Photos courtesy Emmelia Ashton’s mom
There are only three teams in the Rocky Mountain conference’s Division II, but they are benefitting from friendlies against their DI counterparts. Colorado School of Mines in particular is grateful for the extra matches, as its roster is much larger than usual and head coach Dan Roder needs the extra game time to aptly evaluate players. The team gleaned plenty of intel in its first league match: a 15-10 win against visiting Colorado Mesa University.
When Covid-19 arrived in March 2020, Mines let all of the club sports coaches go. The players stayed active with fitness and passing sessions, and were able to introduce some basics to last year’s freshmen. When the fall 2021 season became a reality, Mines rehired Roder, but it was a scramble right at the beginning of September.
“They did a great job at the recruiting events at the beginning of the school year,” Roder praised the returners for building a roster that has settled around 33 players. “That is a huge number for us. We have quite a few freshmen and some with high school experience – again, which is unusual for this team.
“Roughly 7, 8, 9 players are left over from the 2019 team,” Roder referenced the squad that finished runner-up to Winona State in the last DII fall championship. “So it’s nice to have a good core of veteran leadership to keep the momentum going through the Covid year and do a great job recruiting this fall.”
Those returners include scrumhalf Morgan Walls, the team president and captain. She does an outstanding job of running the team on and off the field, and gets good support from No. 8 Chris Baker. The pack leader is the lone representative from the 2017 playoff team, which played in the memorable “Chicago mud bowl,” per Roder.
The backs are lucky to have returners Marisa Shigo and Maggie Piwowarczyk in the centers, and they make a nice attacking trio with Mikayla Adams at fullback. Piper Bailey has returned as well but has been sidelined with an injury.
“She really stepped up into an assistant coaching role with the back line, so it’s been great having her involved,” Roder said of the flyhalf.
Former assistant coach Andrea Prusinki is transitioning between jobs but the hope is to return the former USA pool player to the staff.
The team started training at the beginning of September and then prefaced its league-opener with a scrimmage against Air Force. With so many rookies on either side of the ball, the run-around was much needed.
“Confidence was really high coming out of Air Force. We played pretty well,” Roder said. “We take a very defense-first approach, and even with some of the freshman rookies coming into the fold, the tackling level was already pretty good. Of course, as a coach, it can always be better. But it’s always interesting to see what level of comfort brand-new players have in contact, and surprisingly, we had quite a few freshman rookies that were able to get going into contact and make good tackles.”
Last Sunday, Colorado Mesa University traveled to Mines for the teams’ season-opener, and the Mavericks always bring a good game.
“Coach Mack [Lewis] is an excellent coach and I knew she would have her team ready to go,” Roder said. “We were cautiously optimistic but we thought if we could play good defense then we could do well.”
Mines took a three-try lead to start the game, and then Mesa answered with five points before the halftime break: 15-5 to the home side.
“Mesa had definitely taken momentum back in the second half and were really mounting a strong attack, so we were just holding on,” Roder said. “It was a really close game. One of those games where, as a coach, you’re trying not to have a heart attack.”
Second rows Alaina Clar and Charisma Bartlett did an excellent job setting the standard for tackle completion, and Avery Tyndall was the picture of work rate, getting to every breakdown and planting solid hits. A couple of injuries brought reserves into the game earlier than anticipated, and Roder called out Emmelia Ashton for stepping up as well as Kendall Helbig for making good, hard tackles.
Fullback Adams was solid in the backfield.
“It’s so nice to have a quality fullback back there that doesn’t miss tackles,” Roder said. “You can rely on her. Mesa had some breakaways come through and she was able to make try-saving tackles.”
Mesa scored one more try, but Mines held on for the 15-10 win.
“Hats off to Mesa,” Roder said. “It’s a tough travel game. They come down through Glenwood Canyon, which has been decimated with fires and now flooding, and they played a quality game.
“It was a hot day,” the coach continued. “We know fitness-wise we have a long way to go, and the players have taken it upon themselves to schedule off-night training sessions. We could see where our weaknesses were on defense toward end of the game, getting tired, bunching up, arm tackles – that kind of thing. All of that stuff can be worked on. It’s mostly just fitness; you get tired and mentally start missing assignments.”
Nevertheless, the performance was another confidence booster and the team will roll that energy into this weekend’s DI friendly against Colorado State.
“It’s nice, because we have a larger roster, and I haven’t had too much time with the team yet. I’m still learning what everyone can do,” Roder said of the benefits of DI matches. “It’s hard to narrow it down to a 23-player roster in the first place.”
To boot, Division II is missing teams like Univ. Northern Colorado, Western State and Denver University, which was just building some momentum when the pandemic arrived.
“Originally we kicked around the idea of joining the NCR but I think for us, schedule wise, this makes more sense,” Roder referenced the different organizations that oversee women’s collegiate rugby today. “We’re very fortunate to be here in the front range. Air Force and Colorado State are an hour away. We’re 30 minutes from [Colorado University]. Wyoming is two hours away. There are plenty of DI teams close by that it makes sense for us to be in ACRA this fall.”
American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA) governs fall-based DII colleges and is collaborating with the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) to keep the DI and DII fall championships co-located. The CRAA DI and ACRA DII competitions will culminate with championship matches the weekend of Dec. 4-5 in Charlotte, N.C.