Wisconsin Girls Rugby (WGR) cannot guarantee that its 15s championship season will occur this fall, but the state’s high school league is preparing for every scenario in the age of Covid-19. WGR President Barry Holloway has spent the summer pooling guidance from various authorities so that responsible decisions can be made for the league, and it’s been an all-consuming process. Fortunately, member coaches have embraced a collaborative spirit and are transcending some of the political division that has slows Covid-19 management elsewhere.
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Holloway began his rugby career at Waukesha West High (’02), and started coaching the UW Whitewater women (’07-09) while in college. When he left the area, he accepted a teaching position at Hamilton High School and was presented with another opportunity to coach.
“A group of girls approached me to help them form a Sussex Hamilton lacrosse team, but I told them, ‘No, I don’t care that much about lacrosse,’” Holloway said. “I told them that I was formerly a rugby coach, and they said, ‘Oh, we’d rather do that!’
“One of the great draws of rugby for girls, I think, is that it’s the same rules, same ball size. We don’t put them in skimpier outfits. It’s literally the same sport as the men’s side,” Holloway hypothesized why Hamilton’s founding members were quick to trade lacrosse for rugby. “They’ve taken the hitting out of hockey and limit the contact in lacrosse for girls. There is a large pocket of girls who want to be involved in a tough, physical sport, and they thought they’d get that in lacrosse, but I don’t think they understood that sport that well. But they were excited about rugby because it seemed more physical, and the interest was immediately there.”
That was 2017 and in three years, Hamilton RFC grew from four players at the first practice to 50 high school athletes and 20 middle schoolers. Holloway was able to hire staff and that freed up some availability to get involved in league administration. He’s served as WGR president since early 2019.
Wisconsin plays its girls’ high school 15s season in the fall, so teams were able to play some legitimate rugby during the 2019-20 school year. But WGR hosts a substantial spring 7s series, and Covid-19 robbed teams, players and families of a special opportunity.
“Sevens is really important for us,” Holloway said. “We have so many small community teams that can’t fill out a full 15s side in the fall, and other teams have to lend players to them so they can complete their games. In the spring season, those smaller teams can play with their own players, and that’s nice to have. [Catholic Memorial High] and [Divine Savior Holy Angels] are the two top teams in the state and they focus on getting ready for 15s nationals [in May], so they don’t participate in the 7s season. The rest of the league is happy with spring 7s because it’s an opportunity to win a state title that they otherwise couldn’t do if CMH and DSHA – which are light years beyond the rest of us are – were playing.
“The girls were upset,” Holloway said of the cancelation’s fallout. “The seniors were expecting to get one more season in, and we never gave them a proper goodbye. You want to sub all of your seniors in for the last game and give them a round of applause. It’s tough on everyone.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 18, and approximately a month later attempted to extend the mandate to May 26. But on May 13, the Republican-led legislature won its case with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the governor’s decree was ruled unconstitutional. The stay-at-home order was lifted immediately, but the decision left the state with no enforceable public health directives.
“No level of government – local, state, federal – made any further regulations or mandates,” Holloway lamented. “We’re not getting any guidance.”
Wisconsin did well in the first phase of the pandemic, and WGR was encouraged by the state’s dropping numbers in Covid-19 cases. Fall rugby looked like a real possibility and so a mid-July meeting was scheduled so the board and coaches could craft return-to-play guidelines. But by the time the league dialed into the virtual call, infections began to spike and expectations softened.
“It was an interesting meeting,” Holloway said. “Some coaches were ready to go and excited because they were coming from communities where there were no or few Covid cases, and then there were others who were nervous because they were coming from cities where the virus was running its course. The nice thing about it was that although everything is very politicized and state leaders haven’t come together in making big decisions, I’m happy with our coaches. They’re all different and have different beliefs, but everyone cooperated to find ways to get people back in the fall, if that was at all possible.”
WGR created its return-to-play guidelines, which are stricter than the parameters put forth by USA Rugby and Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association (WIAA) football.
“Right now, state high schools are doing a delayed start, which would mean a two-week delay from when we initially anticipated to start,” WGR President Barry Holloway said. “But [Covid-19] cases are up, pro sports are struggling, so I’m less confident [about a fall season].
“But we knew that the July meeting was about being ready, even if we couldn’t put anything into play. And I was O.K. with that,” Holloway continued. “Our local university in Madison did a study that showed anxiety and depression among athletes increased [37%] because of all this. We know how important it is to get the girls on the field, and we didn’t want to be too quick to cancel [the season]. We’re holding out as long as we can and monitoring as long as we can.”
The league will reassess on Aug. 17 and also talk potential modifications to the game (namely around the collision) and season. Should fall rugby evolve, then a second league-wide meeting would occur at the end of the regular season to determine whether playoffs were necessary.
“I, personally, speaking as a coach from Sussex, would entertain it,” Holloway said of playing 7s or any other version of rugby in the fall. “It’s important to get the girls that personal connection that they’ve been hungering for this last year.
“The other thing we’re concerned about as a league is the numbers,” the president continued. “We don’t want to lose a whole year of rugby and are really worried how this will affect our growth. Will it be the end of some of the smaller clubs? So there is a large group of us who will look at the fall and be happy with any rugby, even if there are no trophies or championships. On the flip side, you have to put safety first. There are also people in the league who say if it’s not safe to ruck or scrum, then we shouldn’t be out there at all, and I certainly respect those teams and coaches that are calling it quits this fall.”
Holloway is keeping close tabs on coaches and their status for the fall, and is also monitoring the referee pool for willing officials. He’s tracking return-to-school protocols, which range from virtual classes and mask-wearing, to in-person classrooms with no restrictions. Organizationally, WGR is leaning on the better resourced WIAA. If the state athletic association cancels fall sports, then WGR will, too.
“We’re also doing it to make it easier on families,” Holloway said of mirroring WIAA. “They’re already getting information from high schools, so this way the messaging is the same.
“People right now in our state are so overwhelmed by the lack of clear information and guidelines and decision-making [related to Covid-19],” Holloway continued. “It feels like I spent the whole summer calling, e-mailing, Zoom-ing with teams and getting advice and getting temperatures of school districts. But it’s been beneficial. We have a clear set of deadlines, clear dates for planning these things, and the open communication has taken some of the political aspect out of it because everyone is involved.”
August 17 is the intended go/no-go decision day for the season, but practices can’t technically begin until Sept. 7, and games would start Sept. 19.
“So there’s still a fair amount of time where we could see things get better and improve,” Holloway said. “We’re of the ilk that we’d rather cancel the night before the season is supposed to start than cancel two months ahead of time and be wrong and take away the opportunity from players.”
For more information, visit https://wigirlsrugby.org.