Outfitted in pink cowgirl boots and a spotless number 12 jersey, with a cotton-candy pink Hydro Flask tumbler in one hand and a neon green scrum cap in the other, she strides across the dewy grass to claim the muddy pitch as her turf. Within minutes she will be blazing across the field, rugby ball under one arm, stiff-arming opponents with the certainty of a professional and sliding into the try zone as though she was born doing it. This is Hazel McRobie, a senior at Summit High School, the founder of the Summit Girls Rugby team and the covert badass that flew through the Thunder Pageant assembly with her catapulting backflip.
“She’s fun and free and very open-spirited,” admires Lucie Reynolds, McRobie’s rugby teammate and one of her closest friends. “She’s just super ambitious and she’ll do what she wants to do.”
This ambition is what drives McRobie’s initiative, and it ultimately led to the foundation of the Summit Girls Rugby team.
At the beginning of her sophomore year, McRobie was looking for a full contact sport to play, and rugby was at the top of her mind. Rugby is one of the few contact sports that is the same for men and women. None of the rules are changed for women’s rugby, meaning the women tackle just as hard as the men, ruck just as aggressively as the men and bruise just as black and blue as the men do. Women are equals to men in rugby, so their grit is not undermined by their boundaries, and this equivalence was appealing to McRobie.
Through her initiative, McRobie, by the start of the 2023 spring season, had pulled together a few interested players and two experienced coaches to form a small but dedicated team. As their successes quickly grew throughout the season, more and more girls joined. Since then, the team has more than tripled in size and their win count has increased just as fast. This past fall, fronted by McRobie’s leadership as team captain, the team mastered an undefeated season and capped it off with a state championship victory.
These victories shattered expectations and drew attention to McRobie’s abilities. She was quickly recruited to play with the PNW Loggers, a highly selective regional team, at the biggest sevens tournament in the nation: the North American Invitational Sevens. She also played with them at an exhibition game in front of thousands of spectators at the Providence Park stadium in Portland, Oregon. This past summer she was invited to the U.S.A. Rugby ID camp where she played in front of top U.S.A. rugby coaches and college recruiters. This camp was what ultimately led to her most recent achievement—recruitment to Sacred Heart University’s rugby team.
Receiving both academic and athletic scholarships, McRobie will be playing D1 rugby at Sacred Heart University, one of the most esteemed rugby schools in the country. With only two years of rugby under her belt, this accomplishment is as incredible as it is rare. Her tenacity and strength on the pitch is a stand-out that few can deny, and her dedication to the sport fuels her play.
“Hazel is a natural athlete, she is super aggressive and she is one of the best players I have ever coached,” remarks Stephen Lopez, the head coach of the Summit Girls Rugby team.
But McRobie is also a gracious, compassionate young woman who always reaches down to lift others up and never hesitates to come running over just to give a warm hug. As a senior at Summit this year, she participated in the annual Thunder Pageant to support a local family in need. The family’s daughter, Juliet, was diagnosed with leukemia at 16 months old, and all the money raised is going to support her battle against the cancer. Through a series of fundraisers, McRobie and her partner, Jake Wojcik, raised thousands of dollars that will go directly towards helping the family. McRobie’s kind character is valued by the Summit community and her impulse to always help another out is admirable.
“She is a tremendous athlete but more importantly a kind-hearted person,” says Jaron Jacobsen, a campus monitor at Summit.
McRobie is consistently the most tenacious person out on the rugby pitch. But she is also there to lead her team through the toughest games, to pull her teammates out of the mud, wipe the blood off their jerseys, slap them on the back and send them right back in. She is a well-spoken, sturdy leader and a compassionate, caring friend.
Whether she’s doing a Muay Thai martial arts course or country swing dancing at the Cross-Eyed Cricket, McRobie’s confidence shines as bright as her radiant smile. Her willingness to try anything and everything is infectious, and her passion is shimmering.
“I know she is going to be whatever she has in her future plans and she’s definitely going to absolutely crush them,” remarks Jacobsen.
McRobie will graduate from Summit in May with a fiery future in front of her and a worn pair of pink cowgirl boots trailing behind. All who know her can see that, wherever she is, she’ll soar.
