ARPTC Adapts to Training-Heavy Summer

ARPTC at Legacy 7s / Photo courtesy @MidwestRugbyUnion Facebook

The pandemic has limited the amount of time teams have had together when preparing for the USA Club 7s National Championship, and it might level the field a bit. American Rugby Pro Training Center (ARPTC), a National Development Academy, has been able to train together all summer and held back-to-back residency bubbles in 2020. But that’s not to say the Little Rock, Ark., program has had it easy, and this past year has been an exercise in constantly adapting.

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ARPTC is very active in the summer, as it hosts high school and senior camps of varying lengths, and in late June held the Falcon 7s (Read: Warriors Redeemed at Falcons 7s). Hannah Field was meant to be the lead coach for the senior residents, but was called back to England for an emergency. Hannah Stolba then stepped in and has served as head coach, but the former Eagle is unable to attend nationals, and so Ryszard Chadwick has also been coaching.

“On the one hand, having different coaches is awesome because you get different perspectives and learn different things, but it’s just something no one knew was going to happen,” said ARPTC veteran Sophie Pyrz, who is part of the leadership group alongside Lauren Ebeling, Alli Hale and Maura Hough.

“It was equally difficult for everyone,” she continued. “The vets really had to take it upon ourselves to be that connection between the coaches and the team, and take on more leadership roles than anticipated. For the new girls, their first experience was – it wasn’t chaos. It’s just the coaching changes threw everyone off.”

Pyrz asserted that everything worked out in the end. The team was able to train and grow together, and the process of adapting to adversity allowed the group to define its character.

“It’s inspiring that everyone can come together and train really hard every day and get better no matter what the circumstances are,” Pyrz praised her teammates. “Little Rock is hot. It’s 110 degrees every day and everyone had an awesome attitude about getting out. No one complained.”

Unfortunately there wasn’t much outside competition to be had. In a normal year, ARPTC might travel to talent-dense tournaments like Bloodfest in Texas and Cape Fear 7s in North Carolina, or host teams that wanted that training camp experience and get games there. But that wasn’t the case this summer. ARPTC did host the Falcon 7s in late June, drawing elite teams like the Northeast Academy and an Eagle 7s squad.

“A lot of girls were able to play in that but we were playing with mixed sides,” Pyrz said. “We were just giving everyone the opportunity to play up and compete for a spot at nationals.”

ARPTC crossed state lines for the Legacy 7s, the third stop on the Midwest Club 7s Series, and defeated the Chicago Lions, Chicago North Shore, Legacy and Metropolis 155-15.

“The competition was good, but they won all their games,” said Pyrz, who wasn’t unable to travel to that event. “So I think the emphasis was to work on our structure a bit more. They were able to take gaps that might not be there against other teams at nationals, so relying on our structure and each other was the focus that day.”

Other than those two outings, it’s been inter-squad scrimmaging.

“We’ve had about 24 this summer,” Pyrz said of the resident group. “That’s definitely a good number because I remember practice back when ARPTC was a year old, and we would drive to practice in one car with five people. To have all this competition, to have scrimmages, is awesome.”

ARPTC trains full-time during the summer – including summer 2020. Then for the first time ever, due to the pandemic, ARPTC created a fall residency bubble for players. That means there is a core group of players who have trained together last summer, last fall and this summer.

“Yeah, there’s a little bit,” Pyrz said of anxiety around the amount of game time. “But there are vets here who have been training together for almost eight months. We have a good enough sense of how each other plays and confidence in our skill and abilities.”

Pyrz indicated that she’s been training alongside Ebeling, Hale, Summer Harris-Jones, Emerson Allen, Jocelyn Jones and Judy Gramajo since last summer. Life University wing Autumn LoCicero, who is currently in Glendale, Colo., for the U23 7s camp, was also present for the fall residency and most of this summer.

“Sierra Watkins came in and she’s stepped up. She absorbs a lot of information,” Pyrz said of the Columbia University and Chattanooga player. “She’s a big girl and uses that to her advantage. Just a hard runner and we really utilize that. Good tackler, too.”

Pyrz also credited Ciara Clawson for her coachability and her ability to immediately implement feedback and execute on the pitch.

“And Liz Tafuna. She is just so skilled. And I would not want to face her on the field,” Pyrz said of the former United (Utah) player. “She’s really young and brings a good vibe to the team. It’s fun to have girls who are nice off the field and the glue on the game, and then come and bring their A game to the field.”

ARPTC hasn’t named its roster for nationals yet, but that should come next week.

“It’s similar, but a little different since we have been training for so long,” Pyrz compared the pre-nationals vibe to years past. “Last summer and last fall, we had no competition. Just grinding day-in and day-out for six months. To not really compete this summer has been challenging, so everyone is excited to play quality rugby and quality teams, and to go have fun and put all that hard work onto the field.”

The set-up, schedule and pools for nationals have not yet been released, so there’s still some ambiguity ahead.

“I think we’ll play really well as long as we trust each other and have each other’s backs,” Pyrz said. “We have skill sets to change our style of play against the competition, and we’re really good at changing on the fly.

“Obviously we want to win, but we never like to make it a goal,” she continued. “When put your intention and your mind on winning, then it’s not about the process. You want to stay in the process, stay in the game. So, we don’t talk about the outcome.”

For more info on nationals, visit www.usaclub7s.com.