Photos: Bob Bruce Photography
Chicago North Shore was the class of the DI Midwest, and Detroit set the regional power as the standard to chase. The teams met in the regional championship last year, and now Detroit is the leading contender for the berth to nationals.
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Detroit is 5-0 in league play, winning games by an average of 48 points. The team has one more game but has locked in a spot to the DI Midwest championship and will play Wisconsin (3-3) unless Chicago (2-2) wins its final two league games, including one against Detroit.
“The competition this fall is good. We’re not a big pack – we’re small – so we know we have to use our speed to compete. The ground-and-pound just slows us down,” Detroit coach Erin McGowan said. “Each team had different rally points against us. Wisconsin, when they played us at home, scored three tries in a manner of [10] minutes. We’ve been working on our defense, but being able to capitalize on our speed has been our success.”
“The back line has been set all year,” McGowan said. “We have great veteran leadership in Kris Smith and Lindsey Mancini, and they’re able to mold the younger backs into what we need. In the forwards we have Shaena Sparrow [as leader], who has been solid ever since she joined.”
Sparrow at No. 8 leads all point scorers with 97 on nine tries and 26 conversions.
Backs Smith and Emily Hranchook have been very dynamic, already accounting for 25 tries between them. Hranchook is still in college but decided to make the jump to senior club play. She’s in the system – attended the National All Star Competition, traveled to Ireland with the Midwest U23 Thunderbirds, 7s with Stars.
Scrumhalf Ariana Castillo has also been a great pickup. She graduated from Michigan last season and played with Legacy 7s with some of her future Detroit teammates.
“That allowed us to free up Sarah Conroy and move her to strongside flanker,” McGowan said of the former scrumhalf. “She’s hands-down our best tackler on the team and was wasted in terms of defensive pressure at nine.
“We also moved our 10 to loosehead prop,” the coach said of Amy Jedele. “I know that seems like a crazy shift but she could lift more weights than anyone else, so we just taught her the position. We’ve blown this team up from last fall, lots of different positions. It’s nice because everyone can do everything if someone goes down.”
It’s been working well so far, and if Detroit wins the Nov. 11 championship in Lemont, Ill., then it will guarantee its place in the DI national championship quarterfinals in May. With no more league matches or regional commitments in the spring, Detroit is looking forward to playing new opponents and exploring some of the larger tournaments.
Additionally, both Detroit and fellow Midwest finalist will be invited to the Gold Cup (read more), which has expanded in its second iteration. Last spring, Detroit filled in for the Minnesota Valkyries last minute for a trip to Raleigh and is excited to have the proper preparation to participate fully in 2018.
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