Casey Karl back in Palo Alto (Photo: Jackie Finlan)
There is much to evaluate after this weekend’s collegiate playoffs – including whether this DI Elite / DI Spring combined post-season has run its course – but I wanted to first indulge in one of its joys. These games showcase a bunch of high school athletes who have prioritized rugby, and now that I’ve been covering the sport for almost 13 years, I get to sit back and watch these careers unfold. It’s so heart-warming, and every year, there are more and more young adults driving this game upward.
I’m of course not the only one who notices, and there was a distinct buzz at Steuber Rugby Stadium for Lindenwood. The Palo Alto site had the most teams of any of the four sites, and teams that played earlier in the day wanted to stick around and watch the Lions, who played at 3 p.m.
One of Lindenwood’s players, Casey Karl, scored several tries on the wing, and I remember seeing her for the first time in 2012, also playing on Stanford’s pitch, but during the girls’ high school national championship when USA Rugby used to run it. She was playing outside center for Fallbrook and had this uncanny ability to pick off passes and return them for tries. Her teammates, like Richelle Stephens and Kayla Canett, have gone on to do big things, and she’s right there with them. It was a great piece of nostalgia and one of my favorite parts of the job.