FALL RIVER: At age 12, Emily Dodge found her love for rugby—but not the way most would find their love for a sport.
One day after Dodge’s sister Abby, who played on the high school rugby team, got home from school, the younger Dodge asked her to tackle her. Yes, you read that right—she asked to be tackled so she could see what it was like.
“Looking back it was not the smartest idea because I had no clue what I was getting myself into,” chuckled Dodge in a recent interview. “So I stood there holding a rugby ball barely even knowing what the heck I was holding, and she came full force running at me and tackling me to the ground.
“I just stayed there laying down on the ground for a couple of seconds because she had knocked the wind out of me.”
That is how she began her love for the sport, that has now led her to being recruited to join the AUS perennial heavyweights in women’s rugby, the St. Francis Xavier X-women.
“At age 12, I found my love for rugby by being tackled on hard grass and thinking how cool it was having the chance to tackle people and how someday I wanted to be able to get my sister back for tackling me that hard,” she said, “which I haven’t been able to successfully do. Yet.”
Emily’s opportunity to go to X came after last summer where she was approached by the head coach of the X-women’s rugby team at the Atlantic Championships in Saint John, N.B.
“We talked a bit about maybe coming to St. F.X., and what the school had to offer,” said Emily, a senior at Lockview High. “Before that conversation I was already thinking of X as an option because I wanted to do nursing and knew X had a great nursing school.”
She has had many life opportunities come her way because of playing rugby, including many friendships she has made through the sport.
“It has always been a super family-oriented sport which is one reason I had fallen in love with the sport,” she said.
Some accomplishments for Emily include competing at Atlantic championships with the N.S Keltics provincial team in PEI, Saint John, Truro, and National championships in Kingston competing at Queens University and in Wolfville at Acadia University.
Emily said watching her sister play in high school at the provincial level is what set her eyes onto the sport.
“I always thought it was such a cool and such a different sport and wasn’t anything like the sports I was playing at the time, which were soccer and hockey,” said Emily. “I thought it was super cool how they were able to tackle each other and so many different types of people could play because there were different positions for everyone”
She is thankful for finding the sport that has helped her grow so much over the past five year.
“I have been able to become a better athlete, leader, and generally a better person because of the community,” said Emily. “The Rugby Nova Scotia community has been so good to me since the beginning and makes everyone feel super welcomed.
“It’s just crazy for me to look back at the beginning and see how much I have grown because of the amazing coaches I have been able to work with. I also of course would love to thank my parents for all the money and time they have put into this sport for me to be able to keep playing and reach my goals.”
Emily also wanted to thank hr older sister.
“She pushed me to keep coming back to the rugby camps that summer and kept telling me to not give up even when I was frustrated that I didn’t understand the sport,” said Emily.
