National collegiate rugby dreams were realized for a Foothills grad.
Foothills Composite alumnae Annaliese Curtis earned MVP honours as the Brigham Young University Cougars captured the College Rugby Association of America Division I national championship in an 80-7 triumph over Virginia Tech on April 30 at Houston’s Aveva Stadium.
“I was so excited, it was my dream to play rugby for BYU,” said Curtis, Foothills Composite’s Grade 12 athlete of the year in 2017. “When I was in high school I found their Instagram page and I just fell in love, they posted stories and everything and talked about what it was like to be a BYU player.
“So I knew in high school that I really wanted to play for them so then to not only be a part of the team, but also kind of a leader and a starter and it was like a fulfilment of all these dreams and all this work that I put in years previously to get me to this point to play in nationals.”
Adding to the weight of the moment, Curtis was thrust into a new role as forwards captain in her second season with the team.
“Our forwards captain broke her finger so she could no longer play and I was asked to be captain in the middle of the season,” she said. “That was really nerve-racking for me because I didn’t expect that, I didn’t know what that looked like for me and what kind of captain I would be in that regard.
“So my coaches were really hard on me for quarters and semifinals because they needed me to step up and I didn’t quite live up to expectation.
“So for finals that was also a big thing for me was being the player that I knew I was and having confidence in myself and taking the charge to be the person to call out other girls and to cheer on other girls and give positive feedback and just take control of the game and the energy and the pace. That was my big challenge for myself at nationals.”
The large margin of victory in the final was a function of seeing and adapting to the game and trusting one another, said Curtis, adding the points against is a better reflection of the team.
“They scored against us because we stopped communicating for that moment, we got tired,” she said. “And it only takes one person to miss a tackle and then if we don’t shift properly then they score.
“That is what we pride ourselves on the most is holding other team’s off from scoring against us because we know if we play to our abilities we’ll keep scoring, but if we get lazy that’s when they’ll start scoring.”
Curtis said the coaches put a lot of pressure on the team in practice situations leading into the championship to make the players better able to handle the situation under the bright lights.
The team got through the playoff round with comfortable victories over the University of Washington and Grand Canyon University, respectively, the first of which was a leap in the dark followed by a familiar foe.
“That was tough because we never played (Washington) before or never played anyone that also played them so we were nervous at what our competition was going to look like,” Curtis said. “In my opinion, we did not play very well that game and kind of played to their level.
“Those were one day after the other and I think that was the biggest stress, knowing that if we lost either of them we would be out and the season would be over. And then playing two days in a row is really taxing physically in rugby.”
Curtis, a multi-sport star for the Foothills Falcons from 2014-17, got her start in rugby as a Grade 10 rookie on Foothills’ varsity squad. She later joined the Foothills Lions in club play where her passion for the sport was further entrenched.
Following high school, Curtis served her mission in Paris before setting course for Utah in fall 2020.
The sophomore student is studying nutritional science with designs on medical school.
“It’s very challenging and I think the biggest thing is time management,” she said. “I’m a big planner so I just have to put in all of the hours that rugby takes out of me and then my classes and just figure out how much time I’ll need to study and when I’ll study.
“You have to be really strict on that so rugby kind of becomes your social life, when you’re not playing rugby you’re at school and when you’re not at school you’re at rugby.”
