by Nigel Melville
Nigel Melville Direct
Over 100 of the nation's top women's rugby athletes will convene this week in Lakeland, Fla. for a High Performance Camp at Tiger Town, the Detroit Tigers' spring training facility. The camp will serve as a selection vehicle for national teams and an opportunity for coaches to collaborate and identify talent for the upcoming international season. The camp will start on Wednesday January 11 and conclude on January 15.
USA Women's Eagles Head Coach, Pete Steinberg; USA Women's Eagle Sevens Head Coach, Ric Suggitt; and USA Women's Collegiate All-Americans Head Coach, Martha Daines will all be in attendance as well as their respective staffs.
On the player's side, various standout performers from the fall club season including Lynelle Kugler of the Twin Cities Amazons and Phoebe Boone of the Berkeley All Blues will attend the camp along with many other athletes from the Women's Premier League and Division I and II clubs. There are also a handful of collegiate athletes hoping to earn All-American and international honors.
Suggitt has brought some fresh faces into the sevens fold and has an expanded player pool from his pre-Dubai camp in November 2011. With an eye on the emerging IRB Women's Challenge Cup series, Suggitt will look to add depth to the pool of sevens athletes that already consists of stars like Nathalie Marchino, Kelly Griffin, Deven Owsiany, Pam Kosanke, and Irene Gardner.
Joining the two senior level National Teams in camp this week will be the Women's Collegiate All-Americans (WCAAs). In an excitng effort to give the WCAAs experience in high performance rugby, Daines has named a roster full of talent and youth. The invitees, including top players from college programs like Penn State, Stanford, Army, and Norwich University are looking forward to training in the High Performance environment along side current Eagles and National Team Coaches.
Eight current or former Eagles will be developing their skills at the camp, but not only their playing skills. Farrah Douglas and Tina Nesberg will be shadowing the WNT coaching staffs throughout the camp while Jillion Potter, Jamie Burke, Kittery Wagner, Sharon Blaney, Kate Daley, and Melanie Denham will go through course leader training from the USA Rugby Coach Development Department so they will be equipped to run their own clinics and coach trainings.
With an impressive resume as player, coach and administrator, Nigel David Melville took over as CEO and President of Rugby Operations of USA Rugby, the National Governing Body of the sport in America, in 2006. In addition to his full time job promoting the sport in the U.S., Melville has launched his own blog, Nigel Melville Direct, to further the discussion and his passion for what it will take to make the U.S. a great rugby playing nation.
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