WSR Leads Iowa Girls Going Into State Tournament
WSR Leads Iowa Girls Going Into State Tournament
Waverly Shell Rock finished up the Iowa girls 7s league regular season with two more shutout wins on a cold, rainy Monday night.
WSR ended the season undefeated at 10-0, being scored upon only three times. They beat Fort Dodge 57-0 and top-three team SE Polk 12-0.
"Things have gone pretty well, lots of growth," said WSR Coach Casey Hansen. "Execution of our skills have really been the main reason for our success so far. It's just an overall solid, and deep, team."
Leading the way for Waverly Shell Rock is Kieri Holmquist. The senior has scored 14 tries, putting her third in the league. Sophomore Lilly Stough has scored 12 and Alivia Bixby is scoring at a try-per-game clip. Bailey Folkerts and Josie Smith have been really solid in conversions—while Cedar Falls' Mattie Dieken leads the league with 33 conversions, Folkerts and Smith have combined for almost as many, 28.
Eva Heise leads the entire league in tackles.
Many cooks have contributed to this recipe on a team that is only in its third season. The seniors have been with WSR since the beginning in 2021.
Right behind WSR is Cedar Falls, led by Dieken and also Gillian McRae and Avalon Burns, who are #1 and #2 in tries in the league. McRae has scored an astonishing 24 in the 10-game season. With those players scoring almost two-thirds of the team's points, Cedar Falls has gone 9-1, shutting out eight opponents. The only time they gave up points was a 12-10 win over 3rd-place SE Polk, and a 21-12 loss to Waverly Shell Rock.
SE Polk is 8-2, and we've already mentioned their two losses. They are led by Felicity Severs, Peyton Sams, and Cecilia Scarff.
Putting their hand up late in the second is Indianola. After starting the season 1-2, Indianola reeled off three straight victories, lost to Cedar Falls and SE Polk, then won their last two of the regular season to vault to 6-4, right behind Central Springs, who are 7-3.
Coached by first-year coach Greg Rodrigue, who played college rugby at AIC and Arkansas State, Indianola is showing significant improvement over the season, pushing SE Polk in a 15-12 loss.
Luke Riedmann is coaching at Indianola and he enticed Greg Rodrigue, who played college rugby at AIC and Arkansas State, to join the coaching staff.
Rodrgiue gave us some insight into the experience. He had been out of rugby completely when Riedmann's wife invited him to help coach a girls team.
"It just felt like I never left the pitch," said Rodrigue. "Coach Luke offered for me to come back and assist with the coaching and I decided that this would be my way of giving back to the sport that has taken me places and having some of the best coaches anyone could ask for. Luke has done a great job with making Indianola competitive and having girls make it to the state’s select side. The team philosophy this season has been the basics win games. This doesn’t ignore what has changed, what works better, etc. but we remember the fundamentals of simply tackling, creating a defensive line, and so on. For me, personally, this is what got that heartbeat pumping again."
With Jenna Baker, Tina Cheapo, Casey Andersen, Annie Harmon, and Layhana Mackey all scoring tries, Indianola is spreading the wealth and now sneaking up on other teams. They could well be a dark horse at the state tournament October 30.