described a modern attack that integrated forwards with the backs. “It took them a while to get in practice – to see space based on what the defense is giving you – but they implemented it well in the game.”
USA 7s Falcon Cassidy Bargell
The Tier 1 team benefitted from a handful of seniors who played 15s when Rugby Colorado last fielded that competition, as well as juniors who knew 15s from last year’s all-star team. Experienced veterans like Cassidy Bargell, who has committed to Harvard, at flyhalf and Lindenwood incoming freshman Moira Dillow at No. 8 led the way.
Burke was pleasantly surprised by fullback Rhoman Johnson, who “is probably 115 lbs. soaking but just a little spitfire,” the coach said. “She made some huge try-saving tackles and worked really well in the back three.”
Johnson is typically a flanker in 15s but intuitively knew where to be on defense and looked comfortable covering the back field.
“Based on what I saw these girls have immense potential. They clearly figured it out pretty darn well,” Burke said of the players’ ability to transition from 7s to 15s. “We just need game time and chances to play against difference teams so we can see how we match up.”
Conversations regarding future fixtures have already begun, and Burke talked of a potential round robin against Texas/Oklahoma and perhaps KC United in Salinas, Kansas – a five-hour drive for everyone – next spring. In the meantime, Burke is looking forward to integrating 15s skill-based sessions into the upcoming fall 7s season, occurring on bye weekends. The big question is still: Where will 15s live?
“I’m discovering it’s hard to rebuild 15s once you transition to 7s in the high schools,” Burke said. “You only need 10 people to have a 7s program. A sustainable 15s program at school requires greater numbers and much greater coaching. There’s more technical knowledge needed to make sure younger players are learning the set piece and scrumming a safe way.
“Don’t let it fold in the first place,” Burke advised other SROs that are considering adjustments to their competition formats in hopes of 15s’ return. “Figure out a way to keep 15s going even if it’s through combining teams. … When Colorado got rid of [girls’] 15s and played just 7s. ‘Well, that’s just what we do now.’ There was a 15s system and season, and now we have to figure out how to break back in. Sevens now dominates the fall – where does 15s go?”
Rugby Colorado All-State Roster
Aja Walker
Amelia Dillow
Angelena Luciano
Audry Wilhite
Bailey McCoy
Cassidy Bargell
Clara Copley
Cole Schield
Frances Street
Izzy Keller
Jada Smith
Joyleen Fifita
Juliane Wera
Kaya Walker
Laurissa Wallace
Lexi Costa
Llasmin Noyola
Logan Simson
Maria Kirton
Mariah Hurd-Crews
Megan Burriesce
Moira Dillow
Naina Miranda
Nicole Kimball
Randi Hernandez
Rhoman Johnson
Riley Spotts
Sedona Norton
Skyler Wilkey
Tessa Hann
RugbyColorado #JamieBurke