| nickname: | phil |
| class of: | 2001 |
| first season: | Fall 1997 |
| biggest rookie season shocker: | ...and dumbest moment being that I played a season of lacrosse after my first season of rugby. |
| position: | take your pick...hooker, flanker, inside center. (all having been played or threatened in just the last season... :) ) |
| favorite rugby moment: | hard...playing for the Connacht province team in Ireland...learning my club in Ireland (the Corinthians) won the All-Ireland women's championship...the huge dirty mass of us celebrating after Nusser's amazing kick for points against Princeton...but perhaps just the big smiles I see on rookie's faces after their first B-side game when they realize that, god damn, this is an amazing game---and when you can just see it in their eyes that they've caught the rugby bug. Great examples this season being Jen Kim, Bonnie French, and Emily. |
| favorite post-game rugby moment: | God that's hard...all of us dirty ruggers sliding in the mud and mobbing Alan after Princeton...or just sitting around Wharton courtyard, with Alan smoking his cigar and Lynne joining in the songs... |
| favorite alan-ism: | looks say so much more than words...just the Alan look that you get when you do something either really dumb, or way too intellectual. There are always just his words of wisdom, which is never to play dirty, but just hit the flyhalf, hit the inside and outside centers, and make them realize who they've come to play against. Play it clean, and make them scared to get the ball. |
| favorite song lyric: | The kind of rugger I would wed would be a rugby flanker sir....because I'd get off quick and you'd get off quick... |
| deep thoughts: |
I can fully express how lucky I am that fall of my freshman year I was walking past the rugby organizational meeting, peered in, and was talked into listening by Alan. Who vaguely frightened me, until his first comment was something about beer. I don't even remember anymore.
It's true what Alan says...any coach who coaches a women's team somewhere along the line learns how to braid hair. But aside from that...he's far and away the best coach I've ever had. It's much more comforting to know he's crouched down there in the try zone or watcing us from the opposite touch line than to have some coach yelling at us the entire time. It really becomes your game to win or lose. |