Photo courtesy Pittsburg Women’s Rugby Facebook
The DII Mid-America conference contests a split season and the fall portion has seen Pittsburg State bank two important wins to lead the standings. The Kansas program revived in 2017 after a long dormancy, spent two years building momentum, and then joined the official league season this year.
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Player-coach-president Jamie O’Donnell is at the epicenter of the revival and harnessed the interest in the area to build some visibility. When the team started mobilizing in 2017, O’Donnell didn’t limit the participation to Pittsburg State students only – although today, those are the only athletes competing in Mid-America merit (league) matches. Just having numbers was key and it allowed the squad to build into 15s by 2018, playing various competition in tournaments and friendlies.
“We want to keep that flexibility,” O’Donnell said of its non-student connections. “We would love to have mainly college girls because we’re in a DII college conference, but we also play friendly matches so it’s nice to keep people involved.”
O’Donnell is one of those non-student resources who can bring perspective that might otherwise elude or overwhelm a current student.
“When I became president, my number one goal was to join the conference,” said O’Donnell, whose co-coach, Grant Schultz, also prioritized the alignment as a member of the Pittsburg men’s team. “I didn’t know how long it would it take, but I wanted this for us.”
Pittsburg informed Mid-America of its intentions and used the 2018-19 schoolyear to prove it’d make a valuable addition to the league. The squad played friendlies and tournaments against senior clubs and colleges, familiarizing itself with the landscape, taking its lumps, and its victories. Recruitment efforts never ceased and Pittsburg officially joined the league for fall 2019.
“Honestly, our goals were: One, to be able to go to games and have at least 15 girls – a solid 15. That was pretty doable for us, for all but one game, when we had 14,” O’Donnell said of goals for its Mid-America conference debut. “Once you get that goal, you want to keep going, so the next thing was to build up their rugby knowledge. We practiced four times a week. We had film sessions and do things like rules and guidelines and videos to increase rugby knowledge.”
Pittsburg State traveled to Springfield, Mo., to play Queen City in a pre-season match hosted by the Springfield Contractor’s Association (SCA) chicken feed, which benefits the CSA college scholarship fund.
“We played them almost exactly a year ago and they beat us by something like [60 points]. This year, we tied 19-19,” O’Donnell said. “That was my turning point. We went from losing that big, to playing another year together, to tying. And 54% of this year’s team is brand new.
“You could see it in a lot of the girls’ faces: Holy crap! I can’t believe that just happened,” the coach said of whether the win resonated with the returners. “And the new girls were excited and happy that they finished their first game of rugby and tied a good team. For them, it was a huge a-ha moment where things started to click for them.”
After a pair of 7s matches against Oklahoma State, the team took on Benedictine College for its first merit match. Pittsburg wing Anna Hernandez scored the first try, and then Benedictine evened up at the 10-minute mark: 5-5. Senior scrumhalf Macy Williams led the way as captain and readied the team for a response.
“Macy switched from flyhalf to scrumhalf this year and has done an awesome job,” O’Donnell said. “This is now her second year playing rugby, but the level she’s at, it looks like she’s been playing for much longer. She’s a very good listener and able to follow direction and pick up things quickly.”
The team was without its original pack captain, Mauresa Caire, who suffered an injury that ended her fall season. The team then voted in freshman flanker Kylee Burgoon as a replacement.
“Caire was usually one of our biggest tacklers, and when we lost her, everyone realized that they needed to put in extra work,” O’Donnell said. “Kylee has really stepped up since Mauresa’s been out. She’s making more tackles, getting in more rucks, and doing a great job of picking things up and working against a pack with older girls.”
Pittsburg put outside center Drea Shadbolt, flyhalf Aubrey Corn and rookie inside center Sara Dressler away for tries to lead Benedictine 20-5 early in the second half.
“Sara Dressler, like Macy, can out-juke anyone,” O’Donnell said of standouts. “In her first game, against Benedictine, the first try she ever got, she broke five separate tackles and ran over 60 meters for a try. For a new person to do that is pretty unheard of. Breaking one tackle is tough but five is talent. And she gets better each game.”
Near the 55-minute mark, Benedictine incurred too many injuries to finish out the match, and Pittsburg banked its first conference win. Next up: Kansas State.
“The last time we played K State [in spring 2019], they played off of our mistakes and won – the way it usually goes in most rugby games,” O’Donnell said. “But it was a pretty close game, and that was a big deal for us.
“K State typically has girls bigger than us and they’re seasoned, so we really had to prepare ourselves,” the coach said of the run-up to the fall rematch. “If they’re bigger, then you’ve got to tackle lower than you already do. If you’re playing against girls who know what they’re doing, then you’ve got to be on top your rugby knowledge.”
The team hunkered down on the laws and kept building on its fitness, so it could put in a full 80 minutes against Kansas State on Nov. 9. Fifteen minutes into the match, Pittsburg led 10-0 on tries from senior prop Kelsey Fuchs and freshman wing Abi Evans. In the second half, Pittsburg added tries from Dressler, Fuchs and fullback Madelyn Ricketts. Williams added the extras for a 29-0 lead after 65 minutes.
“We didn’t control the whole game,” O’Donnell clarified. “We had quite a few penalties and K-State was probably on offense more than we were. But what we did this year was what they did to us last year: played off every mistake.”
Kansas State ended the game with a try for a 29-5 final.
“They’re a team that went to [spring regional playoffs] last year, and we joined the conference this year, so that win was probably one of the most rewarding things,” O’Donnell said. “The girls are seeing it, too, and you can tell they’re even more dedicated and more loving toward this sport now. We had a team meeting to talk about the future of the team and what we want to do with it. Everybody – not that they weren’t before – but you could really see that they had been thinking of recruitment and fundraising and team-bonding ideas. It sounds crazy but being able to beat K State the way we did brought us together even more.”
Pittsburg is eager to continue its success into 2020. Spring conference matches are scheduled against Central Missouri (Feb. 22) and Missouri (March 7), and the team is attending the NOLA Mardi Gras tournament, and also playing Truman State, Oklahoma State, the Wichita Valkyries and Queen City in the new year. The team aspires to play in the USA Rugby DII spring playoffs and states as much in its fundraising campaign: Read more.
Unfortunately the team will need to find a new coach at the end of the season, as O’Donnell and boyfriend will be moving out of state, but there is much to achieve before then. Stay tuned for more Mid-America and other spring-based conferences.