Summit Girls Rugby is celebrating 30 seasons of high school rugby this fall, and it all starts tomorrow, Sept. 5, with the Summit 7s Tournament on their home pitch.
Leading the varsity squad tomorrow is a trio of seniors, Hailey Russer, Teagan Barth and Elle Chabot. It feels like just yesterday they were the nervous freshmen gearing up for their first game.
“This is the first time watching our freshman and underclassmen really play,” Hailey tells Krystal 93. “It’s just cool to watch their development from the first week of practice, when they don’t even know what a rugby ball is, to playing their first game and dominating.”
Hailey has her eye on Division I rugby. This season, she is feeling stronger than ever. Just ask her teammates – both Teagen and Elle say she is hitting harder and running faster.
“In the spring, I really locked in during track season,” Hailey says. “Track meets, in the weight room, going to states, and then over this summer I just kept at it, working on my for and the little things that will help me.”
Come November, Summit Rugby is defending its state title for an unprecedented 18th year. This program hasn’t lost the title since before these seniors were born.
Does that legacy of winning make Elle nervous?
“The legacy is a lot to handle,” she admits. “But I think the community that we have surrounding us really pulls everything together. It’s what makes us who were are.”
In 30 seasons, Summit Rugby has produced dozens of collegiate and even professional players. Many have been stopping by their old stomping grounds to play touch on Tuesdays, including Cassidy Bargell, a former Harvard starter now playing on the U.S. women’s World Cup team.
Like Cassidy, Teagan has been playing most of her life. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Nothing really compares to rugby,” Teagan says. “The family and community are just so strong.”
Those two ideas, family and community, are as big a part of Summit Rugby as running and tackling.
“In my senior year I just want to be a better leader,” Teagan says. “Help people feel connected and feel like they belong and have somewhere where they can just be themselves and have fun.”