Young North Bay Wins Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Rugby Conference was able to hold its first official season this past spring, bringing teams from the D.C., Maryland and Virginia together in a competition that can foster regional growth. There were modifications for the pandemic era, but one thing remained the same: North Bay was named champion.

Jeff Adamczyk runs a robust middle school program that feeds the high school team, and that vein helped North Bay’s numbers in a year when in-person recruiting was nearly impossible. North Bay traditionally rosters 35-40 players in the spring, and the team started with low 30s in 2021. The rest of the league wasn’t as fortunate numbers wise, and so the entire season was 10s. North Bay entered two teams into the conference season.

“Everyone says it’s so great to have numbers – and yes, it is – but it’s also a curse sometimes because trying to find meaningful playing time for everyone is a challenge, especially when most of the opposition can barely do 10s,” North Bay head coach Scott Hoffman said. “We didn’t get the huge crop of recruits that we normally do, and after injuries and everything, we were down to the low-mid 20s. In that respect, thank goodness we were playing 10s, because we had maybe one sub for each group on game days.”

Hoffman asserted that the majority of the league just wanted to get back on the pitch and start playing, and the idea of playoffs and winning titles wasn’t a predominant theme this spring. Co-captain Shannon Mahan led an experienced senior class the Queens University of Charlotte commit anchored the backs’ performance. Rising senior Taylor Baldwin is the forwards captain.

“She’s a terrific kid, great spirit,” Hoffman said. “She can play anywhere in the pack. She’s fast enough for flanker and mostly hooks. We’re excited to have her coming back and anticipate her as captain next year, but the team picks that.”

The veterans have been good examples for the junior players coming up, including standout Annie Huettel.

“She is just a fantastic player,” Hoffman said of the new recruit. “She’s got great spirit and is just going to be that next-level player from our club. Once Atlantis comes back, she is absolutely that type of player. Smaller, fast, fearless in tackling and has great technique. Great pass. She played scrumhalf for us and scored, I’ll say, 20 tries for us this season.”

Hoffman also called out first-year Anna O’Leary, who impressed as a freshman prop. She’s a track and field thrower and powerlifter, and has the right frame for the game. O’Leary, like Huettel, is a natural, eager tackler.

The young team did well in the Chesapeake league and then fit in a 15s friendly against New Jersey’s Morris.

“That was rough,” Hoffman said of the 31-26 loss. “They’re a very good team and played well, but we found out girls ran out of gas. We’ve been playing 12-minute halves for 10s all season, and we even pared it back to 30-minute halves against Morris, but our girls were spent. Props go to Morris, but it was obvious our fitness was low.”

The coaching staff saw a benefit in the loss, as the players internalized the value of conditioning, but also made sure the team had some perspective in the defeat. This wasn’t a normal season with a regular ramp-up that begins in January and includes out-of-state tournaments and 15s games. The squad also shut down for two weeks in April for a Covid-19 exposure. There was no spread or additional cases, but another example of an unexpected hiatus during a strange season.

The high school league playoffs began June 6 and top-ranked North Bay faced #4 Fort Hunt.

“The semifinal was way closer than I thought it was going to be,” Hoffman said of the 17-10 decision. “It was brutal heat. It was on turf and the heat index was above 100 degrees. Fort Hunt came to play and played tough. Everyone was zapped. We were fortunate to get out of there with a win.”

The North Bay coaches stressed the recovery process in the run-up to the final against West Carroll, which had won its semifinal against West End. The team was also back to full strength and cooler temperatures allowed for a better performance as well. North Bay shut out a scrappy Marauders team 36-0.

“We’re a very young team,” Hoffman said. “The girls were pretty dejected after that 15s game against Morris. It was the first game we lost in probably 4-5 years. Talking after the game, it was, ‘Keep your heads up. Who here is a freshman?’ Seven or eight hands went up, and they had been huge contributors the whole season. So for them and all the players who had their first year with us, the final was exciting, to wrap up the season in that way. Just the fact that we are as young as we are and able to have the success we had in the conference, it was good. They played well against a tough, scrappy West Carroll team, who beat everybody else, handily. They were excited and justifiably so.”

North Bay is easing off of summer 7s so players can heal up, keeping building on fitness and hit the fall 7s preparation with renewed vigor. Hoffman isn’t entirely sure where North Bay will be competing this fall. He indicated that the Chesapeake league is talking about a fall 7s season, but he likes playing in the Rugby Pennsylvania series. North Bay has been allowed to participate in the competitive, organized fall 7s season in the past, the caveat being that Rugby Pa playoffs are off limits. Hoffman is also looking forward to getting back into 15s and will likely look toward New Jersey, New York and Connecticut for options. It will be a good opportunity to integrate those rising high schoolers, who are replenishing the North Bay ranks.