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Cowgirl gets top rugby honor
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FarkRAPID CITY — The list reads like a who’s who of colleges and universities. There is Stanford, the Naval Academy, Brown University, UCLA and Wyoming.
Wyoming?
When looking at the list of college rugby All-Americans, Lindsey Haggerty’s name stands out much like her play does.
The University of Wyoming star fly-half — rugby’s equivalent of a football quarterback — was recently named to the All-American second team after completing just her second year of college competition for the Cowgirls.
“I was totally shocked,” said Haggerty of her reaction upon learning of the honor she had received. “I didn’t even know that I was nominated so it came as a big surprise.”
Haggerty lived in Rapid City for 11 years before moving to Colorado where she first took up the sport in high school and began to excel. However, her rise in rugby almost wasn’t.
“It was a toss up between track and rugby for a spring sport, and a friend and I really wanted to try something new,” she said. “So I just showed up at practice one day. Best decision ever.”
She led Wyoming to the western regional playoffs for USA Rugby last season, which helped the team rank among the top 25 in the country. The fact that Haggerty was named an All-American — an honor only 30 players can claim nationwide — was even more remarkable given her team did not advance deep into the postseason.
“To have a player from the University of Wyoming make All-American is an outstanding accomplishment,” said Wyoming head coach Mike Kusiek. “Lindsey’s achievement is amazing, especially at the position of fly-half. She has worked extremely hard for the last two seasons to raise her performance and greatly improve our team.”
The two All-American teams were comprised almost entirely of players from teams that reached this year final four. Players like Haggerty had to be nominated by their coach before their play was judged based on DVDs of their highlights.
“A lot of the people that did the selecting were at the final four, so I sent in DVD highlights of three of my players hoping they may be selected,” Kusiek said.
Haggerty is just the second women’s rugby player in Wyoming history to earn All-American status
“She is the most talented rugby player we have ever had,” Kusiek said. “Running, passing, tackling and kicking, she has it all. That is very unusual and she is maturing as a leader along the way.”
Haggerty, who will captain the rugby team next season, hopes to take her team to the round of 16 and further.
“My goal is to go to the playoffs, the sweet 16, final four and then win the national championship,” she said. “We can do it this year, we just have to work extremely hard all season long.”
Hard work is something Haggerty has not been afraid of, and is a big reason for her success.
“I set goals and then work really hard to achieve them,” she said. “I have a great team and coach and we all support each other.”
While Haggerty’s immediate goals are to win a national championship, her long-range goal is to make the Lady Eagles which is the USA national rugby team.
“It would give her a chance to play internationally, and every four years there is a World Cup,” Kusiek said.
Only 26 players are selected for the elite team, but Haggerty has shown her ability has already put her name on a lot of impressive lists.
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