 | | | Rachel Lowe, in black, and Diana Katzman, in white, get a workout at a Lamorinda Rugby Club practice May 24. Photo Andy Scheck | | | | | | The Lamorinda Rugby Club launched its first high school girls' rugby team May 17 in front of a packed hall at the Wilder Ranch House in Orinda. Club officials, coaches and several players on girls' rugby teams talked about the benefits and excitement of the budding girls' team sport.
"We provide an opportunity for girls to play rugby with our boys from U8 through middle school," said Beth Marks, volunteer administrator. "At that point it becomes too dangerous for them to continue on playing with high school boys." And so, with rugby one of the fastest growing team sports in the country, the Lamorinda club started its own girls' high school rugby program, rather than have the girls travel miles away to play.
Diana Katzman, a junior at Campolindo who drives to Pleasanton to play in a girls' rugby league, said the sport has improved her toughness, self-respect and self confidence. "Coaches are honest," she said. "There is no sugar-coating. It opened my eyes to see that all of the work I did actually paid off in my improved play." Katzman's Pleasanton Cavaliers will be a Lamorinda club opponent.
Club coach Rob Lowe, whose seventh-grade daughter Rachel has played for two years on the Orinda Intermediate School rugby team, noted that women's rugby is the newest NCAA varsity sport, so colleges can now offer rugby scholarships.
A student asked about the injury risk. "The coaches teach you how to tackle, and how to do it right," Katzman said. Kat Clark, a senior at UC Berkeley and vice president of the Women's Rugby Club, said she suffered more injuries playing softball than playing rugby.
"But one of the biggest pleasures was how the sport provided me a great social network," Clark said. Along that social line, club president Drew Pearson told the group that after each match, the two opposing teams meet on the pitch - the rugby field - and share a meal together.
Club officials stressed that the sport is open to high school girls of every shape and size, with no experience necessary. This summer, the league will field a team of seven players, and plans to introduce a 15-player team this fall.
Practices run through July 21, at the Pat Vincent Field at Saint Mary's College, from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Thursdays.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA