It’s been hugely interesting becoming more involved with women’s 7s rugby in the USA, if only for the sheer depth of passion that seems to exist within the network. A couple of weeks ago I spoke with Women’s Old Blue 7s coach Billy Nicholas and was inspired by the level of emotion and determination he brought to his team. This morning I was even more inspired when I spoke with Jinnie Pratt.
Jinnie is, amongst other things, a student – an Anthropology major. She works and somehow manages to find time to be, in her words, a ‘die hard rugger‘ as well. Jinnie has a warmth and candid nature that shines through, and an openness that was incredible.
This seems at odds with the adversity Jinnie has gone through to get where she is today. Jinnie spoke frankly about her background, and how she came to find rugby: “I grew up in an abusive household. I lived in two foster homes and a group home before I was fourteen. I kind of always used sports, when I could play them, as a way to I guess adapt and adjust and try to understand how I was feeling. I’d try to channel the negative energy that I harboured inside of me. It wasn’t just physical abuse, it was emotional, filling your head with all sorts of negative things you should never tell a child. Sports was a way of dealing with that, and then of course I had music as my other thing. I came to college on a music scholarship and broke my pinkie playing rugby. So it was just focus on rugby from there on out. There was two loves and I had to pick.”
“My older cousin, who played [rugby] at Texas A&M University, and I went and watched one of their games. Two guys butted heads during a ruck, and they were bleeding all down their faces, but still feeding the back line – it was bad ass! There I was, this little frail blonde thing saying ‘I wanna play rugby! That’s what I wanna do’. My Grandmother was tugging on my shirt telling me to sit down. My Grandmother still can’t handle the fact I play, and any time I talk to her about it she says ‘remember that time you got fifteen stitches in a game…” It should be pointed out that while Jinnie certainly does remember getting fifteen stitches, she also remembers laughing about it at the time, and still does.
One of the comments that Jinnie had made that resonated with me was that rugby saved her life. “To me rugby is more than just a sport. It’s more than just the culture that defines it. People see rugby as a party culture, which it is, but that’s just the fun part. Rugby to me is…I can’t even describe to you how important it is to me. If I get frustrated, or any kind of stress I have, I step on the field and it all goes away. I guess it’s like medication for me. It helps me find who I am, and who I want to be, and realise the goals I want to set for myself. It’s given me a means to become emotional stable I guess.”
“I love meeting new people and experiencing new things. I’ve never been to Glendale before, I’m going to Glendale today [to attend a rugby camp]. I have never been to Las Vegas, I went to Las Vegas [for the IRB 7s and Women’s elite 7s tournaments] last weekend. I may have an opportunity to play for a club in New York, I’ve never been further than Nebraska.”
Rugby obviously holds a big place in Jinnie’s heart, and helps give her purpose. “I still cry when we sing our team song. I can’t help it, I cry every time we sing it. I’m the one that stays out for an hour after practice teaching my rookie [player] how to tackle properly. One of the rookies was barely five feet tall, she weighs 110 lbs. I made her tackle me for an hour, I told her I wash;t going to make it easy for her…and I woke up the next morning with bruises all down one arm.” she laughs, adding “Hey, it was worth it.”
Jinnie also mentions having a very special relationship with her Grandmother, who while she may not approve of rugby per se, remains one of Jinnie’s strongest and most loyal fans “She 65 or 66, and about five hours drive away so she doesn’t get to come to my games much. But she has come to see me play once, and we were playing Sevens. At Oklahoma University we didn’t have a Sevens team, I play Sevens a lot though, I love being able to play during the summer. So we were playing Sevens in the national championships and basically we got our butts kicked. I went up to my Grandmother afterwards and said ‘Oh my God, you came’ she said ‘I thought I came to see you play rugby, not get your asses kicked’ ” Again this is recounted with more laughter “ She’s great, she’s supportive but she does get that disapproving look sometime ‘You shouldn’t drink, you shouldn’t get tattoos and you shouldn’t play rugby’ but when I share my success with her she’s genuinely proud of me.”
Jinnie is off for a few days to attend one of the rugby camps set up by Fijian rugby legend Waisale Serevi. Serevi Rugby recently entered into a partnership with USA Rugby to assist in training and skill development, and using the Serevi camps has already greatly improved player ability. I asked Jinnie about her experiences with the camps “I’ve only been to one Serevi camp so far, there were only four girls there but it was pretty good. We did a lot of skills training, a lot of focus on breakdown at the ruck, body position, how to keep your head up and how not to kill yourself. I learned a lot at the camp, you need to learn the basics before you do the fun stuff, because if you don’t have the basics you’ve got nothing.”
We also discussed the push that USA Rugby has been putting into Women’s rugby, with more advertising geared towards encouraging women, and especially young women, to play. “I know that here I’ve noticed the whole program focussed on rugby for women has developed. I think it’s really beneficial for girls to find rugby at a young age because it’s so empowering. It helps with your self esteem, it helps with your confidence in yourself, and then being able to make friends with others at such a young age it seems to be significantly beneficial. It’s great that there are so many teams growing, we play in Oklahoma and Texas and there are collegiate teams in colleges I’ve never even heard of, like the University of Texas in Dallas, which is a really small school, they’re now playing Sevens.”
“I’ve definitely seen a push, three years ago there were five teams in our area, now there’s twelve.”
When asked about improvements in infrastructure or support Jinnie points to one key area of possible development in coaching. Specifically looking at having better certified coaches into coaching camps to allow them to deepen their own understanding of the game, which would in turn help the game to grow. “I’d also like to see more focussing on the playing aspect, on getting the team aspects taken care of and less on the politics.”
“It’s a seed you have to plant in every player, to develop that team spirit, and help the team get along.”
“It would be nice to see collegiate level become like the professional level where you turn up to practice, you train hard and you work outside that. Currently we’re collegiate affiliated, but still basically a club, so there’s no compulsion to come to practice…so I think the structure could be better.”
Looking to the future I asked Jinnie if she had any thoughts towards pulling on an Eagles 7s jersey. There is no hesitation in her response “Oh I would love that so much, that’s my dream, that’s absolutely my dream.”
I also asked if the Olympics had crossed her mind at all “Yes, I would love to play at an Olympic level, or a national level. It would be great to represent my country, but also a great opportunity to be a role model as well.”
“Child abuse isn’t rare, it’s a cycle. You’re abused, you get into an abusive relationship and it goes from there. What I want to do is be able to go as far as I can go, and say ‘Hey, I did all these things on my own.’ I don’t have a gym, I go to the gym on campus. I don’t have a trainer, or a dietician, or a chiropractor. I’ve done it all myself, and if I can show people that have come from the same situation that I did that hey, I can do this, and so can you. I believe in you. I think that would really help people. Rugby helped me, I’d love to be able to use rugby to help others too.”
It was a great pleasure speaking with Jinnie, and I’m sure she will find many fans along her journey, including apparently my two year old daughter who gatecrashed the interview part way through to babble at my very patient and accommodating guest. My deepest thanks to Jinnie for her time, I wish her every success in the future. If you’re interested in finding out more about playing women’s rugby in the US, have a look online for local clubs, or contact play rugby USA through their website here
Main Photo Credits: Jinnie Pratt via Twitter
