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Rocky Mountain Returns With the Magic

  • 03 Aug 2021
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Photo courtesy @rockymountainmagicrfc Instagram

The Rocky Mountain Magic is a 7s-only team based in the Denver region, and this year’s trip to the USA Club 7s National Championship will marks its third appearance under the “Magic” brand. The championship pools and schedule have not yet been released, but the tournament will occur Aug. 14-15 in Tukwila, Wash., home of Major League Rugby’s Seattle Seawolves.

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Considering it’s been two years since the last club 7s championship, Rocky Mountain has experienced some fluctuation in its coaching staff and player pool. Former head coach Sam Enari accepted an assistant coaching position at American International College in Massachusetts, but Dee Nash, who relocated from Boston to Denver a few years ago, has stepped into the role. Nash is also the president of the Colorado Gray Wolves, previously the Glendale Merlins, and logistics coordinator for the USA Women’s National Team Daily Training Environments (DTEs).

“It took us a minute to not necessarily get up and running but decide what we were going to do,” Nash said of the Magic’s return to the pitch. “We have players coming from all different backgrounds and we needed to decide whether we use the summer to play a little bit and work on skills and grow as a community, or do all that and compete a bit and go to nationals. We landed on the latter, and everyone was pretty happy with that decision.”

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Nash described a diverse player pool with a wide range of experience that is training this summer. Magic founding members Jess Dombrowski and Nichole Wanamaker, DTE regular Rachel Ehrecke, and flyhalf Hannah Tennant have all represented the Magic at nationals before. When the squad traveled to Albuquerque last month for its only tournament of the summer, notables like Eagle KB Broughton, USA 7s prospect Sam Sullivan (who has recent playing experience with the All-Army team that won the 2021 Armed Forces Championship), the very fast Katie Lohaus, ARPTC alumna Andie Hammon, and Denver returner Hannah Long helped Magic to an undefeated outing. On the other end of the experience spectrum, Jaida Rudkin tested herself against an adult field before heading to Penn State as an incoming freshman this fall.

“Most of the take-aways were pretty good,” Nash said of the feedback from Albuquerque. “I keep giving the back-handed compliment that I’m pleasantly surprised every time we do compete, but the skills didn’t lag as much as I thought they would. The contact area, catch-pass are all good. Now it’s the decision-making side and tactical work that we need to do. But the technical skill looked good.”

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Unfortunately for Rocky Mountain, there isn’t any local competition, and in previous years, the team has had to travel to events like Bloodfest 7s in Texas for quality games and even ARPTC in Arkansas for a training camp. There was no room for that this summer, so most of Magic’s energy has been focused inward and into intrasquad scrimmages.

“There’s no concern necessarily,” Nash said of the little game time. “We’re just happy to be competing and back on the 7s stage. It’s really exciting for everyone. After [Albuquerque], we were able to gauge where we are and take another look at our goals from there. We’ll see as a group where people want to end up at nationals.”

Visit www.usaclub7s.com for more information.

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