• • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Stumble Upon
  • Furl

The USA Women’s Rugby Sevens squad will hold a training camp this Friday, on the same day that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote on whether to include Rugby Sevens as an Olympic sport from 2016.

The USA squad will meet at the National Training Center in Clermont and spend the weekend working to impress Sue Parker, the head coach of the women’s national Sevens team ahead of their participation at the Dubai International Sevens in December.

Parker said that the primary purpose of the coming training camp was to teach players how to develop in each of the five areas of mental, physical, technical, tactical, and team development. The players will be assessed in each area at the start of the game and encouraged to develop on these over the weekend.

Under previous head coach Julie McCoy, the USA Sevens team finished third in the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens World Cup behind Australia and New Zealand and Parker has no doubt that with proper programme development and adequate support, the side could challenge for a gold medal in 2016.

“It is the staff’s hope that each player will leave camp with a greater understanding of the game of sevens rugby, of their strengths and weaknesses as players, and an individualised developmental programme in each of the key areas,” Parker said.

Women’s rugby is among the fastest growing segments of the game in the US and in the past 10 years, the sport has grown by 235% from 6,104 players in 1999 to 20,430 by the end of 2008.

USA Women's Sevens squad:

Sadie Anderson (Penn State WRFC), Annie Antar (Atlanta Harlequins Women’s Rugby Club), Jeanna Beard (Severn River Rugby Women), Ida Bernstein (Keystone Rugby Club), Beth Black (Northern Virginia WRFC), Brenna Costello (Washington WRFC), Katie Dowty (Beantown WRFC), Jenna Flateman (New York Rugby Club), Kelly Griffin (Berkeley All Blues Rugby Club), Allyson Hemstreet (Berkeley All Blues Rugby Club), Lisa Henneman (Penn State WRFC), CJ Hildreth (Northern Virginia WRFC), Lauren Hoeck (Northern Virginia WRFC), Tess Kohanski (Syracuse University Women’s Rugby Club). ,Jenny Lui (Chicago North Shore WRFC), Jen Nelson (Kansas City Jazz Rugby Football Club), Christiane Pheil (University of Colorado Women’s Rugby Club), Alison Price (Brandywine Women’s Rugby Club), Emily Record (Philadelphia WRFC), Lauren Rosso (Keystone Rugby Club), Kelly Seary (Beantown WRFC), Lauren Shaughnessy (Emerald City Mudhens Women’s Rugby Club), Lindsey Stephenson (Buffalo Women’s Rugby Club), Jossy Tseng (Berkeley All Blues Rugby Club), JoAnne Ward (Albany Knickerbocker Women’s Rugby Club), Alison Worman (Keystone Rugby Club), Dianna Zempel (MARFU 15’s)

Coaches: , Suzanne Parker (Head Coach), Peter Baggetta (Assistant Coach), Jonathan Griffin (Assistant Coach), Peter Steinberg (Assistant Coach), Kellie Cavalier (Manager)

www.scrumqueens.com