Palmer Praises Special, Nationals-Bound Group

COVID-19 left points of ellipses on every team’s spring season, but the cancellation was especially tough for Palmer College of Chiropractic. The Davenport, Iowa, program won the Midwest DII Club Championship back in November and was, at this point, the only DII team to book its spot in the national quarterfinals. So while other teams had hopes of qualifying for nationals, the Dragons had theirs confirmed and had been building toward the regional championships since December.

In the summer of 2018, Taku Tela was named head and backs coach of the women’s team, and Glen Maricelli took over as forwards coach. Both had played at Life University and Palmer, and aligned in their coaching philosophies. In the subsequent season, 2019-20, Maricelli assumed the head coaching role and Emily Endres joined as an assistant coach.

“The [Palmer] coach is usually one of the students, which can be good or bad depending on the luck of the draw,” Maricelli said. “[Tela and I] both played at Life and we did the same things that we learned there and replicated what they did to us. We knew what it took to be successful, or more importantly how not to be successful.

“We hit the ground running and asked for a lot more than what the players were used to,” he said of the 2018-19 season. “We had a good group of athletes, but maybe they weren’t great rugby players yet. We lost to Scylla and that took us out of playoffs, but we knew if we kept checking boxes for the next year that we’d get to the spot we wanted to.”

The chiropractic program at Palmer College is three-and-a-half years long and the Dragons endure a lot of turnover. The alumni pump money back into the program so there are scholarships available, but that lure doesn’t bring in waves of recruits. The opportunity for income does, however, attract on-campus athletes and Maricelli indicated that these crossovers have sometimes turned into the team’s best players.

Maricelli explained that while the club is open to non-students, the roster is mostly school based, and it’s uncommon for graduates to remain around Davenport to play rugby while their young professional careers await. But after solid gains during the 2018-19 season, that trend changed in fall 2019.

“We had four grads who stayed in the area and played with us this year – which is unheard of,” the coach enthused. “They came back to us to play, which is a testament to how tight-knit and important this team was.”

Veterans like Stephanie Snoeberger, Jaci Lawfer and Rachel Leibovitz fed their years’ worth of experience back into the squad, and were important example setters as a couple of other pieces came together.

“We started back up in the summer and they didn’t realize how hard we were training, because they became used to it, which is what you want,” Maricelli said.

“Team captain Leilani Zinsli was the lynchpin as a leader,” the coach added. “She’s the team president, too, and kept everyone calm and collected – especially since it was my first time as a head coach. … There are always times when not everyone is getting along but Leilani led with grace.”

The coach also praised flyhalf Claire Tomashek, who was a crucial recruit from winter 2018.

“She definitely stepped up big time this year and filled an important leadership role,” Maricelli said of the playmaker. “She played relatively high-level ball in Wisconsin but I believe this in her first real test against consistently solid teams. We played serious opponents and she handled every challenge really well.”

A nice mix of experience and young blood assembled for the fall 2019 season, from a trio of Canadians, who brought both levity and talent; to the sideline-crushing Skyler Zawko, the team’s best finisher; to Palmer first-year Kaylynn Smith, who stunned at openside flanker this season. Maricelli was confident heading into the Midwest’s DII West season, but nervous in that every team poses a threat.

“Our first game was against Scylla, a rival. If you want to win our side of the Midwest then you’ve got to beat them,” Maricelli recalled the 40-10 win. “They gave us a good game but we handled a team that in the past had beaten us. Once we got that, I was confident, but we still took one game at time. I know that sounds cliché but it was real for us. We knew we had to beat Scylla but there are also the Zons and everyone in between. You never know what you’re going to get and that’s part of the fun.”

Palmer College went 6-0 during the regular season and outscored teams 416-22. The Dragons won the Midwest’s West Conference with a 29-7 win over Scylla and then readied for the Geographic Union championship against East Conference winner Cincinnati Kelts. The team watched a lot of film and dug into the archives to find footage on the Kelts. The coaches eased up on the physicality at training, “although the girls might tell you a different story,” Maricelli laughed.

“We didn’t want to get too far from our game plan, though,” the coach said of reacting to Cincinnati’s film. “We did end up kicking more, but only because that’s how it worked out. They put us under pressure and we’re confident in that part of our game. You might think: Why kick when we’re running with the ball? But with Claire and an inside center [Marissa Moloney] who can also kick, and two awesome wings that would scream down the pitch and make hits, we put Cincinnati on the back foot and gained territory that way.”

Palmer built a first-half lead and was limited to a Tomashek penalty early in the second half. The Kelts put in a great comeback, but the Dragons’ bench boosted the performance at the right time and held on for the 22-15 win and Midwest title.

“We were pretty excited, and I’m not going to lie, I was, too,” Maricelli said of final-whistle reactions. “It was nice to put everything together, especially because I know how hard they worked. I told them at the end of the game that we could have had a spring where we sat on our butts and drank beer and went to some tournaments, but now we’ve got hard work ahead of us.”

The team took time to enjoy a goal achieved, but then it was back to work in December and straight-away after winter break in mid-January.

“We were on a high,” Maricelli said. “The older girls who were doctors committed to playing. We were ready to fly people out and throw all our resources at it and give ourselves the best chance at nationals. It was unchartered territory for us.”

And then COVID-19 reached the United States and eventually the spring season and its championships were cancelled.

“We have turnover all the time. It makes it kind of exciting but also a little difficult,” Maricelli said. “That’s what makes it extra disappointing that the season was cancelled because we finally got that one group together and checked all the boxes, and then didn’t get to end the way we wanted to – but that’s sports.”

Even though the Palmer College club is transient by nature, the team and alumni maintain close relationships. Maricelli, who is poised to graduate this June, explained that the college holds a sports symposium each year where chiropractors can receive continuing education credits, play an alumni game, and then familiarize students with what awaits after graduation.

“When I played, l loved that perspective from the alumni on what happens in the real world,” Maricelli said. “They all said the knowledge and experience you got from rugby really translated and carried them through their professional careers.

“These girls are tough; they all have high hopes and goals,” the coach circled back to the lessons coming out of the shutdown. “As long as this group can remember some of the cultural things we put in, they’ll be fine. We weren’t overly goal oriented in that we wanted to win this and that, but focused on everyone doing their jobs and doing the little things consistently. That forms habits and then snowballs into a positive experience.”

As for Maricelli, he intends to stay involved with rugby, whether playing or coaching, after graduation, ideally with the Missoula Maggots one day.

“This was my first head coaching experience and I couldn’t have asked for a greater group of people to be a part of it,” the coach closed. “I asked a lot of them and they handled it with grace, poise and only a couple of F bombs when I wasn’t looking. Our athletic director, Ron O’Brien, has been a driving force of the team and has seen a lot teams over the years. He said this one was one of the more special teams to go through.”

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