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A32 sports
Diahuebs 16 December 2021

Kathy Flores, women’s rugby legend as player and coach, dies

She started as a player at Florida State the dog poop ... and I can remember other places, from Wales to Fiji to
University in 1978, and gained an many practices that were on a field New Zealand, it is a relatively new
outsized reputation playing the No. 8 that had quite an uphill.” sport in the U.S., Worley said, calling
position, former teammate Jen Craw- Flores “the elder statesman” of the
ford said Saturday. Flores coached many teams at all lev- game whose contributions are only
els from college to semi-professional recently being recognized.
Crawford recalled a match when she — including the gay men’s team, the
“came off the field thinking, who the San Francisco Fog — to the U.S. na- Flores was twice inducted into the
heck was that No. 8? She must have tional team. U.S. Rugby hall of fame: once with
been 6’2”, 220 pounds!” Flores, in the 1991 World Cup team and for the
fact, was 5”5′ and likely 150 pounds, Her visibility in the sport as a woman second time, in 2016, as an individual.
her former teammates say. of Hawaiian and Filipino descent was
a beacon to other players of color, According to her friends, Flores was
“She didn’t have to say anything nec- former All Blues player Deb Watford paid a small salary for coaching the
essarily,” Crawford said. “It was her said. U.S. women’s national team, but
energy, that fiery look in her eye, her throughout much of her career, she
sheer determination and will that in- “Rugby is an incredibly empower- worked as a massage therapist to earn
spired you to play not only with her, ing sport, it really does require you to an income in addition to her many
but for her.” have confidence in yourself,” Watford commitments as a coach and an ad-
said, “But not only that, you have to vocate for women’s rugby. A spokes-
In 1994, Flores eventually followed trust your teammates to cover for person for USA Rugby said it did not
(AP) - Kathy Flores, the legendary Crawford, who she was dating at the you, to help you ... so that you all have salary information from Flores’
rugby player, coach and leader of time, to join the Berkeley All Blues, a can advance. She wanted to give that time as a coach.
the women’s sport in the U.S. who team in the Bay Area that’s part of the power to others, particularly to those
touched every generation of play- national semi-professional league. who were underrepresented.” Born in Philadelphia in 1955, Flores
ers and coaches for more than 40 attended high school in New Jersey
years, has died. She was 66. Flores was not only in the starting In 2013, Flores joined Brown Univer- and earned a bachelor’s degree from
lineup but captained and coached the sity as the coach for a new women’s East Stroudsburg University. She
Nearly 300 former teammates, fel- team — all as a rookie — former All varsity rugby team. Thanks to a do- started a master’s in Exercise Physiol-
low coaches, former players and Blues player Becky Worley recalled. nation around the time of her death, ogy at Florida State University, where
friends gathered Saturday for a virtu- As a player-coach and then as coach, the university has endowed a coach- she began playing rugby, according to
al remembrance of Kathleen “Kathy” Flores and the All Blues competed in ing chair in Flores’ name, to honor an obituary.
Flores, organized by the U.S. Wom- every championship between 1994 her “contributions as a pioneering
en’s Rugby Foundation. Flores died and 2007, winning 11 of them, ac- coach and educator,” according to the In 2007, the last time Flores led the
of cancer in October at home in cording to USA Rugby. school athletic department’s website. All Blues to the national champion-
Providence, Rhode Island, the foun- ship, Worley related how Flores ar-
dation said. At the time, Worley said there was es- A lover of dancing, wine, hugs and rived late to the team’s hotel. In front
sentially no professional coaching for dogs, Flores was a private person in of everyone, Flores “put her finger in
Thirty years ago, when the U.S. women’s rugby. many ways, with the seriousness of the air — ‘We’re number one’ — and
women’s national rugby team won her illness taking many by surprise. walked straight into the pool fully
the first women’s rugby World Cup “It was as grassroots as it could get,” The current players at Brown re- clothed.”
against England, Flores was there. she told The Associated Press. “Get- membered “Coach Kathy” as sup-
Later, she was the first woman — and ting a field was one of the hardest porting them on and off the pitch in “I’m going to hold that image of her
first woman of color — to coach any things, and we would oftentimes just video messages played at the remem- triumphantly walking into the pool,
national rugby team, leading the U.S. have to squat or go to a park, and the brance. surrounded by teammates … going
women’s team from 2003 to 2010. team would walk through the playing way too soon, but as always, leading
surface before the game to pick up Despite rugby’s storied history in the way,” Worley said.

Italy and Argentina to play soccer’s ‘Finalissima’ in London

(AP) — European cham- America winner Argenti- London on June 1, UEFA in September, the Diego Ar- men’s World Cup every two
pion Italy and Copa na will play each other in and CONMEBOL said mando Maradona Stadium years, instead of every four
Wednesday. in Napoli was thought to be years. They have opened an
a likely venue. The late Ar- office together in London, to
No venue was announced for gentina great had his most fa- be formally inaugurated early
the “Finalissima” — the first mous club seasons at Napoli. in the new year.
of three inter-continental
championships that the two UEFA and CONMEBOL Their formal working agree-
soccer bodies have agreed to are building closer ties as ment, first signed nearly two
stage. they have teamed up to op- years ago, has now been ex-
pose FIFA’s push to stage the tended through June 2028.
Italy won the European
Championship in July. The
match was played at Wem-
bley Stadium in London,
where there was some of the
worst disorder and organi-
zational failures in interna-
tional soccer in recent years.
Thousands of ticketless Eng-
land fans broke into the sta-
dium to watch their national
team play its first major final
in 55 years.

When the inter-continental
game plan was announced