by Brent New
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
It’s hard to imagine a championship lathered in more debate and criticism than the Glendale Raptors’ Women Premier League (WPL) title in 2014.
They wanted a championship from the movies, something so pure and untouchable — like it should be. But no matter how much they wanted it, how hard they wished it, it just wasn’t.
They lost to the Atlanta Harlequins in the WPL semifinals, yet moved on to the title game after the Harlequins knowingly played an ineligible player and were forced to forfeit their 13-7 win.
“It was tough for me personally because I was told before the kickoff that the Harlequins had forfeited, but they would appeal,” Raptors former coach Michael Fealey said. “It messed with my head.”
The forfeit held up and his team eventually beat the Twin Cities Amazons 16-15 in the title game and claimed the first WPL title in program history.
Players and coaches had to defend their gold medal soon after.
“Some people said we didn’t deserve it. It was frustrating. There were people hiding behind computers, telling us we didn’t deserve it. Saying there should be an asterisk,” Raptors club president Jeanna Beard said. “But we know we deserved it. We know the fight it took, we know we’re champions.”
She hopes the WPL Raptors’ spring season will help silence the critics.
Also known as the developmental season, it began with a tournament win at the Champagne Classic in San Diego, Calif. in late February and will go through late May.
The main purpose of the three-month season is to develop and work with players on an individual basis. Beard, however, said there will be a little extra motivation in every game after what happened in the fall.
“We want to prove to people we are champions,” Beard said. “We’ve heard some stuff about our gold medal and we are tired of hearing it. We just want to make (the critics) shut up a little bit.”
Despite the ballyhooed cries from critics on their unconventional run to a national championship in the fall, and the hasty departure of their coach, the Raptors appear to be unscathed in the early weeks of the spring season. Raptors director of rugby Mark Bullock is in as interim head coach, and former Raptors players Kitt Wagner and Jamie Burke are in as assistant coaches.
In a rematch unbefitting of a tense national championship game that ended 16-15, they made short work of the Twin Cities Amazons in the not-so exciting sequel on March 7.
Joanna Kitlinski scored twice and Rachel Ryan added another as the Raptors beat the Amazons 51-17 at Infinity Park.
First-time WPL players Denali Graham and Fatima Chavez also added scores in the win.
“We had good play by veterans and some new players to us,” Raptors coach Mark Bullock said. “You want to see what you have everywhere on our roster and I think we got a good idea.”
On the field, forward Rachel Ryan, flanker Joanna Kitlinski and Beard were big pieces during the title run. And so far, they are leading the Raptors during the developmental season. Veteran players and key components to the 2014 title run Hannah Stolba, Jessica Sexaur and Tina Nesberg, in the meantime, will not participate in the spring season.
The mission is to give a lot of the younger and less experienced players on the Raptors women’s team a bigger role in the spring.
In the March 7 rematch, Ryan clobbered through the Amazons defense and put Glendale up 15-10 in the opening minutes of the second half.
Molly Kinsella and Graham scored on back-to-back possessions to push the lead to 37-17. And Kitlinski scored her second try of the day to give the Raptors the 44-17 advantage soon after.
“We played with good intensity and started playing the way we’ve practiced,” Bullock said. “It was good to see.”
When asked though if the Raptors will take a page out of the NFL and minimize the importance of games themselves during their noncompetitive season, Bullock scoffed.
“You must not know me too well if you think that,” he laughed. “We are going to approach every game to win. That’s the point of playing. We want to have competitive games and treat it no different than we ever do.”
While some things never change, the Raptors’ WPL team has done nothing but since they won the national championship. And the life of a champion, no matter who the critics, certainly has its perks.
Moving On Up . . .
The city of Glendale and the Raptors recently agreed that the WPL team will play three, maybe four home games in the stadium at Infinity Park in the fall.
The San Diego Surfers (Sept. 12), Oregon Sports Union (Oct. 10) and Berkeley All Blues (Oct. 24) are all scheduled to be played in the stadium, and the city said they have asked the Raptors to get one more quality opponent onto the regular season schedule to make a total of four home games.
The city also said via email that they are putting together a proposal to host the WPL National Championships on Nov. 13 and 15.
“I think everyone is looking to get back in the stadium,” Stolba said. “We look forward to getting back on the big stage.”
The Raptors are also hoping to use this momentum to start a Division I or Division II team to go alongside their WPL team.
An expansion to the women’s rugby side is imminent.
As of now, the Raptors just have a B-side, which is okay, but they’d rather have a non-elite team that plays consistent competitive games throughout the year.
“It’s hard for the B-side to play in a lot of competitive games,” Bullock said. “That’s the challenge when you start looking at levels below elite (in rugby).”
A D-I or D-II would allow for more competitive games and a more meaningful season for non-elite players.
The process is in the early stages.
“I’d love to say we could have it in 3-5 years,” Beard said. “But maybe that’s optimistic.”
You can keep up with all your Raptors news at GlendaleRaptors.com.