This is an exciting and busy summer for Women’s High Performance rugby in the USA! The Women’s National Team will compete in the CanAm inVictoria, Canada in June and the Women’s Rugby World Cup in London in August and September.

The Women’s 7s Team will hold tryout camps in Californiain July.  The athletes who represented the USA in the Women’s International Invitational 7s in Las Vegas in February will return to camp, along with a broad cross-section of athletes new to the 7s program.

The Women’s Collegiate All-American Touring Side, selected from schools across the country, will compete in the Women’s National All-Star Championship in Blaine,MN, on May 28-30.  Finally, the Women’s Under 20 Team will compete in the U23 National All-Star Championship at UCSB on June 11-13, will hold an Open Tryout Camp at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, on July 29 – Aug 1, and will compete in the IRB’s NACRA Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, from August 14-23.

“We’ve been working hard for a year now to align all the Women’s National Team programs, as a major step toward re-defining the High Performance athlete identification and development pathway.  The number of venues this summer offers significant opportunities for athletes to participate in HP camps and competitions at all levels.  The Head Coaches of all the WHP programs are working together to identify talent and the doors are wide open for new faces to been seen and prospective athletes to make positive impressions.”  Alex Williams, Women’s High Performance Manager

7s Tryout Camps

Hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Women’s National Sevens Team will hold a series of tryout camps this summer.  Head Coach Ric Suggitt will hold three sessions in July:

Session 1- July 8-11
Session 2 – July 11-14
Session 3 – July 15-18

Each camp will serve three main goals:  the development of key sevens skills and knowledge, an understanding of the fitness requirements for success in international sevens, and the assessment of each athlete’s potential to compete for the WNT Sevens program.

Each session will include approximately 30 athletes.  The majority of the spots will be filled by invitation; however, Coach Suggitt has left a number of spots in each session open to interested athletes.

“We have observed National Championships and video to identify a large list of athletes in establishing a player base and depth chart. Combined with the initial group inLas Vegas, the Women’s Seven pool appears very promising moving forward to Rio 2016.” Suggitt says.

The open spots in each camp will be filled through an application process.  Athletes may nominate themselves or be nominated by their coach.  To apply, please email Coach Ric Suggitt at rsuggitt@usarugby.org and include ALL of the following information:

(A) Player name
(B) Player age & birthdate
(C) Player email address
(D) Player phone number
(E) Player school or club
(F) Name of school or club coach
(G) Coach contact numbers
(H) What specific strengths qualify you/your athlete for attendance at the WNT Sevens Tryout Camps?

U20 Tryout Camp

Any interested female athlete between the ages of 13 and 19 is encouraged to attend the camp, which will include instruction by Coach Chivers, Assistant Coach and former Eagle Danielle Miller, Assistant Coach Kurt Weaver, and a number of additional territorial, collegiate and high school coaches.

All athletes attending the camp will receive field and classroom sessions, position-specific coaching, individual feedback and evaluation, and the opportunity to interact with National team coaches and athletes.

“We want to provide players with as many pathways to the U20 WNT as possible,” said Chivers. “Not every player is going to get viewed through the National Championships or representative level play and this open camp will give a lot more players the opportunity to work with the U20 WNT Coaches. “The previous camps have yielded some great U20 WNT players and I am looking forward to another crop of young and talented athletes attending the camp this year.”

For more information, including registration instructions, please download the brochure and registration form, or contact U-20 WNT Manager Jeff Noe atJeff.Noe@constellation.com

U20 National Team FLIGHT Camp Details

What: The USA Rugby U20 WNT player development open camp.

Why: This is an open camp designed to give young players of all skill levels an opportunity to receive coaching from the USA Rugby U20 Women’s National Team Coaching Staff. Campers will receive;

• Six field sessions and two classroom sessions
• Position specific coaching
• Individual player evaluation and feedback
• Opportunity to interact with USA National team players and coaches

When: July 29-Aug 1, 2010 (Athletes should arrive by 4 PM July 29 and may depart after 1 PM on the 1st.)

Where: Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI …more

Thanks to Ashley Voss and USA Rugby I have been given copies of the USA U20 vs Canada U20 and USA vs Canada matches from the January Atlantic Cup. I am still working on uploading the USA vs Canada, but I will let you know once it is uploaded. Great tournament for the USA and I am glad we have it available to watch again. Unfortunately the USA U20 vs Canada U20 video is a bit blurry until about 5 minutes in, but just let the video load and then skip forward.

USA U20 Women’s National Team vs Canada U20 Women’s National Team from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them to wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.

Welcome to another Guest Blog from Monty…this blog post is an interview with a few of the recent USA 7s Eagles at USA Sevens.

Monty Nyriws

It may not be easy being green, but it’s certainly not any easier being red, white and blue… the red, white and blue women’s rugby seven’s team, that is. Everyone who knows anything about rugby in the USA knows about the struggle the sport is facing gaining notice among Americans. And as we all know, very few Americans know anything at all about rugby. Even worse off is women’s rugby. In some ways, these ladies have to put up with much more than the men do. Unlike the men’s team, when the women go to a tournament they have to…

• sleep four to a room
• buy their own shoes
• bring their own kit bag WITH USA Rugby Logo
• bring their own water bottle
• bring their own notebook and 2 pens, 2 pencils and a permanent marker
• press their own khaki pants
• wear jeans with no holes, tears, or patches!
• and launder their team gear on a rotating duty basis…What is this, the Army where you have to do KP duty?

Now consider that the women’s 7s team (like the men) are going to represent our country in the 2016 Olympics. Isn’t it about time that we start promoting both men and women rugby 7s teams, and mounting a serious effort to educate the American public and generate fans for the sport?

At the recent Las Vegas 7s tournament, the USA women played very well against their international opponents, winning all their games in the preliminaries, and losing by only two tries in the finals against China. Women’s rugby may not be as fast and as tough as the men’s version, but once you begin to get to know them, as I started to do at the sevens tournament in Las Vegas, you have to be impressed with how they play — with soul and inspiration.

CJ Hildreth

After the match I was lucky enough to sit down with two members of the team: Lauren Hoeck, and CJ Hildreth. I tell you, if you see these women charging after you on the pitch, you just want to get out of the way. But off the pitch when you see them smile, you just want to melt! Below are excerpts from this interview.

[See Blogger's Note at the end of this article]

Las Vegas, Sunday, Feb 14, 2010
Interview with Lauren Hoeck and CJ Hildreth

YourScrumHalfConnection: So Lauren, you’re the team captain?
Lauren: I’m the co-captain, with Jo Ward. CJ is the hooker, #2, she’s a stud!

YSC: You guys are all studs. I’m so impressed with all of you… By the way, I’m not comfortable calling women “guys”… You know they call men ruggers “boys,” so maybe we should call you “boys” as well?
Lauren: (smiles) How about ladies?

Lauren Hoeck

CJ: Yes, ladies.
YSC: Great! So, ladies, you did very well on Friday.
Lauren: Yes, we did.
CJ: We went 4-0. We beat China that day.

YSC: Well, now you have to beat China in Hong Kong.
CJ: That would be a great comeback.
Lauren: Is Hong Kong official yet?
CJ: No, it depends on funding. We’re working on it…

YSC: So what do you think of Coach Ric Suggit so far?
Lauren: All around he is really fun, knowledgeable… I really learned a lot.
CJ: Relaxed, at the same time.
YSC: Do you have to teach him anything about managing the women’s 7s team?
CJ: He’s managed women’s 15s and 7s in Canada before. He’s also coached basketball, so he’s done it all.
Lauren: He knows when to delegate and what he needs to do, and he keeps it really simple.
CJ: He’s worked with women and he’s worked with men… he has an incredible coaching awareness.
YSC: So you like his style?
CJ: He treats us with a lot of respect…
Lauren: I’ve never met a coach in any sport I’ve played like him… he has a really different style.
YSC: In what way?
Lauren: More of a management style, I’d say. He’s trusting of us. He figures that you’ve gotten this far, so you know how to run your life… you know how to manage your health and your well-being, so he doesn’t really interfere.
CJ: He just respects you as an adult and as an elite athlete. He trusts that you’re here for a reason.

YSC: What are you most excited about this year?
Lauren: The fresh start. I feel like the team has bonded really well, and I feel like we have a good base. Ric said that he just has more and more to offer. So he seems very knowledgeable and I’m excited to pick his brain as we go along.
CJ: It’s true, the part we saw this weekend was phenomenal, and I think there’s more for him to reveal.
YSC: You ladies must have been pretty good athletes in other sports.
Lauren: How about just calling us “you guys?” (laughing)
YSC: OK, what made you “guys” decide to take up rugby?
Lauren: I got tricked into it by a co-worker. It was during our interview, she talked about rugby a little bit and then I watched some. And then she asked me if I wanted to play. She’s a 15s prop… she’s a 225 pound woman! So I was a little bit like “no I’m not playing.” Then I went out for a practice and it was unbelievably addicting.
YSC: Ric mentioned that one of the important things to him is the building of younger players, the culture of rugby, so that there’s a new stream of players coming up. Do you “guys” get involved with that in your communities?
Lauren: Yes, we play for Nova, and there’s a U-19 team that a couple of our players coach. We go to their fund-raising… we try to support them as much as we can. It’s very developed at this point.

YSC: Typical interview question: What’s one thing you’d like your fans to know about you?
Lauren: CJ is a pro skateboarder. She was here (in Las Vegas) two weeks ago for a tournament.
YSC: You mean like extreme sports skating?
CJ: Yeah, I won the women’s open.
YSC: Very cool!
Lauren: She does that to pay for her rugby (all laughing).
YSC: And you, Lauren?
Lauren: Oh man… I can’t compete with a pro skateboarder. Just give us another question…!
YSC: OK, what’s one thing you DON’T want your fans to know about you?
Lauren: Well why would we say that? (all laughing…)
CJ: Well what we want our fans to know is like a group thing, which is that we need to start traveling internationally on a regular basis, and that’s dependent on support and fans and funding, and a system, like we said, of building from the youth upward. So it’s not just the players in the core, but it’s the whole culture of rugby. We truly are depended on the fans, because that’s part of the funding, and we are dependent on our sponsors, without whom we don’t exist.

YSC: Right… So what about promoting the image of women’s rugby in particular. What has to be done in this country to get that going?
Laura: In general, once the men’s side gets bigger, then it will trickle down to the women’s side. Until that becomes a big part of American sports, we won’t be there. It’s just like basketball. Once the men’s team got to a certain level the women started catching up.
CJ: Or like soccer, that’s probably a more recent example.
Laura: Exactly. It’s just going to take a while. The men’s side needs a lot of support, too. They’ve got more than we do but they still don’t compare to other American sports.
CJ: There are a lot of IRB-approved 7s tournaments throughout the world, and only a small percentage include women’s competitions in conjunction with them right now. So ideally every single IRB tournament would have men’s and women’s divisions.
Laura: Yeah, we’re not IRB-approved yet.
CJ: When we were first included in the World Cup last year, that was huge for us, and the Olympics will be huge as well.
YSC: When I talked to Ric he said his goal was a gold medal in the Olympics! What do you think about that?
Laura: Sounds good to me!
CJ: Nothing less!
Laura: I think it’s not unreasonable… we got third at the World Cup, and we’re picking up steam as we go.

YSC: Do either of you expect to be playing on the Olympic team?
Laura: We certainly hope so! I know Ric is looking at high schools now so he’s going to get a lot of athletes from there. But he’ll need some leaders in six years! Hopefully that will be us!
YSC: How about the possibility of an exhibition tournament at the 2012 Olympics in London…?
Lauren: I would imagine so. The game basically started in England, so they have all the basic infrastructure there, so it makes sense. They haven’t officially announced it yet.
CJ: We’re used to being non-official (smiles)
Lauren: (laughs) We don’t mind!
YSC: You don’t mind being non-official as long as you get to go!
Lauren: Yeah, we can still tell everybody that we’re going to the Olympics!

—————
Monty’s note: Sometime after the interview, it was made known that the women would NOT be attending the Hong Kong Sevens tournament in March, due to lack of funding. When I inquired as to what kind of funding was required, I was shocked to learn how little was required. (It’s such a minuscule amount, I’m embarrassed to even mention it here.) Now tell me… is there not one brand-name company in this country that would care to sponsor an Olympic-bound US rugby team?

Come on, rugby fans! The women need our help. As coach Ric Suggit pointed out, if the women don’t start participating in more elite-level international tournaments, how can they expect to do well in 6 years? If anyone out there has connections with People In High Places, now’s the time to call in those favors. Those of you who blog about rugby… we have to do more to promote the team and get them into the hearts and minds of Americans, and to get them the financial support and sponsorship they need.

[Monty Nyriws is a rugby newbie whose temperature is easily raised when people are not treated fairly]

Copyright (c) 2010 YourScrumhalfConnection.com and cuestaPhoto.com. All rights reserved.

With the release of the new USA Women’s National Team website there have been some sweet improvements to the access of the WNT. The page has great bios, photos and the short documentary film by Amanda Micheli is amazing. Watch it below!

We Want Rugby Promotional Video (USA Rugby) from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

See the WNT in a short documentary film by Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Amanda Micheli (http://www.runawayfilms.com/)

Posted with permission of USA Rugby and Amanda Micheli. Visit the new USA Rugby Women’s National Team website at http://www.wewantrugby.com/.

Proudly supported by Your Scrumhalf Connection

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them to wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.

from WeWaNTRugby.com:

BOULDER, Colo. – With the Women’s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) less than six months from kickoff, USA Women’s National Team Head Coach Kathy Flores has announced the player pool and reserves currently under consideration for England 2010.

In the final push toward the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the USA team will assemble for two skills camps, two test matches versus Canada at the annual CanAm competition in June, and a three-week July residency program, before finally departing for England on Aug. 8.

“We have selected a pool of players we feel will best contribute to the foundation and continued development of the squad who will represent the USA in the 2010 World Cup,” Coach Flores said.

“In these final months of preparation, it is important to keep all pool players involved in trainings so any transitions can be seamless for the player and the team. Reserve pool players will also be involved in training opportunities, but not competition venues. However, they may have the opportunity to move up into the pool depending on injury or availability of pool players.”

The Women’s Rugby World Cup player pool includes six returning veterans from the USA Women’s National Team that finished fifth at the 2006 World Cup in Edmonton – Claudia Braymer, Jamie Burke, Ashley English, Phaidra Knight, Mari Wallace and Kristin Zdanczewicz. Also named to the WNT pool are Lisa Butts, Farrah Douglas and Kim Magrini, who were named as non-traveling reserves for the 2006 tournament.

In the sixth Women’s Rugby World Cup, the USA women will kick off pool competition versus Kazakhstan on Aug. 20, before facing Ireland on Aug. 24 and rounding out pool play against a dominant England squad on the 28th. Dependent on the results of the pool rounds, teams will be reseeded for the fourth round of play on Sept. 1 and close out the ranking matches on Sept. 5. (Click here to see the full match schedule)

Tickets for the pool rounds at Surrey Sports Park, Guildford, as well as the finals and semifinals at the Twickenham Stoop will go on sale to the general public on Monday, March 22 via Ticketmaster.

USA Rugby Women’s National Team Player Pool
Women’s Rugby World Cup – England 2010

Forwards
Stacy Baker – Keystone
Sharon Blaney – Beantown
Stacey Bridges – Texas A&M
Jamie Burke – Beantown
Lisa Butts – Berkeley All-Blues
Kate Daley – Keystone
Melanie Denham – Beantown
Farrah Douglas – Keystone
Blair Groefsema – Berkeley All-Blues
Phaidra Knight – New York
Jillion Potter – Minnesota Valkyries
Naima Reddick – Berkeley All-Blues
Beckett Royce – ORSU
Lara Vivolo – New York
Kittery Wagner – Beantown
Maurin Wallace – Beantown
Sarah Walsh – Minnesota Valkyries
Kristin Zdanczewicz – Minnesota Valkyries

Backs
Claudia Braymer – Albany
Stephanie Bruce – Berkeley All-Blues
Emilie Bydwell – Beantown
Amy Daniels – Beantown
Ashley English – Berkeley All-Blues
Victoria Folayan – Berkeley All-Blues
Kelly Griffin – Berkeley All-Blues
Katie Hertel – Minnesota Valkyries
Melissa Kanuk – Minnesota Valkyries
Ashley Kmiecik – ORSU
Lynelle Kugler – Twin Cities Amazons
Kim Magrini – Keystone
Nathalie Marchino – Berkeley All-Blues
Vanesha McGee – New York
San Juanita Moreno – ORSU
Christy Ringgenberg – Minnesota Valkyries
Hannah Stolba – Minnesota Valkyries

WNT 2010 WRWC Reserves
Sadie Anderson – Penn State University
Libby Berg – Minnesota Valkyries
Ida Bernstein – Keystone
Liz Dilley – Washington Furies
Christina Hobson – New York
Tayo Mafe – Michigan State University
Desiree Markovich – Minnesota Valkyries
Schmarrah McCarthy – At-large
Deanna McGillivray – University of New Mexico
Jenny Menke – Minnesota Valkyries
Jossy Tseng – Berkeley All-Blues

WNT Staff
Kathy Flores, Head Coach
Candi Orsini, Backs Coach
Alex Williams, Technical Coach
Krista McFarren, Technical Coach
Michelle Carrone, Strength and Conditioning Coach
Dr. Lisa Bartoli, Team Physician
Ginger Stringer, Manager

For a full schedule of all the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, go here. For travel packages to England for the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, go here.