Hard-Nosed, Elegant Rugby; Westside Girls Put Indiana On Notice
Hard-Nosed, Elegant Rugby; Westside Girls Put Indiana On Notice
Westside's girls team hasn't been around a long time, but they already have a state championship to put in their trophy cabinet, having just rolled through the Rugby Indiana Girls HS 7s.
Westside edged Chargers 14-7 in the final
Westside Sweeps Rugby Indiana 7s
"We're a relatively new and inexperienced club we’ve been real happy with how our program is growing and the chemistry these girls have with each other," said Head Coach Terry MacMillan. "They are extremely loud, proud, and happy to be playing great rugby."
The Westside victory happened on the same weekend that the boys team won their second straight Indiana 7s championship, and there's a good connection between the two.
"I think the best thing we have going for us is that we practice all the non-contact drills right alongside our boys team so that when we play matches the game actually slows down for them, but they don’t," said MacMillan. "The coaching staff is merged also as one and only separates for specific contact drills or for games."
While this was an impressive team effort, especially defensively, Soryah Hart was the tournament MVP, but she was backed up by several other standouts. That includes speedy sophomore wing Giselle Long, who scored several tries on long breaks.
The forwards impressed, too, with senior Josie Hause making massive tackles all day, and junior Ellie Robison who continually dragged additionally tacklers with her on her runs, allowing other players to exploit more space.
With scrumhalf Taryn MacMillan making her kicks, they continually put teams under pressure.
Now Westside looks ahead to a spring season.
"For the Spring we are very excited after this that we will compete quite well," said MacMillan. "Our numbers have doubled since last year and we are shooting for 40 to 50 by spring. We are not shy here on the Westside—both our Boys and Girls teams have no problem giving notice to the traditional Indiana power programs that we plan on staying highly relevant from here on out, and we will continue to do it playing hard-nosed, elegant rugby."
