Photo courtesy @UNHChargers
Two programs played their first-ever games in the National Intercollege Rugby Association (NIRA), as the University of New Haven welcomed Manhattanville College to Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium for two 7s matches. New Haven prevailed in both contests – 17-5, 14-10 – penning a successful start to a new era.
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In February 2021, the university announced the elevation of women’s rugby from club to NCAA varsity sport. Three months later, the Chargers hired Emily Record as head coach. It was a positive turn of events for the Connecticut native, who was coming from fellow NIRA program Guilford College. Record built the Quakers’ team from the ground up, but the first Covid-19 summer brought lay-offs, and that year-long post ended in 2020.
Record was at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center doing video work for the USA 7s team and saw the New Haven opening. USA Eagle Alycia Washington – a ChargerREC Team member – provided glowing reviews of the university and club sports programs, and that conversation kickstarted Record’s application process.
“It was a little bit of both,” Record considered the excitement and anxiety of building a new varsity program. “It’s really fun to watch the players learn that first year because the learning curve is so rapid. It’s a very fun process but a lot of work – and it will still be a lot of work when we’re established and good. A different level of patience is required.”
Record was on-boarded remotely in June, meaning there was no to little high school rugby recruiting to be done. The coach focused efforts on campus, and virtual orientations saw a swath of crossover athletes walk on. The group also includes three players with rugby experience – two who played in high school and a grad student who played in college – but again, those timelines were interrupted by Covid.
Pre-season began Aug. 19, and once everyone was medically cleared and NCAA compliant, the team had approximately two weeks before its first match.
“At first it was a lot of film, because we didn’t have many players who could do stuff on the field,” Record said. “But they grow exponentially every day. They’re loving it so much. When I first started playing it was the best thing ever and that’s just what they’re experiencing right now. It’s, ‘When do we get to tackle? When do we get to tackle!?’”
New Haven hadn’t had the numbers for intra-squad 7s games, but the same could be said for Manhattanville, which arrived with eight eligible players. There were a lot of nerves for opening day, which was actually postponed due to flooding to Sept. 6.
“I told them, it’s like ripping the band aid off. You just have to play a bit,” Record recounted the advice to the team. “It was their first real 7s game, and contact had been really controlled until then. We worked on the tackle, breakdowns – namely the ruck – and the focus for the game was: Go forward, on offense and defense. So they were prepared and ready, and nervous. But then after two minutes, the bench was asking, ‘When do I get to go in!?’”
Defining player leadership is an interesting process. New Haven had 13 players on the day, but there are no veterans.
“We have a pretty young team. Half, if not more, are freshmen,” Record said. “We’re trying to give everyone the opportunity to lead when it’s appropriate. We did game-day captains and will probably do that for the rest of the season, instead of naming season captains this year, just because we’re so young and everyone’s pretty new. It’s a good place to be because everyone has areas that they’re better at, whether on or off the field, so it’s trying to figure out how to let them lead when they know more, and when to follow when they know less.”
In the first match, New Haven took a 17-0 lead into halftime, as game-day captain and freshman Sydney Dela Cruz scored the program’s first-ever try. Fellow freshman Vanessa Latorelli scored a try and added the conversion, and sophomore Wareena Johnson also dotted down. The Valliants got on the board in the second half, but the Chargers held on for the 17-5 victory.
“They were a great match-up because we’re both in a similar spot,” Record said of Manhattanville. “We definitely had an advantage with numbers, so that helped us a lot.
But they were good competitors, and they liked to kick on us a lot. We hadn’t prepared for that, so that was a good opportunity for them to make adjustments.”
In game two, sophomore Damaris Williams scored and game-day captain and grad student Cynthia Chavez added the conversion. Manhattanville held a 10-7 lead until Dela Cruz broke free for the go-ahead points and conversion: 14-10 the final.
“They were on cloud nine,” Record said of the players’ post-game reaction. “And they did well. We have a lot of work to do but it’s a really good base to start from. We’ve been looking at film but not of ourselves, so now they’ll be able to say, ‘Oh, now I see what you mean about spreading out and how having seven people within 10 meters of each other doesn’t work well.’”
New Haven is back on the pitch this Saturday to play Alderson Broaddus University, another young DII program. The Chargers will also play Univ. New England and AIC in October, and has added a 7s round robin against non-NIRA members Yale and Bentley. All of the games are 7s.
“The season goal is focused on just developing the players and getting their basic IQ up and raising their skills,” Record said. “The goal is to get game time, time playing together, and figuring out what our strengths will be in fall 2022, so we can keep building.
“It’s just exciting,” the coach closed. “The administration is really backing us, which is great to see. I feel very supported here and I think the players feel supported, too, so it’s good.”