| Morris U19 Girls Rugby | History
2005 was the inaugural year for the Morris U19 Girls Rugby team, known as the LadyLions. The team was started from a core of girls who came out of the Long Valley Youth program having been encouraged to try the tackle version of the game the previous summer by one of the Long Valley Eagles’ coaches, Pam Laura. Pam, who played for Montclair Women’s Rugby for 7 years, was eager to share her love of the game with any girls who were interested, and these girls were hooked! They loved the tackling; they even, after some initial hesitation, loved lifting or being lifted in lineouts!
After conversations with Richard Dyer, the Director of Coaching for Morris Rugby and a big advocate of the Girls program, and with John Sutherland, Coach and Team Manager for the successful and growing Boys U19 program and another strong supporter of the Girls U19 program, it was decided that a Girls U19 team would be started. Richard found 2 members of the Morris Women's team, Katy Rank - a hooker from Penn State, and Val Tormey, a second row from Brentwood College, to work on the "coaching staff" with Pam and the LadyLions were born.
The team attracted 12 players in their first season. These 12 were a mix of former Youth players and brand-new players. Some of the new players were already athletes in other sports like softball, lacrosse, swimming, gymnastics, fencing, volleyball, soccer, and track, while others were new to sports in general. They were a dedicated group, practicing outdoors in the bitter cold of February in order to be ready for the wintry mid-March start of the season.
Although they were unable to field a full 15 themselves in 2005 they were able to reach out to another fledgling team from Union RFC and join forces with them on game days. Despite the fact that the two teams never practiced together, they were quite effective on the pitch, finishing 2nd in Div II East after defeating the D2 East 1st place team in a hotly contested match and coming in 5th out of ALL DIV II while being the only brand new team! A very auspicious start!
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