Memphis went 1-4 in last year’s DII True South, and that one win was the result of a forfeit. During the summer head coach Tim Brennan sat down with assistant coach Ralph Parks and talked revamp, because the current strategies weren’t working for the team. A return to defense became the answer, and the squad, which had the right leadership, continuity and feeders already in place, responded with great results.
“We had to make a change, and sometimes if one style isn’t working, then you try another style,” Brennan said. “Defense-oriented seemed more natural, and that’s what we used to be, but then I drifted from that style of coaching for one reason or another.”
The staff needed trust and buy-in, and influential players like Mariah Kalapu, Amanda Bomar, Jen Johnson and Stephanie Ragsdale as well as Hayley and Emily Wood, Sarah Calvery and newer blood like Kelly Cockroft provided that and the example for the rest of the team to follow. Drills centered on attacking the ball, and very little focus was paid to the offense until the defense started proving itself.
It helped that there is a good group of players who have been playing together for 4-5 years now, but there is definitely a youthful element present. There is a healthy contingent of sub-22-year-olds on the squad, and five teenagers made last Saturday’s 23-player roster.
“One of the most important factors to [our turnaround] is that many of my core players have been involved in coaching high school programs. They’ve become very good ambassadors to the rugby community,” Brennan pointed to involvement with Germantown and Memphis Inner City Rugby. “There’s an emerging college program, CBU [Christian Brothers University], but they haven’t played any games yet, so right now, we’re the only post-high school opportunity in the area. It can be intimidating to go from high school to a senior club, but with our players coaching at the high school level, it allows for a better transition.”
Last year, Memphis was able to secure third halves in all of its away games, so new and younger players could get a solid 20-30 minutes of field time. That helped with retention and also developed younger players like Savannah Beck, Isis Davis and Katelyn McCord into big contributors on the senior club stage.
Everything had the opportunity to sort itself during two pre-season games this fall, and the match against KC Jazz was especially useful.
“Mariah is the president and match secretary and we discussed it, ‘Let’s get them here because we need to test if this is working,’” Brennan explained the agenda behind the Jazz match. “The Jazz are usually physical and strong, and a little bit older than my players. So being able to play them and play them strong, it built confidence. About 20 minutes in, it was, ‘This is working. We’re on the right track.’”
That defensive mindset had gripped the team. In the pack, Kalapu and flanker Lindsey Bidder were fantastic example setters, while Ericca Howard, Davis and Beck picked up the backline defense well.
“It’s different – it’s more aggressive and therefore somewhat more isolating,” Brennan explained the defense. “I’ve tried to explain that if you try to help [your teammates] too much, then we’ll have holes. Trust your teammates to make their tackles and don’t try to help everyone.”
Knoxville went into Saturday’s match with a 34-0 matrix win against Nashville. And while Memphis was in a good place, it wasn’t ready to call itself the favorite. Last season, Knoxville posted two 50-point shutouts against the Flamingos and had won every matrix match between the two teams since at least 2015.
“There’s no way you don’t have a question [as to] whether or not a change in strategy will work,” Brennan said of pre-Knoxville anxiety. “You can’t test your strategy until you get on the pitch. I was just hoping for a better match than the previous few years.”
Memphis wasn’t timid and set the tone early on. Jasmine McGill scored first and a conversion from former Fallbrook HS and San Diego Surfer Alex Beckett gave Memphis a 7-0 lead. Knoxville’s Carly Smith then responded with a try to draw within two.
“We played tenacious defense, got a quick try, and we didn’t allow them to do what they wanted to do,” Brennan said. “After 20 minutes, I knew it was going to be a match and not a beat-down. I knew we had the team that could beat them.”
The Flamingos then put down four-straight tries – three of which came from prop Bomar and the fourth from wing Beck. With Beckett’s extras, Memphis held a 31-5 lead into the final 10 minutes of the game.
“They scored three tries toward the end, when I think maybe our fitness had an effect,” Brennan said of Knoxville’s tries through Smith and Kristen Coulston (2). “Maybe a little bit of overconfidence [at that point in the game] that we’ll address at practice. … When a team starts coming back, that is where we learn to win a game.”
Brennan again pointed to the committed defensive effort for producing the opportunities to attack and score points, and thus enabling the win.
“Everyone stood out. The way we’re doing defense, it can’t be one person,” the coach said. “Watching the film from last April, it wasn’t that we were thoroughly beaten by a much better team than it was we played such a poor team game. Those 15-23 who played on Saturday played as a team and bought into being more than individuals.”
Memphis will play its second and final matrix match of the fall in two weeks against Nashville, and then play in the Ozarks tournament, a team favorite. With the addition of the New Orleans Halfmoons, the True South is now six teams large, and the competition is divided into north and south pools. So Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville play each other twice, and then New Orleans, Battleship and Lagniappe will do the same in the fall and spring. The playoffs will take the top two teams from each pool and funnel them into crossover semifinals in the spring.
“I feel like we most definitely will see an improvement from this game forward. I would’ve liked to get a few more players into that game, but we’ll have a third half against Nashville and then the tournament,” said Brennan, whose coaching staff has grown with the addition of some returning alumnae. “It might be time to add a little bit of offense, but I’ve kind of ceded that to the other assistant coaches so I can stay focused on defense.”
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