“One year ago I would have never said this but having played with the All-Americans, New York Rugby Club, and Berkeley All Blues and seen the possibilities, my ultimate goal is to become an Eagle and play in the Olympics.” – Babson College junior Matilda Kocaj
When Matilda Kocaj (pronounced Ko-Chai) was 14 years old, her family moved from Albania to New York City in pursuit of a better life and opportunities. She enrolled at Marble Hill School for International Studies as a freshman and looked for means to integrate into the community.
“When I moved here I did not know English and some of the ways I got involved that helped me adjust faster were joining the sports teams that my school provided,” Kocaj began. “I grew up watching my brother play [soccer] but was not allowed to do so because I was girl, and culturally at the time [in Albania] it was not accepted.”
Kocaj joined South Bronx United, which engages at-risk, first-generation and immigrant children through soccer, and ran track in the spring. The soccer club provided a family during her high school career, as well as a network of resources that guided her through the collegiate application process. South Bronx United nominated her for the Posse Scholarship, which led her to Babson College. When Kocaj arrived in Massachusetts in fall 2017, Kocaj tried out for but was not selected to the soccer team.
“I love sports and really wanted to continue to play in college,” Kocaj explained her pivot to rugby. “I had no idea what rugby was but I was told that I was aggressive when I played soccer and that I would love rugby. My friend Chiara [de Brabant], who played touch rugby in Melanesia, convinced me to go to one of the Babson Women’s Rugby practices and the same week I was thrown into a game. Right away I fell in love with the adrenaline and the feeling of being ‘unstoppable’ that I get from every tackle, ruck, pass and try.”
Babson head coach Dave Meyer remembers those early days, too.
“The first thing I noticed was that she was fearless in contact and already had amazing tackle form for someone who had never played a contact sport before,” Meyer said. “Her balance and stability through contact were also pretty evident. In her first live rugby action, we threw her on the field to see what she would do and she broke five tackles and scored an 80-meter try.
Fall 2017: Kocaj, standing, 2nd from right
“I’ve been around the men’s and women’s teams and she’s the first athlete where it was clear that her potential is special,” the coach said of the center. “You get athletes who are fast and have hand-eye coordination and have some ability to make people miss, but it’s rare to have all those things at the same time from the beginning.”
Kocaj refined her natural gifts with relentless hard work and continued to impress Meyer and the coaching staff as she consumed the game.
“In her second season I mentioned in passing that if you’re tackled and release the ball, then you can stand up and pick up the ball again. We didn’t work on it I just mentioned it at training,” Meyer said. “Two days later during a scrimmage, she was tackled on a breakaway by the fullback. She released the ball, picked it up and scored. She did it so smoothly and made it look like something she had been doing forever. You can coach players to do that, but at this level and with minimal experience, to see a player put it together and execute it to that extent, that’s special.”
Babson emerged during the 2019 New England Collegiate 7s Circuit (NEC7C). After steady gains through the spring, the team reached the championship match of its final two NEC7C tournaments, and finished runner-up both times. Babson funneled that experience into the New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference (NEWCRC) 7s Championship, a qualifier for the DII nationals.
“We beat Hartford and then Coast Guard in the championship match,” Meyer said of teams that play 15s in NEWCRC’s Tier 1. “Matilda played one of her best games in the final, and distanced herself from her teammates and the field.”
Kocaj scored eight tries for Babson at the 2019 USA Rugby DII 7s National Championship and joined New York Rugby Club when she returned home for the summer .
“During this time I got to play with badass women who find time to play rugby while having their everyday jobs,” Kocaj reflected on her first senior club 7s season. “I got to play next to and learn from really talented, experienced, smart and awesome rugby players as well as coached by an awesome coach, Ryszard Chadwick, that really helped me improve on my rugby skills, but most importantly helped me with my confidence and see the potential of something more than just playing to play.”
Meanwhile, the Babson staff convinced Kocaj to attend the Women’s Collegiate All-American (WCAA) open tryout at Sacred Heart University. WCAA head coach Katie Dowty selected the rising junior to the squad that competed at Women’s All-Star Week in Colorado, where the team played against Eagles and USA pool players.
“Since I have started rugby, my coaches – David Meyer, Nicole Bure and Samantha Perino – have really been a huge support and push that has gotten me to where I am,” Kocaj acknowledged. “Without their coaching and help, I would have never even been seen. When I got selected as an All-American I was really shocked because I started playing rugby for fun and really did not look past that. My coaches were the ones that believed and pushed me to go to the tryouts.”
Kocaj also represented the Northeast Academy at the NDIT 7s in Arkansas
That environment shaped her idea of what a great rugby player looks like and the work involved to get there. Those concepts sharpened when she traveled to the USA Rugby Club 7s National Championship with New York, and then relocated to Babson’s San Francisco campus for fall 2019. There, Kocaj played with the Berkeley All Blues in the Women’s Premier League.
“Playing with Berkeley rugby was amazing yet a very new experience for me,” Kocaj recapped. “Playing college 15s and Berkeley 15s is very different, to say the least, but I got to experience what club rugby competition is like. … I believe that playing and being coached by the All Blues helped me develop my rugby knowledge and further understanding of the game and what I need to do in order to get to the next level.”
While Kocaj was on the West Coast, Babson played 15s in NEWCRC’s Tier III, and club president and forwards captain Kate Tank did a superb job leading the squad on and off the field. Tank is one of two seniors, alongside Camille Xue, on this year’s squad. The 2020 NEC7C got an early start with the MIT 7s in December, and Babson won that tournament without Kocaj and backs captain de Brabant. The duo returned for spring 7s and rejoined a team with lots of returners and another year of maturity.
“The thing she drove home was the importance of defense,” Meyer said of Kocaj transferring knowledge from her All-American and senior club experiences. “While we teach it, it’s easy for new players to brush it off because that’s not the fun part of rugby – the passing and scoring is. Playing for New York, she said 85-90% of the time was spent on defense, and that we needed to instill how important it is in order to take the next step as a club and players.”
Babson won the first Bryant 7s tournament and beat DI Boston University and Northeastern en route, and then dropped two five-point decisions the following tournament to Boston and reigning DII 7s national champion Bryant. Babson won its final NEC7C tournament on March 8 handily, ending the abbreviated season 17-2. Kocaj scored 38 tries in three tournaments. The coronavirus then intervened, classes moved online, and the NEC7C was cancelled, along with the USA Rugby College 7s National Championships.
“They were very excited for this season. We had returned the majority of the core roster for the spring and added a few new freshmen, some with high school experience, which added an extra level of skill that was really helping us out,” Meyer said. “They did have national championship aspirations. Hartford and Maine are right there, but we really hoped we had the skill and ability and dedication to push for the national championship. With the season cancelled and USA Rugby shutting down competitions for the spring, it was a gut-punch for us.
“I feel for all the other schools out there that had big aspirations just like us,” the coach concluded. “The kids especially. I give some time but they do all the work and it’s tough thinking they’re missing out due to something out of their control.”
But rugby isn’t over for the majority of Babson’s players, and expect another a big push a year from now. Twenty-one-year-old Kocaj still has another year at Babson, where she is pursuing a degree in real estate, and a whole summer of 7s, and then some, ahead.
“Matilda loves rugby and it’s great to see that level of dedication to the sport,” Meyer said. “It’s something you don’t always see these days. So many rugby players see it as a cool sport but don’t’ see themselves playing after school. She’s already going beyond and doing bigger, better things. She’s fully embraced the opportunities available to her and is thankful to those who support her.”
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