Tennessee High School Rugby

Maryville Rugby Women Finish #5 in the Nation

Founders Field – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Women of Maryville Rugby Football Club recently returned from the USA Rugby High School National Championship Playoff Series, finishing a best ever 5 th in the Nation.

The defending Southern Region Champions from Maryville opened the series on Saturday morning May 31 st with a visit from the 2007 National Runner-up and #1 Seed from the Pacific, Sacramento Amazons. “They were definitely the biggest team we have faced this year,” said Coach Jay Hawkins. “As with almost every team we played this year, MRFC would be smaller, so again our Forwards would have to play with passion and limit missed tackles and penalties.”

The MRFC Pack, led by Senior Kyna Graham and Junior Becky Keast, held the much larger Amazon pack in check throughout most of the first half. “They ran hard and were very difficult to bring down,”said Graham, “but we felt that if we kept the pressure on them, put them on the ground, and made them follow us around the field we would have some success.”

That strategy was rewarded when Junior outside Center Brooke Legate broke several tackles and touched down the try from 55 meters away in the first ten minutes of play. “Rachel did a good job of getting the ball wide, and I just tried to make a play,” said Legate. Freshman Catherine Eichorn would put through the conversion and MRFC took a 7-0 lead.

Both teams would continue to probe the center of the back line and kick for field position, to no avail. “Most of the rest of the first half was played between the 22’s, so I thought we did a good job of shutting them down,” said Hawkins. “Of course, the Amazons did an awesome job of preventing us from going wide to our strength by playing toward the center of the pitch with punches to their pack.”

Even though MRFC would take that lead into the break, that philosophy would prove to be the undoing for the Red and Black of Maryville.

Sacramento would open the second half with renewed vigor from their front 5 and began using their size by attacking the weak side of the Maryville defense. “Many times we would not recognize being overloaded to the weak side of the Ruck or Maul,” said Assistant Coach Rick McGhie. “ Sacramento did a good job of using their forwards to create opportunities with numbers to the weak side,” Ultimately, the Amazons would break through with a strong run from Center Mary Fa’avesi for the try at the 9 minute mark. With the Sacramento conversion going wide, the women from Maryville pursued the following kicked off with even more aggressiveness.

The next 15 minutes were again played between the 22 meter lines with both teams trading punches and getting the big run only to be caught from behind and resetting the offense. “I thought Sacramento’s ability to control the ball with their big forwards on offense began to take its toll,” shared Coach Hawkins. “We had some penalties that cost us opportunities deep into their territory, and we failed to get the ball wide when we had the chance.” The size and experience of the Lady Amazons began to show, and again Sacramento would put through a long try for the win 10-7.

“I was very proud of our girls,” said Hawkins.” We definitely drew one of the toughest teams in the tournament to start with, and the effort from our young ladies was inspiring. Our girls set the goal of competing with the best teams in the nation, and with our showing this morning; I think rugby in the South has closed the gap.”

With an opportunity for advancement coming through the consolation bracket, the young women of Maryville would face the #1 seed from the Northeast, Elizabeth, New Jersey in their second contest of the day.

“We got together as seniors and challenged each other to play to our strength,” said Senior and Team Captain Rachel McCroskey. “All our coaches expressed a disappointment that we did not go wide with the ball and felt as though we started to bang too much,” said McCroskey. “We wanted to show that we could play better and we did.”

Although the women from New Jersey would open the match with an unconverted try in the 6 th minute, the young ladies from Maryville would respond with an outstanding effort from fly half McCroskey. Taking the ball into the try zone herself in the 12 th minute, McCroskey would prove adept at running the potent Maryville back line. McCroskey stated, “Coach McGhie and I talked between matches and discussed the need for better communication, vision, and taking the pace up a notch. I just concentrated on making good passes and letting the back line do the work.” Captain McCroskey began to attack off of Elizabeth penalties with quick taps and skips wide. She would be rewarded again with a penalty try from Sir Jeremiah Johnson. “Adrianna [8th grade Wing sensation, Adrianna Carter] took the ball toward touch with a great run, but the Sir informed us that after repeated warnings to retreat off penalties and the penetration by the wing, he would award us the try,” said Coach McGhie. With the conversion from Catherine Eichorn splitting the middle of the post, Maryville would take a 12-5 lead into the break.

They would never look back.

Continuing the “get it wide” attack, Maryville would score twice more within the first 12 minutes of the second half. Outside center Brooke Legate would benefit from excellent passing from her sister Erin and tremendous support from the rest of the back line with 2 additional scores. “Much better passing and fewer penalties were the difference in this match,” said Coach Hawkins.

Coach McGhie would add, “Rachel played with great leadership and vision, and we were rewarded with a tremendous effort from our back line. Once Erin and Brooke started playing pitch and catch and Adrianna made some long runs, we became very difficult to defend.”

Final MRFC 24 – Elizabeth New Jersey 05.

Feeling much better about their effort and still a little sore from two very difficult and physical matches, the Red and Black Nation would meet the #1 seed from Southern California, the Antelope Valley Venom on Sunday morning, June 1 st. The Venom advanced through the bracket by defeating the Kansas City Dragons.

“Coach McGhie got the Seniors together first thing this morning and challenged the Seniors to play with abandon. He wanted us to take a second to look around, to look at the other girls on the team, remember where we were as Freshmen and how far we came Seniors,” said Captain McCroskey on Sunday. “He challenged us to not have any regret about playing as hard as we can, not to look back years from now and know we could have played harder or done something different to affect the outcome of the game today. Win or lose if we do that, then we’ll be winners,” said McCroskey. “He got emotional, and that made us emotional, and we responded.”

Respond they did.

Scoring early and often, it was a day for the young players on the MRFC side to shine. Junior Outside Center Brooke Legate would open the scoring 4 minutes in with a try from 45 meters. Junior Inside Center Erin Legate would answer 1 minute later with her own try from beyond the 50 meter line. Maryville would lead the So Cal Champions 10 - 0 within the first 5 minutes. “The coaches discussed the need to play faster and felt that we could attack the Venom with pace and kicks,” said Coach Hawkins. “We felt we matched up well with their pack size wise, so we wanted to use our forwards in attack mode to set up our back line.” That back line would shine.

Freshman Sara Smith playing wing would continue the scoring with a long run at the 10:25 mark. “ Sara had some trouble connecting with Rachel [yesterday] as she is normally our Scrum half, so for her to move to wing and continue to play with heart and skill shows what a character kid she is,” said Coach Hawkins. Sophomore Forward Leni Clark would add a try off of great pack play, and MRFC would take a 20 – 0 lead into the half.

Sara Smith would open the scoring in the second stanza with a run from 30 meters out for the center placement of the try, giving her 2 tries for the day.

Using the speed, quickness, and excellent ball handling skills of the Maryville forwards, the second half was a repeat of the first. Solid runs by Candace Barley, Emily Arnold, and Katie Petersen started to draw in the Venom, leading to additional scores from Brooke Legate and one more from Leni Clark. For the day, 3 MRFC Ruggers (Sara Smith, Brooke Legate, Sara Smith) would score twice.

Maryville would go on to win 35-5.

“Great balance and unselfishness are the trademarks of this team,” responded Assistant Coach Rick Knowles. “The future looks bright for Maryville Rugby.” Head Coach Vincent Smith of the Antelope Valley Venom would add, “We ran into a very disciplined and solid team in Maryville. This is one amazing team and many believe that they should have been in the finals. Not much more I can say than that. Wow! What a team!”

The coaches and staff of Maryville Rugby Football Club would like to thank all our sponsors and parents for their continued support of our team.

It was a great comfort to us to hear the Red and Black Nation out in force in Pittsburgh and for all your encouraging words and actions.

Maryville Women finish the year @ 24-1 and nationally ranked as #5.

They are the 2008 Smokey Mountain Athletic Club Champions.

They are the 2008 TN High School Champions.

They are the 2008 USA Rugby Southern Region Champions.