WomenEagles.com is proud to introduce 2 of your National 7s Team players, Yancy Graf and Amy Daniels who will be sharing their thoughts and impressions during the Hong Kong 7s tournament. Send your support to the team via: Hong Kong Fan Feedback.

Entry 12:
4.3.07 - Now that we're back home and trying to rejoin our real lives it's a little easier to put the week into prospective. Laura Cabrera said it best..."Women in the US have been fighting this same battle since before some of you knew what rugby is. We as a nation, as a team need to overcome this obstacle. We need to break this curse. There is no reason why we can not win "the big game". We are incredible athletes and Julie is an incredible coach. But something is missing."

What is missing? Why did the strongest, fastest and well coached team get 3rd? There are many answers to these questions but the one at the top is clear. We need to play much more with stiffer completion. As a team, we talked about how rugby is a metaphor to our lives. The team is on a road full of obstacles and cross roads. We will find our way some day but only if we keep trying...together...with the same goal in mind. Some day we will be the best.

Thanks to all of you for your support and encouraging words. All of your support coupled with our overwhelming competitiveness fuels our desire to go at it again and again.

To my team mates...I love our family. Christy, Teena, Ines, Amy, Phay, SBJ, Ellie, Joanne, Alison, Jules, Pudge, Sadeana and Beet...now that's a good team.

Yancy

Entry 11:
3.31.07 - Hi...sorry I've not written. Getting Internet access is hard.

Now that the tournament is over we've spent a lot of time in the stands watching the men play. Jules has given us assignments of play patterns to watch.

Aside from rugby some we all continue to bond and laugh at all the crazy things we've experienced so far. For example, at the banquet for our tournament, Teena and Christy went up to the bar and asked for water as they were parched. The bartender gave them both hot water in tea cups. Rather then setting the bartender straight they came back, let the water cool and drank it. Another fun thing is the chicken dance. We went out to dinner at a family style Italian restaurant and ordered rosemary chicken. It was good...a little dry and lots of it left over. We brought it home since we all have mini fridges. The next morning after breakfast we were waiting for the lift (elevator where we come from) and Alison said she ate all the chicken and as she declared this did a little dance. Now we all do the Alison chicken dance...not as good as her though.

While preparing for our tournament I didn't get to tell you this but Ellie got the Hong Kong Fuee. Yup...girl friend couldn't keep a thing down. Since then Joanne, Beet, Sadeana and the New Zealand girls have had the Fuee. I'm so thankful to be healthy.

Tonight is our last here in HK and we're going to do it up. Phay and Teena are the fashion police and there role gives them the power to assign us outfits to wear. We will hit the town as the Pussy Cat Dolls. Yikes! Good thing I brought my fish net stockings and blue eye shadow. We'll see how it goes.

I'm off to watch our men play. They're doing really well.
Y~

Entry 10:
3.31.07 - Greetings yet again!! Unfortunately, we lost to Australia 19-0 in the semi-final match this morning. We didn't commit to our plan of attack and lacked discipline in the set pieces. It was a tough loss to bounce back from but, we did just that. We needed to regroup and get a hold of ourselves to prepare to take on China in our final match at the tournament. We were able to do that and we played the best game of the whole tournament. We were victorious with a score was 26-5. We were very disciplined and aggressive. We were able to hand it to China. China beat Canada in the quarter final yesterday with an over time sudden death try. Although a dissapointing lose to Australia, we were able to bounce back significantly to beat a very determined home crowd favorite.
Thanks for all your support!!
Amy

Entry 9:
3.29.07 - Greetings again from Hong Kong. Here is the update with yesterday's results.
We first played Thailand in an easy game. We won the game with a score of 38-0. We then played Papua New Guinea and were again victorious, with a score of 22-0, and then finally we played in our toughest match against Kazakhstan. We were victorious in that game as well, with a score of 12-5. That last game was definitely a game that could have gone either way. We were being penalized for almost nothing time and time again. So despite a very difficult ref, we were able to pull ourselves together and get the work done. Both tries were scored from Ellie Karvoski. One was a nelly penalty on our 22M and the other was her great footwork put her through multiple holes and eventually after three or four side steps, she broke through and ran 70M down field to score the game winning try!! Today we have a big task ahead of us playing against Australia. We equally size up to Australia and it should pose to be a great match. Australia was victorious over over Khazakhstan but only to a score of 7-5. We have a tough game ahead, but we are confident that we will give everything we have. There is no game other than the Australia game right now. I look forward to passing on great news of today's events. Keep us in your prayers, and thoughts as we get ready to gear up against the Aussies!! Go USA!!!
Thanks,
Amy

Entry 8:
3-29-07 - Today was a success. We won all of our games and are heading into a semi-final match against Australia tomorrow morning. This is going to be a great test of our focus, poise and discipline in every aspect of our game. This is a game that is completely in reach and I have every confidence that we will do our best in accomplishing our task. I look forward to passing on great news tomorrow. For tonight, we are hanging out with one another and relaxing.
I will pass on the results of tomorrow as soon as I can tomorrow.
have a great night!
Amy

3-29-07 - Entry 7:
Hi all! It's Thursday night and we're undefeated so far. It feels really good although there is much to improve on tomorrow. We'll play the Aussies at 11:50am..pm your time.

After a great dinner Jules encouraged us to not think about rugby and do whatever it is we'd like to do. So...we're back at the hotel catching up on emails, calling loved ones and getting organized for tomorrow. In a bit we'll all meet in Christy and Teena's room to watch a movie. The team genuinely likes being in each others company. Our last game today was against Kazakhstan and in that game we were forced to really come together and fight for that win. I'm not sure that would have happened if we didn't feel as connected as we do.

Without getting a head of myself, it's hard to not think about playing the final game in the stadium. I've been there before and the feeling of being in there...in front of thousands of rugby fans is one I crave. Deep breath...

OK...I'm off to chill with my girlz, my sistas, my family. I think i'll start a pool on who falls asleep first.
:) Yancy

Entry 6:
Today, we all woke up from a great nights sleep. It felt great to sleep through the night. We went to breakfast and more and more teams arrived through-out the night. Breakfast was splendid. The feelings we are all experiencing are so different then when we were in San Diego. We have each other and are distraction free. We all have one common goal and we are all focusing on that. Practice was light to moderate. We focused on realignments both on offense and defense. We came back to the hotel today to eat "American" food, which turned out to be left over chicken, and a variety of snacks packed by two lovely supporters Kittery Wagner and Liz Pierce. Thanks girl!! The team truely appreciates it! We then headed back to the field for our final practice session. We walked through various places on the field and visualized our options and give situations. It was a great idea and help clarify any grey areas. We walked off the field and there is an amazing feeling lingering around.

We got back to the hotel for a little down time. Most of us spent the time hanging out and laughing. Then tonight we had a banquet for all of the teams in the tournament. It was short and sweet. We concluded the night with a jersey ceremony. Now we are all doing our nightly rituals and heading off to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow and I look forward to spreading the good news.

Thats it for now. Until tomorrow, with the real goodies of the trip!!
have a good day/night,
Amy

Entry 5:
3-28-07 - It's the night before the tournament start and we just had our jearsy ceremony. Every ceremy is a bit different but one thing is always the same, you leave it with the feeling of being united with your team and anxious/eager to put it on the next day. It will be hard to fall asleep to night.
Yancy

Entry 4:
3-26-07 - What does one do on a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong? 1) Determine what movies will be aired. 2) Try to figure out when its best to sleep. 3) After discovering that the phone at your seat can call other seats, decide who to prank call. 4) Sleep. 5) Take laps down the isles and around the plane. 6) Read the game plan and play book...again, and 7) Remind yourself why we're here...TO WIN HONG KONG!!!

It's Monday night and we're 12 hours a head of east coast time (10 hours for you Mom) and were all trying to stay awake till 10pm. This will help us acclimate to the time change as fast as possible. Tomorrow (March 27th) we have a morning and evening practice. I suspect Jules will run us pretty hard in an effort to get the cob webs out. Everyone seems eager to get down to business...I know I am.

Just a few things about the environment...
While driving from the airport to our hotel we crossed an artfully designed suspension bridge. Hong Kong is a series of many islands and they take pride in decorating their engineering feats. It's very humid and feels like it's going to rain any moment.

While watching the news I was reminded how much the West is in the East. By this I mean that our news is their news. We learned that Anna Nichole's death is an "accidental overdose", the US housing market is in the dumps and Condi Rice is at work in Jordan. The only thing different so far is the weather. More to come tomorrow. Off to bed...
Yancy

Entry 3:
3.25.07 - Well, we're on our way today. The majority of us will meet up in Newark and our Mid-west sistas will fly out of Chicago...I think. We've gotten lots of encouraging words from many folks. Thanks Drew for introducing the shot gun. We will put it to good use. Thanks Erina...we'll raise our glass to you. Thanks Franz for working so hard to get us outfitted, keep us informed and advocating in general. Thanks Mark for helping bring out the best in all of us. Thanks to our loved ones and dear friends for believing in us, pushing us at the gym and rides to the airport. We promise to dig clear down to our toes and hope it's enough to bring home a trophy.
Paz y amor, Yancy

Entry 2:
3.21.07 - We depart in four days and there is so much going through my mind. I've told myself a dozen times to make sure my passport is where I last put it...in the undies drawer. While I open that drawer every day, I've yet to dig to the bottom for that passport. I've started a packing list and a shopping list that includes many snacks and the passport.

I feel very confident right now...in myself, in the team and in our coaching/preparation. Training is going very well. It was pretty intense at the start of the month but workouts are tapering off a bit allowing the soreness to go away. Because the workout was so clearly outlined and easy to follow, no one on any other team will have a psychological advantage in the way of fitness. We've started hydrating and eating all the right foods. It's all coming together...

SBJ (Jen Starkey) has made the team a Hong Kong 7s 2007 "You're a Champion" mix CD. Amy and I got ours in the mail yesterday. I put it on this morning and love every song so far. Here is the play list:

1. Kick Some Ass, Stroke 9
2. Show Me What You Got, Jay Z
3. TKO, Le Tigre
4. Du Hast, Rammstein
5. Here, HelloGoodbye
6. Scotty Dusn't Know, Lustra
7. Maneater, Nelly Furtado
8. Let's Go Crazy, Prince
9. Oh Sherrie, Steve Perry
10. Fortress around Your Heart, Sting
11. Her it Goes Again, OK GO
12. Sweetness, Jimmy Eat World
13. Pool Party, The Aquabats
14. Cupid's Chokehold, Gym Class Heros
15. Dance Floor, Arctic Monkeys
16. Yeah!, Usher
17. The Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani
18. Face Down, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
19. Fat Lip, Sum 41
20. You're a Champion, 2 Skinnee Js

Yancy Entry 1:
3.14.07 - My name is Yancy Graf. Amy Daniels and I will be reporting to you from Hong Kong. I really look forward to this assignment and want to know if there is anything in particular you or our readers would like to know. (send your questions or comments to: Hong Kong Diary Comments/Questions.)

I'll give you a little information about Amy and I. We are room mates in Watertown MA, a suburb of Boston. We live in a two family home and the girls that live above us are our Beantown team mates. I guess you could call it one of two Beantown rugby houses.


Amy Amy is a middle school health and physical education teacher for one of the Boston public schools. She coaches girls soccer and basketball in addition to coordinating a couple other programs. Based on the stories she tells of school, it's clear that she's very good at what she does and has a healthy relationship with her students and the faculty.

I work for an HIV drug research company called Community Research Initiative of New England. We have the contract with the state to administer the States HIV Drug Assistance Program (HDAP). My role as the assistant program coordinator is to determine eligibility for for this program. I've worked with the HIV positive community for nearly ten years and look forward to continuing down this path.

talk to you soon!
Yancy