U.S. Women's Rugby 7's

A couple of weeks ago I was on the intertubes and came across the US Women's Rugby 7's blog. In a never ending effort to increase West Pot's exposure, I left a couple of comments and e-mailed back and forth with one of the women on the team. They have a calendar on sale and eventually I negotiated a link to the West Potomac Blog on their blogroll in exchange for buying a calendar. Jen Sinkler (who I had swapped e-mails with) asked that I do a blog post about the calendar, so here we are.

It was kind of cool, I received the calendar last Wednesday when Io and I were home by ourselves. When I opened up the package Io was sitting at the table having a snack and as soon as she saw the calendar she excitedly shouted, "OOOH, rugby!" Once I took off the cellphane wrapper and showed Io the pictures inside she got even more excited yelling, "WOMEN PLAYING RUGBY!!"

As we flipped through the calendar Io either announced what they were doing in each picture or asked a dozen questions. Like when I showed her a picture of one of the players doing a bench press she was baffled, the conversation went something like this.

Io: Daddy, what's she doing?
KJ: Lifting weights honey
Io: How come she's not wearing a shirt?
KJ: She has on a shirt
Io: No Daddy, that's a bra
KJ: [no answer]
Io: What are those? [pointing to ripped abs]
KJ: Muscles
Io: Do you have muscles like that?
KJ: No sweetie
Io: Do you have to lift weights to get muscles?
KJ: Yes.
Io: Why don't you lift weights Daddy?
KJ: Do you want to go outside to play?

In a strange coincidence, the day before I had been to the new Godek location to pick up a gift for my nephew/Godson and while I was there I got Io her own rugby ball too. When we went to a nearby playground to play with the size 4 ball, Io showed almost no interest in passing the ball instead preferring to run around fly hacking the ball. As a forward such behavior is disturbing to me, but three things kept me from discouraging her:

1. She was having fun. Io resisted all of my attempts to impose some sort of order on what we were doing saying, "Dad, can we just play?" A very important lesson for me as a potential insane sports Dad.

2. She was improving by the second and since there is no U4 rugby in the area, Io will have to cut her teeth playing soccer. If she can keep a rugby ball moving in the direction she wants it to just using her feet, I have a feeling she'll do pretty well at soccer. In fact, I just signed Io up for indoor soccer today which means I'll be missing or late to a lot my own Winter training sessions.

3. It was really hilarious about every 2-3 minutes when she would step on the ball and do the Charlie Brown thing. Without fail she would pop up off the ground and announce that rugby is a rough sport and you have to be tough to play. That's Daddy's little girl!

Just like their male counterparts, many of the women on National 7's side have given up just about everything in their lives to be world class rugby players. There are also a couple of local ruggers, Beth Black and Jenn Starkey of the NoVA Pirahnas (PRU Rugby, HUZZAH!!!!), who have made the cut down to the final 14 spots for the World Cup in Dubai.

This is a team that needs and deserves our support, find a spare $20 in your budget and buy a calendar to support these kick ass ruggers.

With You,

KJ

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