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Tigress Takes Home Tropical’s Top Honors

  • 05 Apr 2021
  • 375 Views

Tigress (Charlotte, N.C.) won the Tropical 7s Girls’ U18 Division, going 6-0-1 in Orlando, Fla., and defeating the Utah Cannibals 17-14 in the final. The title win confirmed for the players what co-coaches Alicia and Geoff Tice already knew, that the team can run in those elite competitions.

“John [Siner] put on a fantastic tournament,” Geoff said of the Tropicals 7s tournament director. “With my experience at rugby tournaments – outside of Ruggerfest in Charlotte – it was just so well run. I can’t say enough about the staff, the facilities – and the officials!”

“That added to the legitimacy part,” Alicia said. “There was a full team [of refs], all mic’d up. No running a flag to a willing dad to run touch. That made the girls feel like, ‘O.K., we’re doing this. This is real.’

“Our boys have so much success,” Alicia referenced the CJRA Tigers, “that I think a lot of the time they’re saying, ‘What about us?’ It’s fantastic to put them all in an arena like this and have them see how good they are. We always knew it, as coaches, but they didn’t truly understand until they saw what they could do.”

Tigress has been one of, if not the most, active girls’ high school teams in the country in terms of finding competition during the pandemic. The team competed in a fall 7s circuit and is now multiple weeks into a spring 15s schedule assembled by CJRA director Erik Saxon. The group is also relatively local, so in addition to being able to drive to the tournament, there was also some familiarity in the competition.

That also meant that, after arriving in Orlando on Wednesday, the team could enjoy some down time, and spent Thursday at Universal Studios to have a little fun.

“But, yes, the nerves were out of control,” Alicia said in anticipation of game day.

The team was one of the first to the pitch on Friday morning, allowing for some quiet time and conversation before ramping up for a big day.

“I’m really big into the mental and meditation aspect of it,” Alicia said of game preparation. “We talked about where we are and really grounded ourselves, and it felt like they overcame [the nerves] a bit.

“We did come off a little flat-footed,” she said of the 24-24 opener against Gorilla Rugby Academy. “But you can’t judge the rest of the day from your first match. I would love to play Gorilla again and see where we’d end up.”

The Panther Academy’s Red team awaited in round two, and being a USA South-based squad, the team knew several of the players.

“We knew what we were going against so we played with the roster a bit and let girls who weren’t going to get a lot of playing time in the later matches to play then,” Geoff said of the 19-12 win. “It allowed us to find some decent combinations.”

The Maui Wahine Warriors had defeated Alaska and Panther Academy’s Red side heading into round three, and Tigress was able to them in advance of their meeting.

“They had sized up Maui and said, ‘Coach, we need to come back down,’” Alicia said of mentality management. “They asked for another meditation session and gave us tangible goals for this match. Match by match, they came into their own. They managed it well. We were more nervous as coaches. Before the match, they were huddled together, sizing up the competition, and we’re wondering, Are they in the right head space?’ But there’s nothing you can do at that point.”

“The first three matches were more like a progression since we’ve been playing a lot of 15s recently,” Geoff added. “So we needed to switch from 15s to 7s. The Gorilla match was playing like we do in 15s. By the time we got to the Maui match, that was probably the best 7s game we’ve seen them play, prior to the championship match.”

The Tices lauded Maui’s aggressive, structured and fast game, and it forced Tigress to also be better.

“Maui is incredibly physical,” Geoff said. “They played with really great shape, and they’re huge. They’re fast and have incredible hands. They had two players who were over six feet, and they put them on the outside, where we typically put our faster, smaller players. We had one player who is all of 4’11” going against a 6’ giant. So there was a little bit of that, but we adjusted well. The first half we were playing a little high and they realized that wasn’t going to work. We got lower and became the more physical team.”

Tigress was able to take advantage of a couple of breaks at the breakdown and turned those opportunities into scores. Tigress won 15-0, but the Tices asserted that the score line was not indicative of the competitiveness of the match.

“They were on cloud nine,” Alicia said of the impact. “The single biggest confidence booster that I’ve seen in these girls. It’s the kind of match that they’re going to take for the rest of their lives. Whenever they face adversity, they’ll look back on this match, ‘If I can do that, then I can do this next challenge.’ … After that game, I’m not sure anyone could have stopped them.”

As for that 4’11” winger?

“When we asked her to travel, she wasn’t so sure of herself,” Alicia said of freshman Jemmely Rivera. “She wasn’t that confident. It was more of a, ‘I don’t feel like I’m good enough.’ But I think she came out of her shell after that [Maui game]. That’s why I coach girls’ rugby – for those moments. That experience will stick with her.”

Rivera was one of several freshman who bloomed in a more competitive environment.

“Kate England is amazing,” Alicia said of the second-season freshman, whose older brother convinced her to try the sport. “She’s our fullback in 15s so she’s a natural sweeper in 7s. The girl’s amazing. She’ll come out of nowhere on defense, and she’s so consistent. She’s fast, so she has really great breakaways. She’s a naturally gifted athlete, so we’re going to see a lot from her in the next three seasons we get with her. She’s really taking to the coaching and the girls have mentored her so much, so that’s really great to see.

“Freshman scrumhalf Caroline Cooke is the same deal,” Alicia said of “Cookie,” who started playing in middle school. “She’s a scrumhalf, so she can’t be too timid, and she’s worked hard in so many ways. Her dad, Dan, coaches with us and does a good job of walking the line between dad, coach, bus driver, cook.

“Cookie, Kate, and another girl, Gabby [Alegria] – they’re so much fun and they love it,” she continued. “We have a great team, but it’s great to look down the line and see what’s developing and who’s mentoring who.”

Team leaders like EC Cantrell, Lennox London and Maddie Hughes are setting fabulous examples for the program, and the Maui win helped solidify the trust between teammates. That momentum carried into Tigress’ fourth game of the day: a 39-0 win over the Alaska Youth Rugby Club. The team spent the rest of the day recovering and indulged in a great meal provided by traveling parents.

“They definitely carried that confidence from day one into day two,” Geoff said of the 45-0 win over Rogue Ridge (Mich.). “They started pretty quickly and they didn’t let off even when we rotated our subs in. There wasn’t much of a difference in how they were attacking and playing defense. We were just working on our structure, knowing that we were going to have to play – at that point – either USA South [Panther Blue] or Utah [in the placing round].”

Fallbrook had withdrawn for the second day of competition, and so Tigress had an hours-long break between its final pool play game and the finals round. Maui beat Gorilla 24-10 to place the Charlotte team atop the Pool A standings. The Utah Cannibals went undefeated in Pool B, playing its closest game against Panther Academy’s Blue team (22-12 win), and advanced to the final against Tigress.

“It looked difficult for us, because prior to our first match on Saturday [day two], we had struggled to maintain shape,” Geoff said while scouting Utah. “Watching [Utah] play – they’re incredibly gifted players and kept really good shape on defense. So we had to be better at what we could control – penalties at the breakdown, knock-ons, discipline – and make sure we didn’t commit errors there. I did feel like with the talent and speed we have, and the fact that they gained that trust with each other, that we would be able to compete.”

“But it’s not up to us anymore. At that point, we’ve done all we can do,” Alicia said of readying for the final. “We’re not interested in creating rugby robots. We tell them, ‘We’re adding to your toolbelt, to your palette. It’s up to you to paint the picture you want.’ They watched and scouted Utah, and did the game planning. What’s going to work, what’s not going to work, and we bounced ideas off of each other.”

But the coaches made a crucial decision to move London from the pack to the wing for the final.

“She’s one of those players who wants to understand every move that we make, so we knew we had to justify our decision to her,” Alicia said of the 15s flanker and 7s forward. “When we asked her how she felt about wing, she gave us big eyes. ‘Uh, ok, if that’s what you want to try.’ But we explained that we needed to lock down the outside and that we like her defense and speed, and that’s a good fit for her in that moment. But we also had to justify the move to the other six girls on the pitch, too. We told them that between Lennox on the wing, it was their individual jobs to shut down the center of the pitch.”

The coaches acknowledged that it was a gamble, but fortunately the move paid off. Cantrell kicked off the match and Utah knocked-on the receipt. That put play in good attacking territory, and after a couple minutes, Queens Univ. of Charlotte commit Reese Vorster of Wando (S.C.) scored the final’s opening try. Tigress then extended its lead when Utah knocked on the restart and then incurred a yellow card. Senior center Hughes capitalized with a try.

The Cannibals got on the board, taking a quick-tap penalty through the middle of a slowly resetting defense for the centered try and seven points. From the subsequent restart, London took the corner from midfield and beat the cover defense, but just before dotting down the long-range score, play was recalled for another Utah yellow card. Tigress scored shortly afterward. With Cantrell’s previous conversion, the team led 17-7.

The Utah team kept it interesting, scoring from a really nice offload out of the breakdown and going half the pitch for a fast try and conversion, 17-14. There was opportunity for one more surge, but a turnover and penalty allowed Tigress to kick to touch and end of the game for the title.

“I hate to put words in their mouth, but [this win] was a moment of, ‘We’re arrived. We’re here and we can compete and we’re good enough,’” Alicia said. “This tournament has legitimized their hard work and what they’re doing, and they’ve earned this space next to the Tigers – boys they’re friends with and play with and see multiple times a week. There’s talent and success on both sides.”

Tigress is back at it this weekend, switching back to 15s and welcoming two different teams on Saturday and then Sunday to Charlotte. They’ll play through May and then host a Memorial Day Weekend tournament – Queens City Youth Jamboree – to cap the 15s season.

“The girls were already asking us about a trip to Utah in July,” Alicia said of the NAI 7s in Salt Lake City. “So I imagine it’ll be impossible to say, ‘No,’ now. They had to sell a lot of doughnuts to get Orlando, so they’ll have to sell A LOT more doughnuts to get to Utah.”

TIGRESS

Gabby Alegria (Fr.)

Emma Claire Cantrell (Sr.)

Caroline Cook (Fr.)

Katelyn England (Fr.)

Jaden Gary (Jr.)

Andrea Hooker (Sr.)

Maddie Hughes (Sr.)

Zoey Keller (Jr.)

Lennox London (Jr.)

Jemmely Rivera (Fr.)

Lilly Separ (Sr.)

Reese Vorster (Sr.)

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