The closest game all season for both the Charlotte Cardinals and Wando Wahines came on December 4, when the two girls HS teams in the Carolinas league faced off.

So it is only fitting that these two will meet again in the final this weekend in Matthews, NC.

When they played each other in December they were all coming off 7s. “We knew we had fitness going into Winter 15s.,” said Wando Head Coach Kim Perritt, whose Wahines won 21-14.

But they were still easing their way from 7s to 15s and you wonder if things will be a little different this time.  

“Going into that first match we didn’t know what we had,” said Geoff Tice, who coaches the team with his wife, Alicia. “I think the girls were a bit shocked. A lot of them had come from playing 7s for Tigress and were used to winning.”

The Cardinals are a new HS club for boys and girls looking to expand the rugby offerings in Charlotte. That is why, in part, they had Tigress players.

Following that game both teams set about establishing a more 15s pattern. They went through Southern Pines/Chapel Hill, Clayton, Oceanside/Noth Meck, Hough, and Raleigh. All of those games were comfortable wins for Saturday’s finalists.

Tice said winning by such margins isn’t really a problem.

“We coach to a standard, so our players know where we want to be,” he said. “We play a 2-4-2 and it was tough for the players to pick it up at the beginning. But our ball movement is a lot better now.”

“Our coaching staff have focused on finessing techniques such as tackling, rucking, communication, and positional awareness,” echoed Perritt. “We review what we didn't do well each game and work hard in practices to remedy those issues.”

It’s been a long journey, then, toward finding the right combination of skills and approaches to face that first opponent again. At Wando, they say that the big difference is treating the team as family (using the Maori word whanau), and with Respect, Support, and Growth being their key watchwords.

Leadership is a lot of that, too. Their leadership group covers multiple grades in order to keep every age involved. Seniors Cecilia Ollis, Hannah Gholson, and Julia Hild, work with juniors Cami Surch, Gabi Klein, Kiki Raykova, and Mia Overman to bring it all together.

Ollis was a USA ID camp invitee and has committed to West Point. She’s an attacking threat, a strong kicker, and an excellent communicator. Gholson and Hild have been with the program four four years. Gholson’s aggression and tenacity, and her understanding of the game make her crucial to the Wando approach. She leads by example. Hild is a sidestepper, the one who makes the calls on offense, and a super passer.

Meanwhile Charlotte has Lennox London (Harvard commit) is one of their captains and a constant threat to break off a scoring run. Caroline Cook is the flyhalf and the one who runs the attack. Caitlyn England moved from fullback to center and has emerged as a real asset there; she moved from fullback because new player Inaya Abubakari has emerged as a talent in the #15 jersey.

These two teams are evenly matched and both play excellent defense. They’ve been waiting over two months to meet again, and the final promises to be just as dramatic as the opener.