UPDATED: Dec. 19, 2017 at 7:28 p.m.

It was just after dusk as the Syracuse women’s rugby team neared the end of its practice. The clock ticked toward 7 p.m. as the barely visible players ran their final drills. The athletes’ exasperated gasps for oxygen filtered throughout the quiet air. Among all the heavy breathing was the calming voice of head coach Chrissy Carpenter. Never raising her voice, she spoke words of encouragement toward her players.

Carpenter just finished her first year as the Syracuse (2-5) head coach but is already making her mark known. In her first year at the helm, her team is going through a noticeable culture change.

“She has come in and completely restructured our entire program,” junior co-captain Jessica Federico-Grome said. “She’s made girls that actually quit the team come back. It’s really brought a more positive camaraderie to the sport and to our team. Our team gets stronger every day and I have no doubt that she is the reason for that.”

Carpenter’s path wasn’t always supposed to be coaching. She started playing rugby 15 years ago at the State University of New York at Geneseo. There, she played for four years, winning the state championship her junior season. It was the first time that a men’s or women’s rugby team had won the state championship for Geneseo.

“People knew who we were after that,” Carpenter said. “So I felt like I had left something for Geneseo because it had really given me a lot. Rugby has always been a great outlet for me as something that I go to, to release energy and to clear my mind. No matter what is happening in your life you can always come onto the pitch.”

During her time at Geneseo, Carpenter also played for the Rochester Renegades before moving to Kansas City to play with the Jazz. She joined two more rugby clubs before moving back to central New York. There she met current SU co-captain Michaela Tricola, who “begged” her to coach at Syracuse, Carpenter said.

At first Carpenter was hesitant. She had a family and ran her own business — freshdezigns.com — on the side. Fully committing to a team was a tough decision, so she set expectations for her captains and team before even considering the job. Carpenter wanted to ensure SU would commit to working hard and practicing daily. Tricola and Federico-Grome even agreed to do the team’s paperwork, meaning Carpenter only needed to worry about practice and the games.

In her first year, she watched as her team won a hard-fought game. It was a come-from-behind victory against Ithaca. Carpenter told her team that they would have to leave everything on the field in order to come back from the halftime deficit. Syracuse did just that, winning 34-29.

“I don’t think the girls believed they could win,” Carpenter said.

As a new coach, Carpenter is still developing her style. Though she has played for years, she is new to the sideline and is always learning the best way to communicate.

One aspect of Carpenter’s coaching philosophy that is already figured out is her demeanor. She remains calm, rather than yelling at her team. There are times where it is necessary, Carpenter said, but she doesn’t believe raising her voice correlates with earning respect.

With Carpenter at the helm of the rugby team, players feel like it’s headed in the right direction.

“We changed the entire program. We changed the direction completely and I can’t thank her enough for coming to this club and making it what it is right now” Tricola said. “We were headed in a really bad direction last year and we shifted focus and our only way right now is up, that’s the only way we’re going.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Necole Carpenter was misnamed in a photo caption. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the name of Chrissy Carpenter’s business was misstated. Her business is called freshdezigns.com. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 13, 2017 at 10:33 pm