Wildebeasts bring Women's Rugby back with a vengeance
Patti DeBow & Jenn Paau, WG '08
Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: Insider
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The women convened, half-asleep, at 7:55 Saturday morning, heeding stern warnings from the men of the Wharthogs that the bus would be leaving at 8am sharp!
Lesson #1 for rugby neophytes: About 99% of Wharthogs can't tell time. As the ladies mused about the extra sleep they could have gotten, much needed as some continued to recover a mere 29 hours later from Wharton 54, the guys trickled in slowly until around 8:20am. Everyone was there, but wait - where's the bus?
Lesson #2: Never leave the logistics to the guys. After a broken down bus that never arrived, plus failed attempts by a Wharthogs president (who shall remain nameless) to secure alternate transportation, the Wharthogs and Wildebeests piled into cars and took off only 45 minutes late.
Nicole "Road Rage" Izzo got her crew to their destination astonishingly fast, leaving only a handful of disgruntled drivers in her dust on the New Jersey Turnpike. Their early arrival gave a few of the team members a heads up on just how good their opponents were, and conversely how unprepared they were. Having attended an average of 1.5 practices each, and participated in exactly one scrimmage match, the Wildebeests eyed up the opposing team as if they were Olympic athletes.
The British and Australian accents floating out of Columbia's team huddle did little to assure the largely American group of Wildebeests that they stood a chance at a game which, let's face it, Americans are not known to excel at.
The Wildebeests are a motley crew of characters, to say the least. Consider it a small sample of the variety here at Wharton. Skill level ranges from absolute beginners (when Jen "TFH" Paau actually manages to land a pass to Christine "Secret Weapon" Lee, the results are magical) to seasoned rugby veterans (it's guaranteed captain Dana Komar will lobby any team member in sight to join her full-on women's tackle league every 15 minutes at a minimum - good luck with that, Dana). But overall, the team has been rapidly climbing the learning curve, with some bright stars emerging.
Saturday's lineup proved more intimidating than anticipated, leading the Wildebeests to early success with a 10-5 win over Columbia in their first match. Emily Rizza was a massive force to be reckoned with, generally drawing 5 of 7 opponents to cover her offensive drive. And she still won out. Don't be fooled by Nicole Izzo's diminutive stature either; her "accidental" tackle of an opposing player left Columbia shaking in their boots.
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