By Alex Bahena ’19 and Diana Gomez ’19
The Girls’ Rugby team faced Rowe-Clark on the Speer Field on Nov. 3 for the NAC championship.
The Girls of Pritzker defended their championship from last year against the 6 time champions Rowe-Clark.
The girls of Pritzker played a hard fought game. Rowe-Clark picked up an early advantage because Rowe Clark scored early during the first half. After Rowe-Clark scored, the girls started to play even harder. The first half ended with a score of 5-0 in Rowe-Clark’s favor.
The event started with the lady jaguars warming up the field. The crowd gathered and pumped the girls up by chanting for them. Later, as the game was about to begin, both teams lined up in front of their school’s crowd. They lined up so that an announcer can announce each of the girls’ jersey number and name. In between each name, the announcer would pause so that the crowd could cheer for who they wanted to. After cheering, the rugby team then did their own chant to motivate themselves for the game in front of them.
As the game went on, the crowd seemed to cheer for player Keyla Romero, a sophomore, every time she had the ball. Gallardo mentioned that Romero is a very fast runner, so she is able to get the ball on the other side fast. Although no points were scored, Romero dodged many girls when they tried to tackle her, and she ran fast enough to get the ball on the intended side to hopefully score a point.
The second half started and the girls were still giving it their all. The girls came close multiple times to scoring during both halves, but couldn’t score the whole game. The game ended with a score of 5-0, making Rowe-Clark 7 time champions in Rugby for girls.
Throughout the game, Pritzker girls were encouraged by both their team and the audience. Because jaguars were behind, the crowd cheered on the girls by chanting “Let’s go Pritzker, let’s go.”
If it wasn’t the the crowd cheering on the girls, the girls inside the team encouraged each other. Throughout the game, the girls yelled “keep going forward ladies”
Another way the girls in the team motivate themselves is by being positive. Mia Diaz, a sophomore, told Ana Gallardo, a sophomore, to not say that she’s nervous, instead to say that she’s excited for the game. This prevents negative thoughts going in the girls’ heads, and, instead, motivates the girls to do better. This proved to be true with each hit that the lady jaguars received.
Thankfully, no girls were badly injured to the point where medical help would be needed, but the lady jaguars still took some hard hits. Some girls would end up on the ground after being hurt, but seconds later they’d brush it off, stand back up, and continue playing like nothing was wrong.
After the game ended a team member gave a speech while tears were on the eyes of the girls. The team member said they finished strong and should be proud of all the dedication they gave the whole season. They ended their speech with doing their role call and having their heads up and being strong.
After the speech, the girls lined up in front of the Noble Network board and posed for pictures as the second place winners.
Kassandra Adorno, a sophomore and member of the rugby team, was asked how she felt before the game, Adorno replied, “ I felt confident, I was ready to put my best out there in the field” Adorno brought up a moment of the game where she had the ball “ I ran [as]hard as I [could] no matter what.”
When asked on how she felt after the game she said, “I felt upset we didn’t win, but at the same time I felt good that I know my teammates played their hearts out there.” Adorno says it took a lot of practices and staying after school everyday to practice in the gym new ways they could use.
Before every game the team would have pep talks to motivate each other as stated by Adorno. When asked if any improvements could have been done Adorno said, “I feel what we had on the field was a good play, but I think we could’ve done better to the point (where) we would destroy the team.
Members of both schools were in the crowd. From the crowd people will chant “let‘s go Pritzker” and sending out motivation to the girls. The crowd gave the girls more inspiration, and made them play better throughout the game. They would clap when are girls came close and almost scored.
Rowe-Clark went into the game with a record of 7-0 picking up 21 points this season. Pritzker went into the game with a record of 6-1 picking up 18 points this season.
The girls of Pritzker ended their season with a 6-2 record and Rowe-Clark ended their season being undefeated with a 8-0 record Pritzker is a one time NAC rugby champion while Rowe-Clark add one more to their previous 6 making them 7 time champions. We got them next year. Go Pritzker!
