The Pacific South club sphere does fluctuate, but overall, a consistent number of teams compete in its three women’s league offerings. In 2020, there are four DI teams, three DII teams, and six teams populate the geographic union’s largest competition: Division III.
DIII can be a place for young teams to build momentum, or a home to social clubs, or a place where teams can keep play while they restructure. For Phoenix, it’s the perfect place for a first-year club to germinate and eventually grow into higher divisions.
Jillian Haretuku had been practicing and playing touch with the Phoenix Rugby Club and wanted to start a women’s team. The club supported the notion and reached out to Jessica Carpenter, a Phoenix native who learned the sport at University of Arizona and coach Grand Canyon University.
“They’ve been around for 50 years but never had a women’s team,” Carpenter said of the Phoenix Rugby Club. “They reached out to me and asked if I would coach. I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that but maybe I want to play again.’ … We needed a team in Phoenix. Tempe, Tucson, Flagstaff have teams but we needed something more central.”
That was last summer and the duo immediately started scouring the community for potential players. They set up their social media accounts, posted on sites like Bumble BFF and alumnae pages, printed out business cards and approached people on the street, gym and even Trader Joe’s. Slowly but surely a working roster began to build and got a nice boost when the team signed New Yorker Kelsea Thompson as head coach.
“The men’s club was very helpful in staring up the team,” Carpenter said. “They’d advertise our side, and we practiced with them for a while just so we’d have numbers. We’d get drinks with them after practice. They were very supportive. There are eight youth sides and they’d also play touch. It’s nice to have them there when we bring new players in because they can see the entirety of the club and how long it’s been established and how nice everyone is.”
The team played 3-4 tournaments in the fall, mostly 10s, which worked with numbers. The experience was split between rugby newcomers and veterans. The foundation set around Carpenter and Haretuku, who played flyhalf and flanker, respectively, as well as player-coach Thompson at outside center. Fellow New Yorker Stefanee Sherman was crucial in the front row as hooker, and scrumhalf Samantha Calle brought playing experience from Arizona. Their leadership saw newcomers like Maggie Sowell, a military veteran who’s settling in at prop, and wing Michelle Duenas, the Trader Joe’s find, to develop into impact players.
The team joined SoCal’s DIII and began its season with an away game against Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. The fixture marked the team’s first full-length 15s game, an anxiety that intensified after only 12 players could make the trip.
RELATED: Pacific South DIII Schedule & Standings
“We were nervous about numbers,” Carpenter said. “A couple girls had work or kids sick so we were short. ‘Whatever happens, happens. We’re only going to get better from here and it’s all about the experience at this point.’
“When we got to NAU we were told that we could play 12 vs. 15 or forfeit,” the flyhalf continued. “’Heck no, we didn’t come here to forfeit our first game. We’ll play down.’”
The gamble paid off, and two minutes into the match, player-coach Thompson scored the game’s first try. The team reconvened at the 50 with a new sense of confidence: Could we really win this game with three fewer players on the pitch?
Yes. Not only did Phoenix score another five tries in the first half, the 12-player defense didn’t allow a single point against.
“I don’t know what to say,” Carpenter recounted her halftime speech. “’I’m so proud. You’re doing so well so keep it up.’”
The second half was more even, and Northern Arizona was able to answer with 38 points of its own. Phoenix started to fatigue but put in three more tries, and even withstood a bigger comeback when a yellow card put the visitors down to 11 defenders. When the final whistle sounded, Phoenix had won 55-38. The players collapsed with exhaustion and then slowly revived with promises of celebration to follow at the social.
RELATED: Full match details
“The most important thing for the rest of the season is definitely recruiting, a bigger push,” Carpenter talked first-season goals. “Make sure we continue this momentum with Phoenix women’s rugby club and don’t fizzle out. Make people see we’re not messing around and we’re going to be an established club like Temple and OP are, and they should play for us. Ending with more players than we started is the ultimate goal.”
Hopefully recruitment gives Phoenix the base it needs to consider other competitive options.
“It was always the intention of the women’s side to be part of a league as soon as we had the numbers,” Carpenter said. “DIII is a good starting point for us because we have the potential to move up from here. But this year is all about recruitment.”