Kish’s wish? It’s ‘having my cake and eating it, too’
The challenge of just making the team isn’t something rugby sevens superstar Jen Kish is used to.
Week in, week out, she has to prove her worth.
That didn’t used to be the case. She was the captain after all.
But after l eading Canada’s women’s team to Olympic bronze last summer in Rio, she took a step back this season.
“I’m back to that 16-year-old not sure I’m going to make the team,” she said this week during a break in preparation for this weekend’s Canada Women’s Sevens in Langford, B.C.
“It’s nice to have that feeling again.”
After five years training and living in Langford near Victoria, the 28-year-old has relocated her life to her hometown of Edmonton. That’s where her family, friends and, most importantly, partner Nadene are.
“I’m having my cake and eating it, too,” Kish admits about the arrangement, which coach John Tait fully supports. “I’m able to be home with my partner and friends and family who I’ve missed for five years.”
And if she doesn’t get selected by Team Canada, she’s fine with that, too. That’s the challenge she has accepted.
“I’m blessed to have a coach who believes in me, that I can maintain my fitness,” she says.
Training on her own in Edmon- ton is a challenge at times.
“I thought being centralized ( in Langford) was tough,” she says. “But (in Edmonton), you don’t have anyone besides yourself to keep you disciplined.
“I have to train 100 times harder now.”
Tait says allowing Kish and veteran teammate Ashley Steacy to return to their Alberta hometowns ( Steacy is from Lethbridge) and train on their own “wasn’t too difficult.”
Both players know what it takes to play on the series circuit. Being centralized isn’t a requirement, he says — although it is getting tougher and tougher for players who aren’t in Langford full time.
“If I’m doing my job, eventually it will be tougher for a player training on their own,” Tait says.
But having Kish still available and hitting her fitness marks makes keeping her involved a nobrainer.
“Jen’s unique skill set, being so good in the air and on the ground,” is why Tait’s able to keep selecting her. “She still brings in points of differences.”
Plus there’s her veteran presence, a calming influence for the younger members of the squad.
“They get the confidence of playing beside her,” Tait says. “They can measure themselves against her.
“They know they’ve got an experienced player who’s been through a lot ( and) who has selfconfidence in her own abilities.”