SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA –
The Armed Forces Women’s Rugby Championship kicks off fits fifth competition here July 12-13 in San Diego.
The Army took gold the first three years of the championship with Air Force soaring to gold in 2023. Members from each of the service branches combined into Team USA for the CISM Rugby Challenge in the Netherlands last month and took silver.
Winning gold
Air Force 1st Lt. Rachel Henley, chemical officer and team captain, said her team focused on recovery and fitness.
“We hit recovery really hard,” said Henley, who’s stationed at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia. “We focus on making sure we’re all hydrated, recovering mentally, being good teammates, being loyal, understanding all our plays, making sure we’re ready field wise. The biggest start is recovery and the fitness you do prior to coming to camp. You have to prepare individually because we only have this opportunity once a year for two weeks.”
She said coming back with the gold medal around her neck would help inspire her platoon.
“It would inspire them to continue to love and embrace other hobbies in their life,” she said.
The Army earned gold every year except last year.
“It’s a huge year to get gold back,” she said. “We’re focusing on our strength as a team. It’s bricks by bricks this year. We can’t wait to put our strengths together and be a strong brick wall as our foundation out there on the pitch. We’re really excited to see our strength on the field and use them against the Air Force.”
Air Force Capt. Katie Mueller, a public affairs Air Force Institute of Technology student at George Mason University, Virginia, is also a team captain. She said her team is ready to keep the gold.
“I’m excited about the team this year,” she said. “We’ve got a solid mix of returning players, people who’ve played with the team, took a break and coming back to rugby, and fresh players bringing youth to the team with fresh ideas.”
She said everyone wants the gold.
“It wasn’t great taking home silver a couple years in a row, and we came back last year just ready to go. I think everybody doesn’t want to go back to that silver feeling again. We know what gold tastes like, and we want to keep it,” she said.
She said that the strength of the Air Force team is that everybody brings something to the pitch.
“We’ll play other tournaments throughout the year on our own dime just to see each other and get hands on the ball,” she said. “We have more people and then will cut the roster down for what Armed Forces will allow for competition. The other players will put together a team and still play in other brackets of the tournament. It’s beneficial for us.”
Marine Capt. Janet “Jamay” Lee, intelligence officer, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, is a scrum half. She said don’t count the Marine team out. They took silver in 2019.
“We’ve got great cohesion with the fronts and backs and just a team that’s real hungry to win,” she said. “We’re aiming for gold all the way.”
Navy Ensign Megan Neyen, surface warfare officer, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, team captain, said the Navy team is also going for the medal podium.
“We’re the underdogs. We have speed and knowledge. We want to win,” she said. “We’ve built the building blocks and we’re going to show what we’re here for.”
Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Ariyanna “Ari” Jurkowski, enforcement branch, District Eleven, Alameda California, team captain and center, said the Coast Guard team could also be a dark horse.
“We have a good number of returning players and newer players to rugby. We have a good mix of people with rugby knowledge and good fitness this year,” she said.
“We’re able to keep up and push each other more than I’ve experienced in the past two years I’ve been playing so that’s really promising for the championship this weekend,” she said.
The Championship kicks off today at Nobel Athletic Fields and Recreation Center at 5:00pm.