Kat Stowers returned from her LDS mission in March 2020, just as Covid-19 was shutting down the country, and rugby. Her life shifted during the hiatus, and having been away from rugby for so long, the Utah native began to reconsider her place in the sport. But today, the 21-year-old is thankful that she attended BYU tryouts in the fall, because now she’s part of a leadership team that’s guiding a young squad through the rigors of the DIA / DI Elite, and a program to higher places.
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“I loved rugby through high school and my freshman year before I left [for my mission],” said Stowers, who came up through the Orem, United and Utah Lions systems. “But I got to a point where I was debating playing just because of different priorities, like having to help my family financially. But the time came when I took the courage to go to tryouts again and get back in the groove. It made me realize how much I missed it and how big a stress reliever it is.
“I forgot how fun it is tackle, not even going to lie to you,” Stowers enthused. “Obviously you’re not trying to hurt anyone but that adrenaline is a rush. The eagerness to score a try or to make a tackle, I forgot how that felt because it was 18 months since I touched a rugby ball.”
Ultimately, though, her teammates hooked Stowers.
“The team is just amazing,” she said. “I grew a strong relationship with a lot of the girls and that’s what made it easier to transition back from my mission.”
There aren’t many current players from when Stowers last represented BYU in spring 2018 -Maya Hood, Christina Miller – so her return has involved learning lots of new players.
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“I played with Kainoa [Ah Quin] my freshman year,” Stowers said of the veteran Cougar. “She might be quiet, but on the field she’s crazy. She’s feisty and so I appreciate her feedback.”
Matalasi Morrissette is another familiarity, although not from BYU.
“I had never played a game with her but always against her in high school, and it was always fun,” Stowers said of the USA U20 player with West End (Va.) and Atlantis lineage. “I learn a lot from her because she went to so many camps and has had a lot of experience. Sometimes we have different views of how to run our structures within our team, just because we had different coaches with different coaching perspectives, but we’ve come together and fixed those. Now we’re able to learn from each other as we try to get the team to where it needs to be.”
Stowers loves the learning aspect of the team and it’s why she’s so invested in developing the young players as they consume the sport and familiarize themselves with DI Elite / DIA standards. The season began with a Feb. 27 road trip to Central Washington University. That adrenaline rush returned, reassuring the center/scrumhalf that she had made the right decision, but the day did produce some frustration.
“Central Washington is a very strong, hard-running team with very aggressive, experienced players,” Stowers reflected on the 43-13 loss. “It was kind of hard for me, personally, in my first game back. It was a tough, competitive game and I got frustrated with myself through a lot of the phases. I thought I could have done better to help my team.
“The biggest thing we wanted to focus on from the first game was lack of aggression, and that was mostly because we had a lot of girls play their first game, including me after 18 months,” Stowers said of focus for the March 13 rematch. “In the second game, we knew what we were going up against. We came up short [26-8], but there was definitely progression from the first game. There was a big difference in our defensive line and our scrums – we managed to contain our scrums instead of being blown over every time.”
BYU did more than improve in the second match; it was able to enforce its game plan in the first half. Notably, Stowers and Ah Quin helped drive a kicking game that kept Central Washington on notice.
“We had some good kicks with good placement where our wingers could chase and get ahold of it,” Stowers said. “Sometimes we weren’t able to retrieve the kicks but other than that, the kicking allowed us to play mostly in their half the first half.
“Overall our goal was to have a kicking game for the first 10 minutes,” she further explained. “We wanted to see how Central would adjust to the weather but they had pretty good hands. They caught the ball and also tested our back three, who did great as well. So we realized the kicking game wasn’t going to work. I was very surprised there weren’t more knock-ons because when it’s raining, the high ball is tough. But we actually had more knock-ons due to passes and ball slipping in contact.”
In the second half, Stowers got time at scrumhalf and worked with Morrissette, who moved from No. 8 to flyhalf.
“I’m not going to lie, I do miss playing as a 9, just because I feel more effective as a 9,” said Stowers, who played scrumhalf throughout high school. “But obviously I will go where the team needs me and where Coach Tom puts me, and execute that position to the best of my ability.”
Stowers’ attitude reflects the team’s mentality of controlling the controllables. Even though losing isn’t fun, the two Central Washington games yielded lots of valuable information that’s being applied forward.
“The only thing we can control is how we perform, how we execute plays on offense, how we use our defense to shut down the other team’s offense,” Stowers said.
“A lot of the first-years impressed me,” she said of the newcomers’ learning curve. “Our forwards, especially. You have to be aggressive and are expected to be a hard hitter. We have one player – Ashlyn [Westhora] – and she has improved so much. … She could definitely go places.”
A big test awaits in Lindenwood University, which travels to Provo for a March 27 match.
“Yes, we’ve been talking about [the match],” said Stowers, who last played the Lions during the 2018 DI Elite semifinals. “We always talk about them, how experienced and aggressive they are, so we’re just trying to prepare ourselves for an intense game. Again, it’s going to be a learning experience for the girls to see what the pace of the game should be, because Lindenwood plays very high tempo.
“We were able to improve against Central Washington in our defense and scrums, and so during the upcoming weeks, I believe we’ll be able to increase our tempo, because that’s the pace we’ll be practicing at,” Stowers added. “And the coaches have been working on us, pushing us and our fitness, so it won’t be a surprise when we see Lindenwood.”
BYU added a non-league game against Utah Valley University on April 2, which will give the Cougars a final tune-up before the DIA / DI Elite playoffs commence.
