Eagle Impact Rugby Academy's run to the National Sevens Youth Championships girls title was one of ups and downs, but ultimately decidedly up.
Coached by Kelsie McDowell and Jason Scrogham the EIRA team brought players from all over the country to play together, and finding the right combinations was part of the tasks during the tournament.
"We had this whole group of women who had never known each other," said McDowell, who coaches at Iowa State. "We needed to see not only the best players, but what was the best group, who worked together. It took us a minute."
Still they were looking at the tournament as a development opportunity, not to win at all costs. Everyone who was there deserved playing time. Everyone deserved to be coached and to have opportunities to learn.
"All of the girls got at least a fill game of playing time and that was really important to us," said McDowell. "It was also really important for the gelling and the chemistry. Everyone had a chance to be important and had a shining moment at one points."
But you could see the growing pains. After opening their tournament 40-0 against the Valkyries out of Atlanta, they had been able to blood most everyone and felt confident. But they were sorely tested by Hawkeyes and could have conceivably have lost the game on a boneheaded mistake when the EIRA players forgot in which direction they should be playing. EIRA held on 14-12.
They won that game in part because Lucy Walker slotted both of her conversions, and that was a factor on the weekend.
"Her kicking was insane," enthused McDowell—although it's worth noting that the kicking at this tournament was far better than most of the women's college 7s GRR has been seeing. "The drop kick is something I struggle to teach so it was really good to have someone who could kick conversions and do restarts as well as she did."
EIRA had another close one against Belmont Shore B, a U14 group that were still powerful and strong and played with a ton of skill.
"The skill level of their U14s was jaw-dropping, to be honest," said McDowell.
EIRA held on 14-7.
So that was a sign that perhaps this group had some tenacity and grit, too. That might have been personified by Hazel Pron, who took a cut to the head that, as cuts to the head often are, looked rather nasty. As she was taken to the hospital she was quickly on the phone to her father. "Dad," she said. "It's not a concussion. I can play."
And she got stitched up and returned to the field to make an impact.
"Certainly we started to see ther chemistry develop," said the coach.
That started to show as EIRA torched Atlantis 33-7 and Pasefika 26-7. That Pasefika game was still in the balance when Pasefika made a huge break only for Carolina Martinez to get on her horse and chase the player down to save a try.
