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Young Doylestown Wins PA 7s Championship

  • 01 Nov 2019
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Three years ago, Doylestown graduated 14 high school seniors and has been rebuilding its experience base ever since. A young team advanced to last year’s Rugby Pennsylvania Fall 7s Championship and finished second to Downingtown, and that experience spurred new goals to return, win, and bundle that momentum into extended success.

Doylestown graduated one player last season and has one senior this year, so the team is still relatively young. However, the group has grown exponentially since 2018, banking a ton of field time together in the spring 15s and summer 7s seasons, and sending players to select side and All-American teams for elite exposure that is recycled back into the squad.

“Their rugby IQ has increased a huge amount,” said head coach Stacy Mancuso, who is also involved with the middle school program. “They became smarter rugby players rather than athletes. Last year, we got to where we had to get and then the final came down to experience, and Downingtown had experience. This year, they’re so much more comfortable with each other and read the field better, and by August they were really clicking as a group.”

Rugby Pennsylvania hosted a multi-stop 7s series throughout the state, and Doylestown established itself as the team to beat. Leading the way were players like Sophia Linder and Nina Mason, both High School All-Americans who are regulars with teams like Atlantis. Linder is an offensive weapon but was unfortunately injured for the state 7s tournament.

“Nina is a strong force and leads the drive on offense,” Mancuso said of the flyhalf. “She has great IQ, great game sense, and her defense – her tackling ability – is just as good as her offense. She gives the team the drive they need to play up to her level. They really give their all when they’re out there with her.”

Doylestown added a couple of non-series fixtures in North Bay, Md., and the West Chester Cup, which drew more diverse and nationally ranked competition like hosts North Bay and New Jersey’s Morris. Doylestown won both tournaments, and the team’s confidence bulked up.

Mancuso attributed the team’s success to its ability to distribute work and responsibility evenly. It has its super stars, but wins don’t rest on their shoulders.

“Usually there’s a standout player or two but in the 15 years that I’ve been coaching, this is one team where it would be really difficult to name an MVP because they all work so well together,” Mancuso said.

“Typically you see one or two names that stand out on the score sheet, but that’s not the case, and that’s why we’ve had so much success. We spend a lot of time working on how to find space and move the ball there, and then the rest is athletic ability. They’re not selfish with the ball and everyone touches the ball before the score. If you have an MVP, then the opposition just marks that person. I know who the All-Americans and the all-stars are, and they’ll always be up there because that’s the level they’re at, but you wouldn’t necessarily be able to pick them out on the field, because we have such a good team game.”

The team was full-throttle come state championship time, and it was necessary given the disruptive conditions. A deluge of rain saturated the pitches, so much so that kickoffs and dropkicks wouldn’t leave the ground.

“We’re a fast team, so the rain was a huge factor,” Mancuso said. “Those conditions took our speed away and so we changed things up a bit and they executed beautifully. When it dried up at noon, it was like night and day. The semifinal and final, the sun came out and dried out the pitch, and then we went back to our normal style of play. They were able to make the transformation really easily.”

Penn Legacy and West Shore gave Doylestown its best push-back during the season and state championship. Mancuso described the former as a physically stronger, harder-driving squad, and the latter as a quicker, more strategic side that matched well on defense. Penn Legacy advanced to the final after a 17-15 overtime win over young single-school program Bishop Shanahan.

In the final, and throughout the tournament, senior captain Amelia Fisher and junior hooker Elizabeth Johnson were instrumental in the ground game, poaching lots of possession and creating turnovers that provided more opportunities on attack. Doylestown took control early on.

“I’m really big on getting everyone out there, and I’m very comfortable in the bench,” Mancuso said. “Usually there’s a big discrepancy between your top seven and 10, 11, 12, but the whole bench – 20 players – is really close in talent, which is nice.”

Isabella Poole is just one player who picked up the game last year and has quickly developed into a big contributor on the pitch. She’s got good speed and has learned more about positioning, putting herself in a good place to score a lot of tries from the wing this season.

It all came together for a 29-10 win over Penn Legacy for the Rugby Pennsylvania Fall 7s Championship title.

“They made a goal about a year ago that they wanted to become the 7s champions and then carry that to the 15s season, and then the CRCs,” Mancuso said. “They see the result of hard work, and now they don’t want to stop. It’s so cool for the whole coaching staff, to have this group that is really enjoying the game and wants to get better and improve and do all the stuff on their own. We give them opportunities to play at the next level – we encourage Atlantis camps, playing with teams at the New York 7s – and don’t hold them back. Players gain that knowledge and bring it back to us, and we incorporate some of that into what we do. It allows us to run the team at a different level than the basic club side.”

Sen. Steve Santarsiero (Pa.) took note of the achievement and reached out to Mancuso, requesting an invitation to the team’s celebration so he could present Doylestown with a state citation of excellence. If all goes well, the senator will requesting another visit after the 15s season.

#Doylestown RugbyPA

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