The Lumberjacks is a girl’s rugby team in the mountain area consisting of girls from Evergreen, Platte, and Conifer High School. This 2024 season the Lumberjacks had a full varsity team and a full junior varsity team with 20 girls. The Lumberjacks had four seniors playing this year. Sierra Nordwald, a student at Conifer, who has been playing rugby for thirteen years, and three students from Evergreen, including Kendyll Nelson, Stella Baker, and Taylor Bowman.
“The seniors this year carried our team in their encouragement and helped all the girls,” freshman Evelyn Westwood said. She joined the Lumberjacks this year.
This season, the Lumberjacks team faced a unique task because they added new players, many of whom had never played rugby.
“I was a little nervous since rugby is unlike anything else as it’s such a fast-paced game and physically demanding,” junior Olivia Adamson said.
Though some girls were nervous, there became more excitement as the sport grew and more players came to share the game.
” I’m excited to share this sport with others who will hopefully enjoy it as much as I do,” junior Charley Beken said.
The Lumberjacks also welcomed a new head coach this year, Julie Lehman.
“Julie has done so much for this team and was such a great coach for all of the girls,” Adamson said.
The Lumberjacks season started at the end of August, with the team having their first tournament on September 7th in Summit.
“We played good throughout the season, trying hard in each game,” junior Lauren Rudibaugh said.
Rudibaugh has played rugby for 6 years and was on the Lumberjacks varsity team this year. Throughout the season both the varsity team and the JV team fought hard to get to the standing they were at before they participated in the state games.
“I was so incredibly proud of my team we all gave it everything we fought for the win and we pulled through,” Adamson said.
The Lumberjacks varsity team was in second place before playing at state, and the Lumberjacks JV team was in third place before the state games. The state games were held at Regis Jesuit School on Saturday, November 2nd. Varsity won their first game against East, 29-5, then had a draw with Regis 12-12, and finally lost to the Fort Collins Hammers 22-12, ranking them as the state runners-up.
“It’s disappointing honestly we played good throughout the season and the outcome of state did not reflect that,” said Rudibaugh.
The Jv team took on their first team against Hammers winning 22-5 and played their final game against Glendale winning 20-15 making the Lumberjacks JV team state champions.
“I am unbelievably proud of our team, we all gave it everything we had and played our hardest, and won as a team,” Adamson said.
![The Conifer Lobo’s L4 Volleyball team celebrating their win against Little High School. After all 3 sets of the game, they felt the energy from the win and showed their passion for the game. “I feel pretty good about [our record].” Freshman Victoria Stewart said, “We’re doing pretty good.”](https://chstoday.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Screenshot-2024-10-08-4.25.47-PM.png)
