The U.S. Military Academy (“Army”) and Brown University contested the most competitive match of the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) opening weekend. The DI teams were tied at the end of regulation, necessitating a 10-minute sudden-death overtime. Army scored first and banked a 26-19 win to restart 15s league play.
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“If you were an impartial person, it would have been quite exciting to watch because of the closeness of the score and sudden-death overtime game,” Army head coach Bill LeClerc said. “It was nerve-racking otherwise.
“It was good to be back,” the coach continued. “Didn’t really know what to expect but we’re back in it now so that’s good. We’re out of practice playing games. You can only train so much. You’re not sure what it’s going to be like until you have that first real competitive game and not just a scrimmage against fellow teammates.”
Photo: Emma Richards-Smith, Kaid Contractor
Army is carrying approximately 40 players right now, and 15 of those are sophomores or freshmen – i.e., student-athletes who are playing in their first NIRA season. Three of those newcomers are rugby recruits, and walk-ons with no prior rugby experience comprise the majority of the Black Knights squad.
“That’s a function of West Point [not Covid],” LeClerc said. “Every place has its challenges and that’s just one that we have.
“Our best players, consistently – because there are more of them – are the walk-ons,” he added. “Sammy Sullivan was a walk-on. A walk-on [Codi Butt] scored 14 of our 26 points [Saturday]. She’s a fullback and this is her second year playing rugby. Sometimes you don’t know if it’s going to work out but that’s the fun of it.”
Photo: Emma Richards-Smith, Kaid Contractor
Army’s two captains – Hope Moseley and Rebecca Syrup – are also walk-ons and doing an excellent job in setting up the younger classes for success. But that’s not to say there isn’t quality leadership in the rugby-rich players, and LeClerc called out Kaitlyn Schwarting, Naomi Colin and Julia Riekena as standard setters.
“And there are other girls who have been playing for a couple years now who are stepping up. Kaylee Cargile has been going gangbusters,” LeClerc said. “The captains and senior class have been awesome. They’re going to set a really positive example for the freshmen to aspire to and follow to. It’s feeling pretty good at the moment for them. Winning helps, I’m not going to lie. Makes things a bit easier.”
Photo: Emma Richards-Smith, Kaid Contractor
Saturday’s season opener started with the home team, Brown, jumping ahead. Zyana Thomas scored the game’s first try and the Bears enjoyed a 5-0 lead until Moseley tied it up with a try. The score was deadlocked into the break, and then Army ran in back-to-back scores from Sydney Schaff and Butt, who also kicked both conversions, 19-5. Brown rallied and put Mahdia Parker and Kate Molloy away for tries. Olivia Duba and Macy Mackenzie kicked the all-important conversions for 19-19. There was still plenty of time for another score but regulation ended with the tie. A 10-minute, sudden-death overtime awaited.
“We were a little bit frazzled. It was a tie and everyone was a little bit confused regarding the rules, and shame on me for that,” LeClerc said. “But before we got going again, it gave them a little bit of time to collect themselves and do a, ‘We know what we need to do,’ type thing, and fortunately they were able to execute.
Photo: Emma Richards-Smith, Kaid Contractor
“This is sudden death and if you make a mistake, you won’t have time to recover and you’re going to lose,” the coach said of lessons. “It highlights the point of not being in that position when the full-time whistle blows.”
Army took the kickoff, played in the right part of the field, kept the pressure on and built some phases to a point where space opened up for Butt to score. Schwarting added the extras for the 26-19 win.
“Do the simple things better,” LeClerc summarized his overall strategy this fall. “[Saturday] showed that our ball carry was sloppy. Our ball retention wasn’t very good. Tackling was passable but needs to be a lot better. If you tighten up a few things – and they have a good idea of what they need to work on as well – but you’ve also got to credit that the opposition were putting you under that kind of pressure. They were tough. [Brown’s Kathy Flores has] done a great job there. We went up, they came from behind, and then sudden death overtime. Credit to them.”
Photo: Emma Richards-Smith, Kaid Contractor
Army plays the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Friday, Sept. 10, and the fixture is one of two non-league matches (Penn State on Nov. 2 is the other) designed to get players more field time.
“We have a big group of players who haven’t played and need to play,” LeClerc said. “That’s why we’ve got games against Coast Guard and Penn State, which consistently carries a B side. That’s the only way they’re going to get better. We call them the ‘developmental squad,’ but how are they developing if they don’t get to get out on the field? Might put some in against the likes of LIU and maybe Sacred Heart and Mount St. Mary’s, but you’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t come back and bite you because you still need to win. We didn’t make many changes against Brown went it was 19-all, I’ll tell you that much.”
Army plays its next NIRA match on Sept. 19 against Dartmouth and goes straight through (save one week in October) to the Nov. 20 championship, should the Black Knights advance that far. Remember that Army finished runner-up to Harvard in the last NIRA national championship in 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago.