By Gavin Lindahl
Sports Assignment Editor
The women’s rugby team is gearing up for another season of hard-fought competition. But according to junior Rachel Noone, the preparations are starting small.
“Since we have a game this Saturday, we have had to get right into the basics and teach the rookies the fundamentals of the game,” Noone said. “We have just been working on the basics like passing, tackling and rucking all to get back in the groove of things. We plan on getting positions down before our first game.”
The team, which is currently fielding at least 10 rookies, lost five of their senior players last season. However, former team captain Laura Calamia has returned to coach the ruggers this season as a graduate student.
Calamia was part of a squad that was crippled by injuries last season, and with rugby being the high-contact sport it is, the risk is just as present as it was last season.
Last season, the team put emphasis on conditioning and strength training in the gym, something that Noone admits hasn’t been a focus this season.
“We haven’t had a ton of time to do just conditioning [because we’ve had to focus on the fundamentals], Noone said. “That being said, we do make sure that we save time for fitness at some point in practice.”
As is to be expected with young players, Noone claims that perhaps the team’s biggest flaw is their inexperience and associated mental game of some players.
“As weaknesses go, we don’t have that strong of a mental game,” Noone said. “We often get intimidated by just looking at the size of our opponents and looking at team standings. I think the only way to address that is to just realize that we are a good team, not look at the outside factors, and just play the game.”
Despite the team’s somewhat green nature, the Bonnies has several veteran players returning that Noone says will boost the team’s performance. Also, the stiff competition that the ruggers faced last season should rollover as good training for this season.
“Our biggest strength is our experience,” Noone said. “We have an older team now and girls coming in with experience. Also, we played good, tough teams in our division last year, so that level of competition should help us in this new division.”
Noone also said that the team’s chemistry, something that the ruggers have always boasted, is the squad’s biggest strength behind their experience.
Regardless of fresh faces and team cohesion alike, the ruggers will get their first taste of play in their new division at home this weekend against Geneseo at 10 a.m. on Bona’s new McGraw-Jennings turf field.
