MAGGIE GILROY
Editor in Chief
When Danielle Miano stepped onto the rugby field at Fredonia in 2003, she did not expect it to lead her to a professional career with the USA Women’s Eagle Sevens. However, that career has taken her across the nation and to a team that is competing for a spot in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
“It’s definitely been a long, long journey,” Miano said in a recent phone interview. “As soon as I found out that rugby was going to be an olympic sport for Sevens, I wanted to get involved any way I could right away.”
Following her graduation from Fredonia, Miano played with a team in Boston and then the sevens club with the San Diego Surfers. Miano was then invited to play in a scrimmage against Brazil’s team, which led her to an invitation to play with the USA Women’s Eagles Sevens team.
Miano is currently a resident of San Diego, California, where she works as the account manager for electronics manufacturer SEACOMP. She credits her flexible employer as one of the reasons she is able to both maintain a full-time job and train with the team. She trains two full days a week with the team at the Olympic training center; however, when not practicing with the team, she completes the workouts on her own — often starting as early as 6:30 a.m.
Miano studies recordings of the practices to ensure she is up-to-date with the team. Miano said that, if chosen for the Olympic team, she will train full-time when it comes closer to the olympics.
With over a decade of experience with the sport, Miano has observed heightened popularity and transformation of the sport first-hand.
“The program has changed so much; kids can get scholarships now for rugby,” Miano said. “I got a flyer in my dorm room.”
While Miano learned many valuable skills as a member of Blackhorse Rugby, she credits her passion for the game as being the most valuable result of her time with the team.
“I think the most important part about having played for Fredonia was just falling in love with the sport itself,” Miano said. “Rugby is such a team sport and the people — the girls that I’ve played with and my coach at the time — were so passionate about the sport and so dedicated to making an incredible and really competitive team, and [to] being really good. So having all of us come together and really dedicate ourselves physically and emotionally to a team we really care about, I [like] the part of really appreciating what it means to be a part of a rugby team, and being a part of a club that really cares about its sport.”
Miano joined the Blackhorse Rugby team with no prior rugby experience. She credits her memory of playing a sport “when it wasn’t even popular,” prior to its rise in popularity amongst collegiate athletes and its inclusion as an Olympic sport, to the fire she feels while playing the game.
“I think if I had not found rugby at Fredonia and found such a great group and a great club to begin with, I would never be where I am,” Miano said. “Maybe I would have found it eventually, but having played for a club that everybody cared so much about, I think that was really great to be a part of.”
“Stubs,” Miano’s Blackhorse coach, is one figure Miano credits to her success in the game.
“Our coach ‘Stubs’ was the first coach I had that really ever believed in me and told me that if he put the rugby ball in my hands at fly half I would be unstoppable,” Miano said “Having someone that encouraged me and helped me see my potential gave me the first drive to prove I could be the best.”
Miano periodically reaches out to current Blackhorse members, holding clinics and remaining in contact with current team members. She also makes an effort to view tournaments Blackhorse has competed in, including tournaments in Savannah, Georgia and Saranac Lake.
“I drove from Boston to Fredonia to have a day with them,” Miano said of a clinic she held two years ago.
While Fredonia’s name may not carry to the Olympic Training clinic, Miano is doing her best to represent Fredonia and Blackhorse.
“It’s not on the map very much,” Miano said about Fredonia, “I’m just really proud to be able to represent Fredonia and the club itself because it really did play such a big role.”
According to usarugby.com, the Women’s Eagles Sevens finished seventh at Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens, which took place Dec. 4 and 5. It was the first leg of the 2014-15 World Rugby Sevens Series. There are three events from which the Eagles can qualify for the olympics; those teams ranked one to four in the final rankings of the 2014/5 IRB Sevens World Series will qualify directly for a quota place for their NOC to the 2016 Olympics.
Although Miano was not selected for the Dubai tour, she looks forward to their scrimmage versus Ireland in January and hopes to attend the tour to Brazil in February.
“You’ve just got to be ready and willing to work really hard,” Miano said of her advice for current rugby players. “Especially from a school that maybe doesn’t have as much recognition. I was a pretty decent player at Fredonia, but nobody knew who I was when I graduated. So I had to work my way through the circuit; I’m 29, and I just got invited to the USA team. Even if you get rejected, even if you get injured, how hard you work will reflect how far you go.”
Miano is waiting to find out if she will make the Olympic team.
“It’s been a long journey, and it’s not over,” Miano said. “I really want to make the team that goes to Rio. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I still have to prove myself. I’m still kind of low-man on the totem pole — I still have to prove myself. The strongest shall survive, and you’ve got to be ready and willing to work really hard. ”