LLR- What year was the rugby club founded, what inspired the formation?
JD- Our Royal Rugby club was actually founded just last year in 2021 but has been in the works since 2019. It all started when a simple game was introduced to a jv soccer team back in 2019, when our rugby coach, Coach Susanna Guardado or Coach G, was actually our soccer coach. She sort of just said “Hey want to try something new?”, during our final practice and we went at it. Our team became enthralled with the game and when our coach proposed actually starting a new team, no answer was needed; We were in. Unfortunately, soon after, Covid-19 hit and most of the team members had no idea what would happen with the sport. However, our coach was working hard behind the scenes from 2020 up until 2021 and fought for our club to become a reality. And although many people doubted us, in 2021, the same year we became a team, we became bowl champions.
LLR- When someone talks about youth rugby in the bay area, there’s mostly talk about the boys side of things. How has the reception been so far from the school and local clubs of the Overfelt girls rugby team?
JD- Well, personally, outside teams never seemed to be the problem. We actually made friends with a lot of them and raised 11k in donations from asking within the community. Rugby itself is a very respectful community because it’s built on connections to balance the toughness of the sport, so to our surprise it wasn't the outside clubs who put us down, it was our own peers. When it was first speculated that the girls would have a rugby team, an anonymous post was made on an instagram account. From what I can remember, it said something along the lines that we “ lesbians got a rugby team” and now we think we’re “the shit”. Under it were many tasteless homphobic comments such as being called “ran through'' for liking multiple genders or “sensitive” for standing up against their disrespect. Most of these comments were left by boys football team members . The post created a bigger chain reaction than I thought because by defending our team in the comments, I myself got into an argument and had a falling out with a friend because I called her out for defending them. And it wasn't harmful only to me, but to many of the girls on the team who also identify somewhere on the LGBTQ+ scale. To be stereotyped into one category once again was frustrating as women themselves are already underpaid, underestimated, and disrespected not only in sports, but in day to day life. Our response after the dilemma: don't react, just prove them wrong. My personal response: “Where’s their trophy?”.
LLR- In a mass city like San Jose, the Royals have seem to become a bacon for the potential of girls rugby in the area, is there a sense of pride amongst you and your teammates for carrying the torch thus far for girls youth rugby in a blind spot of NorCal Rugby?
JD- My teammates and I are flattered to be seen as an inspiration to the younger athletes who want to play rugby someday. We realize our “rags to riches” story opened up a door full of opportunities such as articles and interviews that tell our story, or when we raised 11k+ from our community to fund our team, but those victories weren’t just handed to us, we had to earn it by having the grit to want better for ourselves constantly. However, we realize we wouldn't be here without our community's support so we are humble and grateful for that. We try to return the kindness by inspiring the new generations to continue the East Side rugby legacy. We hoped to inspire them by running workshops in the summer and we accomplished exactly that. In fact, many of the kids who went still refer to some of the players as “teacher” or “coach”! We have also volunteered with the BAWSI girls at sporting events and enjoyed seeing the smile on their faces when we were repeating a chant. At the core we are a community and family-oriented team, so yes we are proud of our accomplishments, but because we worked hard for it and would like to inspire the younger generations to do the same.
Currently, there is so much collaboration and partnership being establish with our program. For instance, the SJSU WOMENS RUGBY program collaborates practices. Some of the San Jose Seahawks Women players come out (from time to time) to help during practices. As for next level work, I have 3 players who will be going to the U18 Mexico national tryouts in October!
LLR- In the article from The Rugby Breakdown posted towards the end of last year, it was stated that there was a lack of support from the school in helping with supplying practice space and proper time set aside to do so. Have things changed since then?
JD- Unfortunately, it is true that we had and still have an overall lack of support from the school. It’s just not as bad as it used to be. From the beginning, we realized we would have to share the field with the football boys, but we did not realize that we would be getting pushed off the field as well. We originally aimed for half of the field considering it is a 7’s team that requires a lot of running, but were given a shot put area to practice in. Not only that, but once we gained access to the lights to have our practices on the field from 6-8 pm, the football team began “extending” or pushing their practices back which left us once again in the shotput area. Regardless of the area we practiced in, we still won the 7’s championships, however, that still wasn't enough to gain respect or support because when tryouts for the 15s season began, suddenly a new rule was implemented, that “no players currently in a season can try out” for a club sport. This rule was probably made with the fact in mind that many of our core players in rugby 7’s also came from the girl's soccer team and that many of the boys interested in starting their own boy's rugby team, were from the football team. It was justified as a “safety precaution” for players in a season since playing BVAL sports should be prioritized and we are a club sport that's more prone to injuries. That rule cut our three weeks of practice to three short days right before the KOT tournament, which resulted in players getting injuries, myself included, from lack of tackling preparation. Yet regardless of the restrictions imposed on us, those who were truly passionate about rugby stuck around and for 15s season we ended up in the top three!
LLR- Overfelt just concluded a club sign up day for students, how was the turn out this year thus far for potential players?
LLR- Are you planning on continuing to play after high school and into college, if there a specific college you have a eye on or one reach out yet?
LLR- As club president what are some joys and hardships you face?
JD- Undoubtedly, everything about being class president is a joy to me. Knowing events ahead of time and helping plan them taps into the passionate leader inside of me. Facilitating a room and directing it when needed has always been one of my strong suits, as well as something I enjoy doing, so when I apply these traits in my day to day rugby life, by running informational club meetings or by representing our voice, like now, it's not because I have to, but because I want to. And although it is hard for me to focus, as a naturally forgetful and scatterbrained person, my position as president has taught me to be responsible. It has taught me to be a dependable person and show up when it really counts, because when my team needs to rely on me, I will be there to support them.
LLR- If given a chance to speak at another school and talk to potential players about starting their own club team, what would you say to them?
SG- Funny, because I have been reaching out to all High schools around the area and NOTHING. So now I’m opening my options asking charter schools and continuation schools. This sport is amazing and will open up many doors.
LLR- On the teams Instagram account I noticed this summer that there was some sort of clinic being run for younger kids, how was the reception of the clinic over the summer and how key is it to building a strong connection between the club and community?
SG- Yes! The summer clinic was something that I pushed for during our meeting. The vision was to host FREE rugby clinics for kids ages 5-12 years old every Friday. And May I say, this was a success. Every Friday we had 20-24 kids ages 5-12 yrs old out there learning the sport. I created a junior coach position so that 3 of my athletes can learn how to coach. I paid them out of pocket for their amazing work. Alongside, we had the older group (13-18 years old) who would scrimmage for 1.5 hours. The older group would usually gather 14-18 people every practice. Like this we met many middle schoolers who are now interested in rugby and many little ones who wish to be in a team!
LLR- Lastly what final words would you like to share, how can people interested fallow along and what can we all do, living in San Jose and outside the area to help support the program as it continues to grow
