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Willoughby joins Pronhorns women’s rugby team |
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Written by Dale Woodard
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 |
It’s a classic case of the hometown girl making good. In her home town, no less.
After spending her high school years wrucking and mauling her way across the pitch as a member of the LCI girls rugby team, Kelsey Willoughby is kicking it up a notch.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the University of Lethbridge the Pronghorns announced that Willoughby — along with three other recruits — will be joining the ’Horns in time for the team’s 2009 CIS campaign.
Also committing to donning ’Horns blue this season are Stacey Hake, Kevenza Murphy and Jenn Wickwire.
Onhand at the press conference Tuesday, Willoughby was looking forward to taking her game to the CIS level.
“I’m really excited, they have the program I’m looking for,” said Willoughby, who helped her team advance to the Southern Alberta High School Rugby League final earlier this month, earning the league’s Most Valuable Player honour in the process.
“Their rugby program is top notch and I’m really excited to play on a two-time national champion. It looks like it’s going to be a promising season next year. To be able to be coached by Neil (Langevin) is flattering. To be able to learn a lot from these girls, they’re so experienced, so it’s really exciting.”
From the Pronghorns’ perspective, the team was simply happy to keep the high school rugby star local.
“Kelsey is unique and is a great find and it’s great to find her in her own back yard,” said Langevin. “We think she’s among the best recruits in the country right now. She’s shown at the high school (level) that she can physically dominate and that really interested us all the way back when she was in Grade 10. But more importantly, we really see her fitting in personally with the girls on our team. Her mental skills are improving and we’re really looking forward to her improving her game to move up another level. We really think she’ll be able to do that early in her career.”
Now Willoughby gets set to help the ’Horns challenge for another CIS title.
“It’s going to be challenging. I’m just excited to be able to learn and adapt to this level. It’s going to be different,” said Willoughby, who will stay in game shape over the summer playing with the Lethbridge Rugby Club’s womens’ team. “I’d like to play forward because I’ve done that through all of high school and I really like it there.”
Langevin anticipated a learning curve for his newest recruit.
“What happens is a lot of the girls that shine in high school wind up trying to do too much at university because at high school they’ve had to do multiple roles and on our team they don’t,” he said. “We’ll ask her to focus on the task at hand. So that will probably be her biggest challenge, focusing on her tasks, not her teammates.”
Still, expect the first-year Pronghorn to still log her share of time on the field.
“She’ll definitely garner a lot of playing time,” said Langevin. “She’s a competitive person and she really wants to get going with it.
“It’s both offence and defence (as well as) her physical play. She’s just a workhorse. She works so hard all the time. She’s relentless.”
The ’Horns head coach said Willoughby’s persona both on and off the field is also a plus.
“She has so many personal skills,” he said. “She’s a great team player (and is) all of those things you really look for on and off the field.”
With only two starters departing from the 2008 ’Horns team, the future is looking bright for the Pronghorns rugby women.
“We really envision we’ll be able to challenge for another Canada West title and we hope to be there in the final day of the CIS national championships again,” said Langevin.
NOTES:
As a player who already has national team experience, Hake joins the Pronghorns from Carson Graham High School in north Vancouver. Hake, who lines up at lock or the number eight position, captained the Under-17 national team and is a two-time medalist at nationals with the B.C. U-17 team, winning a silver and gold medal.
Murphy, also a member of the B.C. U-17 silver medal winning team at nationals in 2008, comes to the ’Horns after a solid high school career with Moscrop Secondary School in Burnaby. The flanker also plays club rugby with the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club.
Playing at prop, Wickwire will add to the Pronghorns front row and joins a contingent of Alberta team members on the ’Horns. Hailing from Olds, Wickwire has suited up with the U-17 provincial team and has just completed a strong high school career at Olds High School.
The Pronghorns will begin defence of their Canada West and CIS titles Sept. 26 when they host the newest member of Canada West womens’ rugby, the Calgary Dinos.
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