Bruised, beaten up ... but champions
Lady Hammerheads capture South Crown
BY DAVE KEMPTON, Special to The News-Press
Published by news-press.com on April 27, 2004
Ingrid Benejam, 26,
of the Southwest Florida Lady Hammerheads rugby team tries to pull
away from a would-be tackler during her team’s 44-7 win against
Charlotte, N.C., at the USA Rugby South tournament Saturday at Three
Oaks Community Park in Estero. The Hammerheads captured the Division
II title Sunday. Their listed playing weights start at 123
pounds. The heaviest is 205. The most valuable player was named “The
Woman of the Match,” giving thought that maybe she won a beauty
contest. As is the tradition, they had partied and
celebrated long into Sunday night. They relived all the scrums and
pushing, shoving, tackling and running of the weekend. The Southwest
Florida Lady Hammerhead Rugby team, formed a scant three years ago
with a lot of beginners, won the USA Rugby South championship and
will join seven other Division II teams in the New York City area
June 5-6 for the national finals. The Lady Hammerheads
opened the tournament at Three Oaks Community Park in Estero with
a 44-7 victory against defending South champion Charlotte, N.C.,
then followed Sunday with a 38-3 thrashing of Nashville in the title
game. “They’re
champions of the South and they sure celebrated Sunday night,”
said coach Reed Jarvi of Fort Myers, talking about a rugby tradition
where all the teams become social after a match. Jarvi, a civil engineer
with 30 years of rugby experience as a player and coach, liked the
attitude of his players since the season started in October. “They wanted to
improve as a team and that has been done 10 times over from a year
ago,” Jarvi said. “They have good athletic ability and
the transformation has been accomplished to make them competitive.”
Then Jarvi sounded a
word of warning about the mindset of the women. “Remember, rugby
players have a little crazy spell in them, this is not a mainstream
recreational sport,” Jarvi said. “They go out and butt
heads, just like the men.” Rugby is a popular European
sport, the forerunner to American football, and is played without
pads. Although not an Olympic or NCAA sport, rugby is played by
700 men’s and women’s college teams and l,500 clubs
similar to the Hammerheads. The Hammerhead men failed
to qualify for the South finals, finishing their season 3-4. Nashville
beat Boca Raton for the men’s Division II title, and Charleston,
S.C., topped Memphis in the Division III finale. “We now have over
l,000 players in Florida, both men and women, with four new teams
added this year,” said Martin Gardner of Fort Lauderdale,
president of USA Rugby South, which is comprised of eight states.
A typical rugby team
has 15 starters and plays two 40-minute halves, with no timeouts.
Like football, there is constant change with the offensive and defensive
schemes, and the highest points are scored when you cross the goal
line, five. “We’ve had
a lot of women come to a practice, look at the physical aspects
of the game and then walk away, knowing it was not for them,”
Jarvi said. One key Hammerhead player,
Kelly Hill, started playing 21 years ago and has never totally walked
away from the game. The 40-year-old, 123-pound home improvement
contractor in Fort Myers played her first game while in the Army
at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1983. “When I joined
the team three years ago it was like I was riding the big bike and
the rest of them were still on training wheels,” Hill said.
“Then it was frustrating, we were not very good to watch.
“I learned when
I was in the Army, much younger and in good shape, where today the
girls have jobs and children. Plus, in the service you do what you’re
told. At first, I lectured a lot, but now they don’t want
me to say a lot. I know better than to get on their case because
they’ve come a long way with knowledge of how to play the
game. “Plus, women know
when they screw up and take it personally, while the guys just shrug
it off,” added Hill, who plays a flanker position because
of her speed. “It’s taken
time to build the confidence, but we’ll hold our own in New
York,” Hill said. Lisa Rynders, 39, watched
her former boyfriend practice with the men Hammerheads and decided
to join the women. “It started as
a joke but I switched from beach volleyball and as long as my knee
holds up, I’ll play,” said Rynders, an ultrasound technician
in Naples. Rynders is the “quarterback.’’
“It’s a little
like football. I’m behind the front line, or the ‘pack,’
and once the scrum starts I take the ball and start the offense
rolling,” Rynders said. “The pack has big girls and
we have a good one in Jackie, a big threat to the other team because
she is a great protector.” Jackie Potter of North
Fort Myers is 205 pounds, the largest player, and also serves as
the team’s trainer. Andi Coombs, who learned
the game in Canada, played in Australia and moved to Fort Myers
nine years ago, was named the “Woman of the Match” after
the title game. She had a very strong
offensive game, with a lot of nice runs, Jarvi said. The entire
team voted for her. We finally did it. It
feels great to see what we accomplished after three years of a lot
of hard work, said original Hammerhead Raelyn Barlow. I'm beaten
up and sore, with a huge cleat mark on my leg, but I've also got
a huge smile on my face.
TERRY ALLEN WILLIAMS/news-press.com
Monday morning, several players looked like they had been in a serious,
two-day brawl over the weekend, waking up with bruises.