W.I. Teacher Prepares for Rugby World Cup

During the last two Women's Rugby World Cups, Washington Irving Elementary School teacher Lara Vivolo went as a spectator to cheer on the United States.

This time, when the World Cup is staged from August 16 to September 5 in Surrey Sports Park at Surrey University in England, she will be on the field playing for the red, white, and blue.

"Eight years ago I went to Barcelona and four years ago I was in Canada [in Edmonton] cheering the team on, but I never competed as an athlete," Vivolo said. "It's pretty exciting that I get my chance now."

The team started to prepare for the cup with a two-test series in Vancouver, Canada, against Canada on June 14 and 18. Vivolo, a Mamaroneck High School graduate who competed in swimming, basketball and soccer for the Tigers, missed the first friendly because of her teaching commitments, but was there for the second match.

Those matches were sanctioned, but the results didn't count. Matches like these give the teams a chance to do different things, like try players at different positions.

Team USA will then take its training up a notch when it gets together from July 10-31 at Bowdoin University in Maine. This will include lifting and conditioning sessions in addition to working on rugby skills.

"We're going to have two practices every single day," Vivolo said. "It's going to be intense, it's going to prepare us going into the World Cup. We're going to get really fit."

The training session at Bowdoin is vital because the opportunities for Team USA to work with each other don't happen that often.

"We've never had that much time before to be together as a team," Vivolo said. "One of the biggest problems we have in this country is that we don't have the funding to play together as often as England, Ireland or Scotland because they all live so close together. They have more test matches than we have every single year. We're excited because we are going to get to know each other better and play well together as players and as a team."

The team then leaves for England August 7. Once the team arrives, it will have what is referred to as a one-week acclimation camp, at Surrey University.

Team USA's pool-play matches will be August 20 versus Kazakhstan; August 24 versus Ireland; and August 28 versus England. Its opponents from September 1-5 will determined from the pool play results.

"As a team our goal is to make it to the semifinals," Vivolo said. "The way that it is set up is that there are three pools of four countries and the top country in each pool advances to the next round as well as the second-place finisher. Our goal is either to win our pool or be the best second-place team because only four teams advance to the medal round."