With Wendy taking a much deserved vacation I thought someone should mention that the USA "A" match is now online for our viewing pleasure:
http://usarugby1.tampadigital.com/mediamanager/
And yes I'll give you more to read while wasting time at work tomorrow :)
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
USA "A" vs Canada "A" now available on USA Rugby Web Site
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Combined Camp
With all of the excitement of the 7's World Cup the combined camp last weekend kind of came and went. Unless you were there of course!
Day one was made up of fitness testing and an afternoon session broken up as Eagles and "A." I wasn't psyched about doing the 40m or the agility test, I didn't do too badly in either but they were merely the appetizer. Now it's not to say that I don't care about the 40 or agility but I never seem to test well in those (regardless of much I work.) The main course from my perspective were the 300 meter shuttle and power clean max. This is a little masochistic but I was actually looking forward to them.
Now the scrimmage...the tone surrounding the scrimmage was very different because of the distinction between Eagles and "A." This worked on multiple levels. The Eagles were preparing like they were going out to play a game against anybody (say England or Canada), or at least that's my assumption. The fire had been lit behind people's butts too. But there is a fine line between expecting a high performance from yourself and your teammates and underestimating your opponents.
"A" had a ton going for it. I thought so before I even headed to camp. I was excited to work with my fellow big girls, many of whom I have played with as part of USA "A" or otherwise had a lot of experience playing with or against. And as it became clearer that the Eagle forwards in particular would be looking to really dominate the set pieces and contact elements of the game I became more and more excited. I had a hunch the night before the scrimmage that the pieces were coming together for an upset.
So we didn't beat the Eagles but man it was very close (we could go into the iffiness of one of their tries and the non try on our end...but why?)
The womeneagles.com summary is pretty accurate. The weather was pretty ridiculous, there was even a little bit on hail at one point. "A" got the job done in the contact areas and the scrums were either a draw or a slight victory in our favor. The line-outs were in nobody's favor given the stormy day. Our backs did a great job of pressuring them on defense and the forwards did well to link up with the backs to snuff out some promising channel 2 opportunities. Our backs did great on both sides of the ball despite having a very interesting mix of players who were unfamiliar to each other.
I think we ended the camp on a high note, not only did we play well and push the Eagles, put we definitely used the point of contact/decision making skills and defensive shape pieces that Peter showed us.
P.S. Now that we're done with 7s for a while, it's time to get excited about the 15s world cup...it's only a little more than a year away now!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Love/Hate and the Gym
I hate you red haired boy.
I hate that you refuse to be like the rest of the gym rats.
I hate that you say hi to me and look just little bit longer than normal.
I hate that shoot me lingering smiles without the required high fives, fist pumps and other typical signs that tell me exactly how little that smile means.
I hate your hand stand pushups and I hate that they kind of do impress me.
I hate that you don't call me by a nick name and when i can't even consistently remember yours (I'm trying to forget it.)
I hate wondering if maybe I should shave my legs in the middle of the winter before going to the gym.
I hate hoping you'll be there.
I hate having to dodge you with headphones/looking down/engaging someone else in conversation for fear of that damn smile.
Have you no decency red haired boy? The gym is suppose to be a special place where I can feel invincible or at least really strong. I hate that when I look down I feel powerless, I hate that I look down and kind of like it.
Damn you red haired boy.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
My New Old Running Buddy
I was bundling up to go outside a few weeks ago when I noticed Rocky curled up on his bed in my room. Ss I was getting ready to go out I noticed him tracking me with his eyes as I moved around the room. He's so good at looking pathetic. He proceeded to move into a position where he was stretched out, head on paws, still watching me with his eyes. I dragged my tired butt over to the computer to put on some psych up music. Rocky can be oddly quiet when he wants to be, or like herd of rhinos when he does not care. I only noticed him when he plopped down directly against the computer, escalating his pathetic factor.
The squinty eyes, down trodden face and low but very loud dog purring just got the best of me.
It's not that I am a bad parent, Rocky has a fenced in yard and get's two long walks a week. Rocky is high energy until you take him for a walk and then his tail goes down steadily over the course of three miles. By the end of those three miles you're glad he's home because he seems awfully tuckered out. The idea of taking rocky with me over a 1.87 mile sprint interval, hilly, road run was kind of iffy.
But his eyes, oh his cute eyes, they said "mom I am a natural sprinter, please take me out with you!"
And so the eyes won. I stuffed a plastic bag in my vest, got the leash and set out.
Immediately we had some issues. Rocky was n0t quite sure to make of me doing a dynamic warm up. He clearly thought we were playing a game as I was skipping and shuffling. But altogether he was pretty patient about it. But as we embarked on our journey he was very excited, thrilled even!
I had visions of needing to hoist rocky over both my shoulders and carry him home. But nothing could be further from the truth. Rocky struggled with the down hill segments a little bit, was fine on the up hill segments and schooled me on the flat areas. It was fun having a partner and more than anything else he was super happy. It makes sense, after all it's sports specific training for him too, since clearly fetching is also chase (sprint), retrieve (run) and throw (rest.)
My only remaining concern is whether he'll be able to do this in the heat.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Being in the right place at the right time
When I started coaching a few years ago my hope was to find a team that was interested in being competitive on a consistent basis. I wasn't sure exactly what that would look like. I knew there were lots of different models with varying levels of success. Obviously we had the penn state model of both alumni and administrative support. Or a team like Navy where there was good administrative support while still being a club (with the academy flavor.) Or someone like West Chester, a club elevated as part of the varsity/NCAA initiatives. Or teams like Princeton and UVA who were healthy mix of strong coaches and older programs.
I went into this quest knowing that I might have to coach a few teams before I found a team culture that was interested in kicking butt and having fun doing it. After all there are 30 women's college teams in the EPRU and few, whatever their size, show more than a year or two of competitiveness before a change over in leadership occurs. This change of leadership seems to always bring reduced numbers and a significant increase in boozing and a decrease in terms of respecting the game.
I count myself lucky because I found an amazing group of young women in my first coaching gig. And what was at first a day dream, had I always seen myself coaching in my mind's eye, has become a huge part of my life, rugby and otherwise. So much a part of my life that every time i see an opportunity for my non rugby life outside of Philly I think, "but who will coach the girls?"
When I heard that athletics had all but decided to take over the club sports at La Salle I assumed the worst. After all, the AD at one point laughed at a player for suggesting that there would ever be a linkage between rugby and athletics. But as fate would have it our out going president was contacted by campus recreation to help assess the current situation among the club sports. Before she went to the meeting I tried to prepare her for the inevitable doom that seemed to await us.
When i got off the phone with the president following her meeting I was in shock because of the opportunity and the sense it made for the university. The university had gotten wise to the return on investment that club sports participation bring through the retention of students and alumni giving. The move from Student Activities to athletics (under the campus recreation banner) was to increase the resources available to the teams. Strong club sports are being viewed as a cost effective way to increase student engagement and therefore retention.
So what is the cost to the university? Well those details are in the process of being finalized but here are the benefits currently on the table:
-Dedicated vans just for club sports to travel to away games and the promise to rent more if needed
-A pool of money for travel to competitions and other larger expenses, in addition to the normal club budget
-Access to a new training room for players during practice for taping, ice etc
-Definite plans for a club sport specific field next to the newly finished varsity softball field, including a storage area for various equipment
-Additional monetary compensation to retain qualified and engaged coaches :)
-Rugby being added to the inventory worksheet for incoming freshmen and compiling the names of people with previous experience
-Resource and funds to send out mailers and do recruiting in high schools, the ability for our materials to go with ambassador program
Pretty amazing stuff!
Perhaps more importantly is the change in opinion. We're the model across the board. We engage students from all different groups on campus, honors students, to RAs, to student government officers and member of service trips. We conduct ourselves in a way that reflects well on the university. My involvement is considered positive. Being commited to the girls development as players, leaders and administrator without having to worry about being "too involved" is amazing. People might still talk smack on Juicy Campus (don't judge me) but those people don't determine whether we're given the resources to safely and succesfully play rugby.
When I heard that athletics had all but decided to take over the club sports at La Salle I assumed the worst. After all, the AD at one point laughed at a player for suggesting that there would ever be a linkage between rugby and athletics. But as fate would have it our out going president was contacted by campus recreation to help assess the current situation among the club sports. Before she went to the meeting I tried to prepare her for the inevitable doom that seemed to await us.
When i got off the phone with the president following her meeting I was in shock because of the opportunity and the sense it made for the university. The university had gotten wise to the return on investment that club sports participation bring through the retention of students and alumni giving. The move from Student Activities to athletics (under the campus recreation banner) was to increase the resources available to the teams. Strong club sports are being viewed as a cost effective way to increase student engagement and therefore retention.
So what is the cost to the university? Well those details are in the process of being finalized but here are the benefits currently on the table:
-Dedicated vans just for club sports to travel to away games and the promise to rent more if needed
-A pool of money for travel to competitions and other larger expenses, in addition to the normal club budget
-Access to a new training room for players during practice for taping, ice etc
-Definite plans for a club sport specific field next to the newly finished varsity softball field, including a storage area for various equipment
-Additional monetary compensation to retain qualified and engaged coaches :)
-Rugby being added to the inventory worksheet for incoming freshmen and compiling the names of people with previous experience
-Resource and funds to send out mailers and do recruiting in high schools, the ability for our materials to go with ambassador program
Pretty amazing stuff!
Perhaps more importantly is the change in opinion. We're the model across the board. We engage students from all different groups on campus, honors students, to RAs, to student government officers and member of service trips. We conduct ourselves in a way that reflects well on the university. My involvement is considered positive. Being commited to the girls development as players, leaders and administrator without having to worry about being "too involved" is amazing. People might still talk smack on Juicy Campus (don't judge me) but those people don't determine whether we're given the resources to safely and succesfully play rugby.
The "V" word was mentioned in passing during these discussions with campus recreation but one thing at time. In this brave new rugby world it seems like almost anything is possible for the girls!
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