Women’s National All-Star Competition, Producing Dividends for USA Rugby

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Cynthia Wright receives National All-Star Competition match jersey from NASC senior 15s coach and President of Empire – GU, Ken Pape. Photo by JD Black/USA Rugby

Greeley, CO Aug 14, 2015

Hot on the heels of last weekend’s excellent National Club 7’s showcase in Des Moines, USA Rugby has transitioned into its second National All-Star Competition (NASC) in Greeley, CO. 105 of the nation’s brightest college and senior rugby women have convened with a host of upper division coaches and USA Rugby officers to train and compete for selection to US Representative sides. The camp is being guided by USA Rugby’s Peter Steinberg, with Sue Whitwell and Brandon Sparks concentrating on the collegiate squads.

There were 12 Northeast Academy members originally invited to this latest NASC. Miranda Wakimoto and Sarah Buonopane were unfortunately unable to attend this time around due to the justifiable rigors of graduate school for one, and injury for the other. That still puts ten top-notch athletes from the Northeast Academy into the rotation. Combined with the May, 2015 camp there are now 14 Northeast Academy women directly linked to this important tier in the pathway system. There is yet another, Tess Feury of Penn State’s national championship team attending the Under-20’s assembly in Ellensburg, WA, opening Saturday with matches against Canada on Wednesday the 19th and Saturday the 22nd.

To start the camp, athletes have been sorted into six different team groupings. Two college 7’s teams are working under Sean Cobb (Ravens) and Emily Bydwell (Seahawks), while college 15’s teams are under the watchful eyes of James English and Sefesi Green (Vultures) alongside Ricardo Ramirez and Northeast Academy women’s coach Tom Feury (Thunderbirds). For the senior women, there are two additional 15’s teams training under Steinberg, Margaret Sharp, Jon Mooney, Ken Pape, Peter Baggetta and Martha Daines. “The atmosphere has been what we refer to as ‘collabetitive’ (a mix of collaborative and competitive),” said Feury. “That is, the games are structured to be competitive and the athletes want to shine and win. Yet, many of them know each other from playing together on teams such as the NE Academy, so off the pitch, all is a wink and nudge.” Competitive indeed, reports are that injury from the first set of matches has already affected the availability of some athletes for the weekend matches still to come. For the 7’s side, this NASC is of particular importance, as it is the last opportunity for evaluation prior to the Collegiate All-American’s Elite City tournament selections.

Under the direction of Alex Magelby, Tom Berkshire and Steinberg the NASC series of camps have already proven to be vital reference points for coach and player development in the pathway system. A few hundred athletes have been involved in the two official competitions so far this year. At least 17 athletes from the first NASC, plus another handful this week have leapt from steadfast obscurity to the very real possibility of national selection. “One of those athletes 17 athletes from the May camp is being considered outright for an OTC contract, several others for the 2017 World Cup”, said Steinberg. Feury added, “With the multiple NASC’s, USA Rugby gets to see a larger percentage of the player pool. They see them play several games with and against other high quality performers, and pull together hundreds of clips of each player, which they can examine in full to make better choices about who projects well.”

For the players at NASC’s, the experience has proven extremely valuable even before national representative sides are named. Previous camp attendee and Northeast Academy athlete, Lisa Roselin described her time at the May camp. “The NASC was an amazing experience… to take a step away from everyday life and give rugby undivided attention for an entire week. The NASC camp provided players the opportunity to work with the extremely passionate and talented coaching staff to refine core skills and learn new patterns of play that were put to the test throughout the week.” Like Lisa, we are all proud of her and her teammates currently representing in Colorado.

The Northeast Academy’s August 2015 NASC attendees:

College 7’s – Paige Stathopoulos and Amy Verdonik

College 15’s – Deanna Nash, Francesca Sands and Danielle Walko-Siua

Senior 15’s – Jess Berry, Rebecca Brafman, Lucy Oswald, Tiana Stroughter and Cynthia Wright

Northeast Academy

The Northeast Academy, with training squads in New York City and Boston, is a National Development Academy that has been sanctioned by USA Rugby as the official Academy (Men & Women) in the Northeast of America and as a designated pathway to the USA Eagles National Team selection. The purpose of the Academy is to identify, develop and prepare Sevens rugby players with the intention of placing ambitious athletes onto the USA National teams and future USA Olympic teams. The Academy will provide athletes with top level coaching, physical preparation, and playing competition to accelerate their personal development as Sevens players in line with current USA Eagles High Performance criteria.

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