Stephens helps U.S. women's rugby team qualify for Olympics

Richelle Stephens graduated from Fallbrook High School on May 27 and spent the following week at the rugby camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. After returning home for the weekend, she returned to the Olympic Training Center as a member of the United States team. The following weekend she was on the Women's Eagles sevens national team which won the North America Caribbean Rugby Association qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympic Games, and during the ensuing week Stephens was selected to represent the Women's Eagles in the Pan American Games.

"It's very exciting," Stephens said.

Stephens was informed of her selection to the national team June 2, although the announcement was not made public until June 8.

"She's a good athlete, she's mature, and she's got good skills. We're throwing her in there," said coach Ric Suggitt. "She's got the physical ability to play at this level."

Stephens, who turns 18 onJuly 22, was 15 when she first participated in Olympic Training Center activity in June 2012 after being invited to a national sevens identification camp. Following the conclusion of that camp she was told that she was invited back to train with the national team when her schedule allowed.

"Eventually from those camps you can work your way into the Eagles program," Stephens said.

"She's gone through a really good process in getting here. She's got a good rugby IQ," Suggitt said.

Her participation in that 2012 identification camp came a week after she was named the most valuable player of the USA Sevens Girls High School Rugby Challenge tournament in Philadelphia; the Fallbrook High School rugby club won that tournament. The Warriors also won USA Rugby's under-19 National Invitational Tournament during Stephens' freshman year. In 2012 Stephens also attended an under-20 camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, and played for the Southern California Rugby Football Union's Griffins all-star team in an August 2012 sevens tournament at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Although Stephens was only 15 at the time, she was on the Griffins' under-19 team which participated in the June 2012 West Coast All-Star Invitational Tournament in Portland.

In 2013 Stephens was selected to participate in the USA Women All-American Invitational Camp in Fullerton and attended USA Rugby's initial Stars vs. Stripes Camp in Greeley, Colorado.

Stephens was on the United States team which played seven-on-seven rugby at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, in August 2014. She was a fly half in that tournament and is also a fly half for traditional rugby matches which are played with 15 players on each side.

The 2016 Olympic Games will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rugby, which has not been an Olympic sport since the 1924 games, will return to the Olympic Games with a seven-a-side format in 2016. The Youth Olympic Games included the first International Olympic Committee rugby competition since 1924 and the first-ever women's IOC rugby matches.

In October 2014 Stephens was one of 12 high school players (including Fallbrook teammate Lilly Durbin) who trained with the 16 members of the women's Olympic Sevens national team at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. The camp which involved drills and scrimmages ran for five days, although Stephens and Durbin only spent the first four days there since they had to return to school thatFriday.

Stephens was selected as a USA Rugby high school all-American for purposes of playing in the Las Vegas Invitational sevens tournament in February. OnFebruary 4 Stephens injured her knee in a Fallbrook Rugby Club practice and was unable to play in the Las Vegas tournament, although she was given a bench role of being in charge of statistics and notes which included providing feedback. The knee injury limited Stephens to two Fallbrook High School girls rugby club matches this year, although co-coach Marin Pinnell gave birth to a daughterApril 21 and took a minor role and Stephens took over some of Pinnell's coaching responsibilities. Stephens did not play in this year's National Invitational Tournament but was one of the coaches.

During her first three Fallbrook High School seasons Stephens was part of the Warriors teams which won three National Invitational Tournament titles, three Southern California Youth Rugby under-18 championships, and three Fullerton Youth Rugby Invitational Tournament championships.

"She's had a great program at Fallbrook," Suggitt said. "We thank them immensely for that."

The 2015 rugby camp at the Olympic Training Center took place June 1-6 and also included Fallbrook players Durbin, Kayla Canett, and Michel Navarro. Stephens was one of 12 players selected for the NACRA Sevens Championships.

"She's just a fine young woman and a very good athlete. She's got a great attitude," Suggitt said.

"I didn't expect it to happen so soon," Stephens said.

"It was kind of a surprise," Stephens said. "Not a huge surprise, but I thought I was going to have to wait a bit longer than I did because I still have a lot of work to do."

An injury to Bui Balavilala during the camp led to Suggitt's decision to make Stephens a starter at the NACRA Sevens Championships in Cary, North Carolina, which consisted of three June 13 pool play games for each team and elimination play June 14. The pool play matches, quarterfinals, and semifinals were each 15-minute games with 7 1/2-minute halves. The championship game consisted of 20 minutes of play with 10-minute halves. Stephens was on the field for the entire game in all six of the Women's Eagles contests. "Kind of exhausting, but it was really fun," she said. Stephens scored three tries during the NACRA Sevens Championships: two during the 50-0 win over the Cayman Islands to close out pool play June 13 and one in the 59-0 quarterfinals victory June 14 against the Bahamas. "My first two that I scored were pretty much because of the other team's mistakes," she said.

The tries made Stephens the youngest Women's Eagles player to score. "Being the youngest to score is pretty cool, too," she said.

"It felt good to score. I don't score very often," Stephens said.

Stephens' highlights included assists and tackles as well as her three tries. "That was pretty cool," she said.

The Women's Eagles outscored their opposition by a cumulative 369-5 margin in the NACRA tournament, including an 88-0 victory over Mexico in the championship match. "Those games really go fast," Stephens said.

The championship earned the United States automatic qualification into the 2016 Olympic Games. "For me personally it was really cool to be a part of helping the USA women's team qualify for the Olympics," Stephens said.

The selection of the women who will represent the United States at the Pan American games was made June 18.

"I'm super excited to play in the Pan Am," Stephens said.

Men's rugby made its Pan American Games debut in 2011, when the event was held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Women's rugby will first be played at the Pan American gamesJuly 11-12 in Toronto; the United States will be one of six teams competing.

"I'm excited to be going up against Canada. They're a pretty tough team," Stephens said. "It will be interesting."