tackles

barrier of male-dominated sport

Genevieve Frucht ’24 News Editor

With the program only being announced in 2019, girls’ rugby has already tackled the stigma that rugby is a male-only sport. For the 2023 season, the Staples girls’ rugby team will be combined with Wilton High School in order to give girls throughout Fairfield county the ability to play.

Staples has broken a major gender barrier by forming a girls’ rugby team. It is not a common sport for schools in Fairfield Country to offer to girls. Natasha Malino ’24 began playing rugby her freshman year. At that time there were only nine girls on the team, which later dropped to seven.

“When we play games, I feel we play against the same four to five-ish schools because it is not very common at many high schools for girls to play,” Malino said. “Even if a school offers it, not many girls are willing to play.”

Coach Jane Kim believes that because Staples does not yet have enough players for a full team, the school’s openness to combine with other schools has been crucial to form a team with an adequate number of girls to play.

“A sports conference doesn’t grow overnight - it takes several schools to pool resources and sometimes stitch and duct-tape teams across the state to get games and awareness in the community,” Kim said. “Fortunately, unlike some other schools, Staples understands that new sports need grassroots support and flexibility to increase participation.”

The presence of the accomplished Staples boys’ rugby team has allowed the girls team to practice playing 15’s, where there are 15 players on either side of the ball playing an 80 minute game. Captain Parker Pretty’s ’23 goal for the upcoming season is to have 20-25 girls on the team and match the number of boys that play on the field at one time.

“I think the fact that we warm up and do preseason with the boys allows us to raise ourselves to a higher level,” Pretty said, “especially when we don’t have the numbers to do it properly yet on our own.”

Rugby is often seen as a brutal sport, which is one reason it is hard to attract enough girls to make a full team.

“Most people have the idea of [rugby] being a very rough sport,” Pretty said. “And while that is true, the Staples program makes sure to properly train and prepare all of their players before letting them step into a real game.”

With Kim’s coaching and playing experience, the girls on the team have learned how to tackle in practice and in games.

“When game time gain the confidence to run hard and go into tackles to fight for the ball,” Kim said. “Then they have the biggest grin on their faces when they realize that they have what it takes to sprint down the field to score and take down a girl one-on-one.”

During their first game against Darien in Spring 2021, the girls’ team decided to wear eye black, often worn by mens sports teams, as a symbol of team spirit. This created a bond between and Darien, who were also excited to take part in the eye black.

“After the first half, two Darien players ran over to compliment the girls on the eye-black, and then asked if they could borrow some so they could wear it too,” Kim said. “After the game, the teams clapped each other off and then selected an opponent from each team that they wanted to honor for playing a great game, and then we took a group photo to celebrate the competition.”