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Rugby player wrapped in Green ivy

Despite playing rugby at the national level an Okotoks player is going to be a little green when she steps on the pitch next fall. Check that. She will be Big Green.
Okotoks resident Rylee Stone, here scoring a try for the Holy Trinity Academy Knights, has committed to play in the NCAA for the Dartmouth College Big Green in the fall.
Okotoks resident Rylee Stone, here scoring a try for the Holy Trinity Academy Knights, has committed to play in the NCAA for the Dartmouth College Big Green in the fall.

Despite playing rugby at the national level an Okotoks player is going to be a little green when she steps on the pitch next fall.

Check that. She will be Big Green.

Rylee Stone, a Grade 12 student at Holy Trinity Academy, has accepted an offer to play for the Dartmouth College Big Green in Hanover, New Hampshire.

It was the Big Green’s football coach who got wind of Stone’s ability.

“The football coach had heard that I played rugby at a higher level and he got in contact with the rugby coach (Katie Dowty),” Stone said. “She came out to Vancouver to watch me play (last spring) and got some game film of me with Canada.”

(Stone and Harley Tucker of Black Diamond were members of U18 Team Canada last spring).

Big Green football coach Buddy Teevens might have heard about Rylee when he was giving instructions to his starting halfback, Rylee’s brother, Ryder Stone.

Rylee wasn’t aware she was on the Dartmouth radar when she played in Vancouver last spring — Dowty could only watch not speak to the Okotokian because Stone was in her Grade 11 year.

“The NCAA rules are that I couldn’t speak to her while I was in Vancouver because I was only in Grade 11 – so all she could do was watch,” Rylee said. “I didn’t visit her until I went down for my official visit after I was in Grade 12. Dartmouth was definitely one of my preferred schools.

“The academics there is one of the best in the U.S. and their rugby program is well established – plus my brother goes there, which is definitely a big bonus… I never thought that would happen.”

She’s going to an Ivy power. The Big Green won the Ivy League women’s rugby title for the second straight season last November when they downed Harvard 14-5 in November. Stone is currently playing no. 8 and outside flank for the Calgary Rams women’s team.

As a result she can’t play for the HTA Knights in this her senior year. Alberta Schools Athletic Association rules state a student cannot play club and high school rugby at the same time.

“That was a tough decision I had to make,” Stone said. “I do miss playing for HTA, but I feel playing at the higher lever will better prepare me (for Dartmouth)… I have to stay in shape, keep my skills up and be ready for the changes that will be coming.”

She also has to be prepared academically. The emphasis for the student-athlete is student at the Ivies.

“I wrote the old SAT and scored well above the national average and close to the average in Dartmouth,” said Stone, an honour roll student at HTA.

She had a similar result on her ACT tests.

“The academics at Dartmouth is pretty high especially since it’s an Ivy school,” she said.

Stone plans to major in environmental studies with a minor in economics. She has a good mentor at Dartmouth in older brother Ryder.

“He’s told me to stay focused and kind of roll with it and don’t get too stressed over it,” she said.

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