'You have a million friends all of a sudden': Camaraderie keeps Worcester Shamrock women's rugby together
WORCESTER — When Bridget Simmons joined the Worcester Shamrocks women’s rugby club in 2002, the team could barely scrape together a full 15-player side.
“We might show up to matches with nine women,” Simmons said during the Shamrocks practice Thursday night at Crompton Park, “and (say to the other team), ‘Hey, do you want to lend us some people?’ ”
Simmons, a Worcester resident and the Shamrocks’ longest tenured player, has had a major role in the club’s growth, in numbers and success, over the last two decades.
The Shamrocks’ 2022-23 roster has more than 30 players, and this season the club made history by capturing the New England Rugby Football Union Division 2 championship. This weekend, they will play in the Atlantic Super Regional in Glen Allen, Virginia, with a chance to advance to the national championship in June in St. Charles, Missouri.
“This has been a vision for years,” Tran Nguyen, who is in her 10th season as Shamrocks coach, said, “knowing that we have the talent here, that we have the dedication. New England has really tough rugby. The level of competition is high. For us to advance is huge. We’ve been knocking on the door for a few seasons. It came together this season.”
The Shamrocks’ NERFU trophy has made the rounds, like on its own wagon in Worcester’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, been a vessel for a few celebratory beverages, and is certainly a source of pride. The gold-plated cup is making the trip to Virginia.
“Everyone has been working really hard,” coach Sarah Griffith said. “It’s very exciting.”
Hannah Stoens, the Shamrocks' backs captain, played four years of rugby at the University of Illinois and for a club team in Chicago after she graduated. The first thing she did when she moved to Massachusetts 10 years ago was find a rugby club.
“Within two days of me moving out here,” Stoens said, “I was working out with (the Shamrocks) in the offseason. I definitely knew as soon as I came out here that I was going to have 30 immediate girlfriends. It really helped with the jitters of moving across the country.”
Shamrocks players come from Central, Western and Eastern Mass., and New Hampshire, and they range in age from 21 to 56. The women are teachers, like Stoens, nurses, like Simmons, engineers, scientists, moms, social workers and physical therapists.
“We all came together from different walks of life,” said Nguyen, an administrator for the Department of Children and Families. “It’s amazing. We wouldn’t have met each other if it wasn’t for rugby.”
Nguyen also coaches the startup boys’ rugby team at Burncoat High, and she is hopeful the sport will continue to grow at the high school level.
“It’s an exciting sport to play,” Nguyen said. “It’s fast-paced, physically and mentally challenging and demanding, but playing is just an aspect of the game. There’s also a social piece and a community piece that is huge. If we can get kids into it when they’re younger and empower them, then once they go off to college, it opens a lot of doors.”
Simmons’ 9-year-old daughter Bailey, her “mini Shamrock,” comes to most games and practices.
“It’s great to have these women as role models for her,” Simmons said, “because they’re strong and fierce. It’s really cool to have that for her to look up to.”
Simmons, who was on the field hockey team at Doherty High, played rugby at Northeastern University.
Kelsey Maguire of Winchendon played football at Monty Tech and soccer at Fitchburg State, and found rugby, or more specifically, the Worcester Shamrocks, about 10 years ago.
“It’s a welcoming and unique community we have,” said Maguire, who also serves as the NERFU’s executive director of senior clubs. “Rugby includes all things of sports. That’s what I love about it. It has the pace of soccer, the physicality of football, and there’s a position for everybody out there. There’s so much room for growth individually and as a club. As you get older, you lose some of those opportunities. We still have the opportunity to be out in the community and play a fast, fun sport.”
The Shamrocks play 7-8 games a season and practice four hours a week.
“But these women devote a lot of time for fitness and skills outside of that,” Stoens said. “Playing a contact sport, you have to take care of your body.”
In addition to lifting, running and film parties, the Shamrocks prioritize recovery, sleep and hydration.
“Especially as we age,” said Maguire, a former special education teacher who now does administrative social work in Worcester. “Without it, we don’t make it 80 minutes on a Saturday. We want to look good and feel good all 80 minutes.”
After an extensive warmup, that included running and stretching, the Shamrocks got into drills Thursday night.
The camaraderie, respect and exuberance among the Shamrocks players is evident.
“That’s the thing about rugby,” Simmons said, “you have a million friends all of a sudden. That has kept me going, and I never had a reason to stop. I really don’t know what I would do without it.”
Nguyen moved to Worcester from Stamford, Connecticut, 16 years ago and put down roots here. Embedded in the Shamrocks’ logo on their warmups is a heart.
“Rugby is love,” Nguyen said, “and Worcester is the heart of the commonwealth. This is a really cool thing we have going on here.”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Nothing like camaraderie of Worcester Shamrocks women's rugby club
