HCC girls rugby enter league play

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Holy Cross Collegiate girls rugby team is entering their first year of league play and are confident they can keep games close, but they know the battle level will have to be high.
“For us there is a lot of advancement from the first to the second year. They want to learn and that’s a lot easier for me to coach,” said head coach Brennan Grasdahl. “I think we’ll fare well. We played a couple of teams in a tournament last year and beat the ones that are in our league this year.”
Grasdahl expects the girls to play a fast and aggressive style of game.
“If we’re faster than everybody and hit harder, it’s going to be a better result than
if we’re just laid back and slow.”
The competition from tournament to league play is going to be an adjustment for a lot of the players as there will be some tough teams.
“It’s going to be a lot tougher, a lot more steeper competition. We’ll be playing bigger schools, but I think they can do it,” said Grasdahl.
The goal for the team is to develop the girls as much as possible to advance their skills and to keep the program running.
“We got a lot of younger girls this year and I want to advance them to keep the program going and keep a competitive level,” said Grasdahl. “I want them to win … it’s a lot more fun winning, and as coach I teach them the tools, making sure they know its team before person.”
He said that the success will lie in letting other teams know that they are out to win and to compete.
“If we can have some steep competition and let it be known we’re contenders and not a joke … that’s our goal this year is to set our name out there and let everyone know we’re here,” said Grasdahl.
For the girls on the team, it will be key in practices to work on staying in shape so they can last longer in games.
“Conditioning is big, we’re always running, it’s not like football where there are breaks in between downs,” said Grasdahl. “I want to introduce a couple of new systems and we’re switching from 7s last year to 12s this year and have to introduce five new positions.”
Their season will begin on the week of April 13 with an exhibition match against the Foundation for the Charter Academy at Holy Cross Collegiate.