COLUSA COUNTY, CA (MPG) – On July 30, 2024, the US Women’s Rugby sevens won its first ever Olympic medal and sparked a renewed interest in the sport.
Yet, long before that match in Paris, Colusa County already had a women’s rugby tradition, preceding that date by some 45 years.
Back in 1979 and springing from the Colusa Men’s Rugby Club success, a rugby enthusiast named Shelly Romero, who had a brother on the men’s squad, set out to organize a women’s team.
Finding at least 11 women willing to play wasn’t easy as Polly (Seaver) Codorniz remembered while explaining the reason she joined, “I had a friend that played and they needed bodies, but since we didn’t have quite enough players we recruited from the Willows/Chico area also.”
Furthermore, despite having watched the sport, none of the original recruits had ever actually played, so according to Jamie (Wheeler) Myers, it was learning by doing as she recalled, “We practiced two nights a week in the evenings trying to learn the game.”
Home matches were always played in Williams although the team traveled as well.
Coached by some of their male counterparts, the women weren’t terribly successful but enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
“We didn’t win, but we sure had a lot of fun,” said Myers, while Codorniz expressed a similar sentiment saying, “We usually played before the men’s team, then afterward went to the rugby clubhouse. Lots of great memories, great camaraderie, lots of fun and lots of bruises.”
Myers and Codorniz each spent a couple seasons on the team, however, the club eventually folded after about five years as players came and went.
According to an article in the Colusa County Sun Herald from the time, the original squad in addition to Myers and Codorniz, included as they were known at the time: Shawn Johnson, Lisa Reynoso, Priss Harmon, Roberta Pingrey, Kitty Phelan, Donna Medley, Dinah Potoski, Debbie Bruha, Jackie Perry, Tina Jarrett, Pat Hughes and Carol Ponciano.
An attempt to revive the club occurred in 2016, however like many other activities, COVID interfered.
Today, women’s rugby at the professional and international level continues to grow although grassroots and domestic clubs like those once found in Colusa often find it a struggle to survive.