By: Monty Mosher
Maddie Mackenzie came to Acadia from Peterborough, Ont., as an 18-year-old rugby rookie. It was the fall of 2012.
She'd go on to win AUS women's rugby rookie of the year that season. She'd cap her time, or so most thought, as part of the time as part of the Axewomen championship team in 2015. It's the only conference banner the St. Francis Xavier X-Women don't have.
It made sense that Mackenzie's Axewomen days were through. It was a veteran-laden team that had taken Acadia rugby to the top of the conference for the first time. An all-Canadian that season, she was due to graduate that spring. New players would be tasked to take the team forward.
But, like for many before her, there was something in the Annapolis Valley air. She never left.
She worked for a while, earning enough money to travel to southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She came back to Wolfville and worked a bit more. Eventually she landed a job in the university recruitment office, travelling the province to convince Grade 12 students to follow the path she took.
Never lost passion
But she never lost her passion for rugby, playing in the summer for club teams. When Acadia was selected to host the 2018 Canadian championship at Raymond Field, the temptation was just too great.
Now 24, Mackenzie and the Axewomen will play the X-Women for the conference title this Friday night in Antigonish. Both will also play in the nationals starting Nov. 1 with the conference winner seeded No. 2 and the runner-up at No. 8.
The two teams, opponents in the last eight AUS title contests, are a close match with the X-Women winning the last regular-season encounter 22-20. Acadia defeated UPEI 55-0 last weekend, with Mackenzie recording a try, in the AUS semifinal.
"Always in the back of my mind thought I might like to try another year, but I have had quite a few injuries over the years so I thought I would give my body a rest and see where life took me for a few years," Mackenzie said this week. "Here I am."
This will be Mackenzie's fourth final against the X-Women. She sat out the 2014 season after tearing her medial collateral ligament during the summer playing for Canada's under-20 team.
"It's not that it hurt so much, my leg just didn't work," she said. "I couldn't run and that was always my forte."
Acadia women's rugby was growing when Mackenzie arrived. The team went to the nationals in 2012 as the conference runner-up to the X-Women, who went on to win the national championship on their home field that year.
Breakthrough in 2015
"We were the underdogs that year," she said. "It was really fun. I remember doing quite well. Even though we didn't win a game that year it was one of those things we had nothing to lose. It's cool to see how far the program has come from being a team that would just go to nationals because somebody else in the league hosted to now we actually compete at quite a high level. It's really nice to see how that has grown over the years."
It was in 2015 when the X-Women, led by Mackenzie, kicked down the walls, defeating the X-Women 34-17 for the banner. It ended St. F.X.'s 17-year run at the top. Mackenzie, an all-star at centre that season, had three tries in the win for championship game MVP.
"We had a really tight-knit group of older girls," she said, reflecting on the 2015 side. "There were a lot of fourth-year and fifth-year players on that team. For a lot of us it was a milestone we had always wanted to hit and we were kind of happy with that.
"Even though we didn't do that great at nationals, we as a unit, and as girls who went through the program together, it was really kind of the icing on the cake for us. I was happy graduating and to just retire for a bit. But I never planned to stop playing."
Now she works full time, takes a full load of courses and plays varsity rugby.
"It's been a busy few months, but it's fun. I am really enjoying it. It's a great group of girls and I really enjoy spending time with them."
Several teammates returned
To some of her younger teammates, she is Gramma at the ripe old age of 24. But she's just one of the Grammas who have returned after graduating.
Gillian Bergsma, one of Mackenzie's best friends, also works in Acadia recruitment and decided to rejoin the team this year. Sarah Roblin and Sarah Boudreau returned to further their studies and are back in Axewomen colours.
It's nice to be surrounded by some familiar faces from her past years, but she's happy to have new teammates as well.
"Being on a team there is that sense of camaraderie," she said. "It doesn't really matter how old or how young you are. You are teammates and friends. That is always something I really enjoyed about being on a team.
"But it is definitely strange being out around town. I see more faces I recruited to come to the school than people I actually went to school with, so it's getting a little strange that way."
Mackenzie and Bergsma talked in the summer about giving it one last "kick at the can" with the Axewomen assured a place in the nationals on their own home field.
"I definitely think I'm one of those people that when I'm watching a rugby game when I'm 45 if I didn't come back and at least try I think I would have regretted it," she said. "It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for your school to host. I love Acadia so much and I love the town of Wolfville that it was kind of a really unique opportunity, so I took it."
Same determination in 2018
She said the 2015 team was strong and the players sacrificed on and off the field. Mackenzie said the white hats that came with the championship weren't much to look at, but the players knew what it would take to get their hands on one.
She sees the same determination in this year's group. The circumstances are similar, with plenty on the line in the conference title game.
"I really do think it is going to come down to who wants it more, as cliché as that sounds. It's true. It's been really nice working with this group of girls. They are such hard workers and they take everything so seriously when we're training. It's been really nice. Coming back from two years off it's been a bit of the shock to the system, but that's a good thing."
Mackenzie and her teammates have a chance to take the team forward one more time.
They know what it is to win in the conference. Success at the nationals has been more elusive.
"When we won in 2015, we were all so happy and excited for our program that we had finally won," she said. "That was such a big step winning AUS. And now we're really looking forward to competing for that AUS title, but now I feel like we know we can win that AUS title. That's not a question now.
"It's more like the goal is nationals. It was always nationals, it's not that we weren't trying to compete at nationals, but it's happened now. I think everybody is really excited to try to compete for a medal this year again."
(Monty Mosher is an award-winning sportswriter with more than 30 years covering university sports in Atlantic Canada. He can be reached at mosher100@eastlink.ca)