Carleton student Jessica Harvey has set her sights on playing rugby for Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Since picking up the sport at the age of 15, Harvey, 20, has appeared in games for Canada’s under-20 and senior women’s teams.
As she now hopes to play a significant role for Canada when rugby debuts as an Olympic sport in 2016, the third-year law student has come a long way since she first starting playing rugby in grade 10 at Mayfield Secondary School in Brampton, Ont.
“I got cut from a lot of teams in grade 9, so in grade 10 I decided to try out for rugby, and it was fun and different,” Harvey said. “When I first started I loved it. I was intimidated by the contact but still I loved it. I played soccer for years and was always really aggressive. Once I got a taste for rugby I never looked back.”
By the end of her high school career, Harvey was already competing for Ontario’s women’s rugby team.
“There were a lot of players from my high school that would eventually play for Canada, and my best friend at the time played for Canada so I had a lot of people around me that pushed me and helped me a lot,” she said.
Playing on the provincial team at national tournaments helped Harvey get noticed by scouts, she said.
“If you get noticed at all, you get put on this long list,” she explained. “Once you’re on this long list, it’s a waiting game. So I waited for years and got a bit discouraged but I still trained really hard and played competitive club for Carleton and for the provincial team,” she said.
Last summer, Harvey said she had considered taking time off rugby to travel and pursue other interests. That’s when she received the call from Canada’s under-20 team.
“I got the call, and I had to drive to Toronto for an open tryout early the next morning,” she said laughing. “I was pretty out of shape because we were just coming off exams but still they gave me a call after and told me they wanted me to travel with them to British Columbia to train, and to California to compete in the Nation’s Cup for the Team Canada under-20 team.”
In British Columbia, Harvey said she was one of the oldest, but least experienced players so she was initially put on the non-traveling list.
“After training really hard with them, they eventually pulled me up to travel with them,” Harvey said. “When we did travel, I played the full game every game.”
And her performance at the 2011 rugby Nation’s Cup garnered interest from Canada’s senior women’s team. In September, Harvey traveled with the senior Canada “sevens” team to Barbados.
In rugby, teams are typically made up of 15 players aside, but with the sevens team, there are fewer players and shorter matches. Sevens rugby is becoming an Olympic sport in 2016.
“The Canadian women’s sevens team is the best team in the world right now,” Harvey said. “In Dubai, they beat Australia who had been the international champs. Not a lot of people know it but right now our women’s team is ranked number one in the world,” she said.
Like any university student, Harvey has a lot to handle in the way of academics. But along with her schooling, she trains for rugby six days a week and maintains a part-time job.
“At the time Canada beat Australia, I was on the non-travelling team and in order to go to Dubai I would have had to drop out of Carleton to go train in [British Columbia],” she said.
“But you know, I’m still really young,” she continued. “On the senior women’s team I’m considered a youngin’. I’m 20 and some of these women have been doing it for years. They are in their 30s and they are all incredible athletes, but they’re still always looking over their shoulders for the young girls coming up.”
Consistent hard work is the only way in which Harvey will accomplish her athletic goals and make it to the Olympics in 2016, she said.
“I’m never satisfied after training, practice, or a game,” she said. “I always look back and for as many things as I did well, I maybe dropped one ball, or didn’t run hard enough, and those are the things I focus on. I’m never completely satisfied with my performance, but that attitude results in the best athletes, and I think it’s the only way to get better.”
